Sloan Picard, a Special Forces sniper on medical leave, treks to Boothbay Harbor, Maine, to bury his sister. Unease over her demise prompts him to accept a pilot’s job with New England Air where Julia Connelly, the owner’s daughter and office manager, becomes his enigma and obsession.

Sloan clears NEA of transporting illegal contraband into the States from South America. When the Cessna he’s piloting is sabotaged, forcing him to make an emergency landing, the narrow escape confirms another suspicion: His sister’s death was no accident.

Information on a USB drive points a finger at NEA’s largest customer. Sloan and Julia fly the DC3 from Maine’s rugged coast to the jungles of Peru, where they discover their client runs an illicit escort service—knowledge that turns these savvy hunters into the hunted.

Diane L. Kowalyshyn recently spent some time with The Big Thrill discussing her latest romantic suspense, CATCH .22.

What attracts you to this book’s genre?

The fast pace. The element of surprise and the steady momentum propelling the characters into the next tight spot.

Diane L. Kowalyshyn

Was there anything new you discovered or that surprised you as you wrote this book?

The hero and heroine of this book were secondary characters in my first published novel called Crossover. Readers of Crossover were so taken with these secondary characters they asked me if I knew what their particular stories were. Things snowballed from there.

Why did you use the same title as Joseph Heller’s well-known book Catch 22?

The title of this book is not exactly the same. Mine is CATCH .22—a numerical designation for a gun’s caliber. This .22 is a very special antique gun threading its way through the story. I would have preferred a picture of this gun on the cover, but there were no stock images. It’s a pre-WWII Colt Woodsman Match Target .22, silver-plated with pearl handles and engraved with the initials GSP for George Smith Patton.

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Diane L. Kowalyshyn writes heart-hammering, high-voltage thrillers—adventures that run on action, intrigue, and romance. Her first book earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She is an avid sailor who’s listened to her fair share of marine storm warnings and relied on the intermittent pulse of a lighthouse beacon to bring her safely back to port. When she’s not on the water, she loves to travel to faraway lands, where she navigates rustic landscapes and meanders through ancient and decaying palaces and castles. Her books are available in paperback and ebook through B&N, Chapters/Indigos, Amazon, Google, Nook, iBook, and Kobo.

To learn more about the author and her work, please visit her website.

ITW