Writ

A Dictionary of Made-Up Languages

2011-11-15T16:27:00.000-08:00

A Dictionary of Made-Up Languages

Today's the official publication date!
http://www.stephendrogers.com/

A Miscellany of Murder

2011-10-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

A Miscellany of Murder: From History and Literature to True Crime and Television, a Killer Selection of Trivia Executed by the Monday Murder Club

Today's the official pub date!

http://www.stephendrogers.com/

Three-Minute Mysteries 2

2011-10-08T15:36:00.000-07:00

Three-Minute Mysteries 2: twenty-five MORE mysteries you can solve on your eReader.

http://www.stephendrogers.com/

Three-Minute Mysteries

2011-09-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

Three-Minute Mysteries: 25 mysteries you can solve on your favorite eReader.

http://www.stephendrogers.com/

Three-Minute Mysteries

2011-07-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

If you know anyone who likes solvable mysteries, you can point them in the direction of the new THREE-MINUTE MYSTERIES - 25 mysteries you can solve.

The book is available for the Kindle, the NOOK, and at Smashwords. (The other ebook distributors are in the works.)

http://www.stephendrogers.com/Anthos/Three-MinuteMysteries.htm

Cape Noir

2011-06-19T13:55:00.000-07:00

The following story is a response to Steve Weddle's "Noir at the Beach House" challenge.

(http://dosomedamage.blogspot.com/2011/06/noir-at-beach-house.html)

Sunshine and surf. Clam plates and scallops. Antiques and artisans. That's what tourists see when visiting the Cape.

Alcoholism and drugs. Unemployment and poverty. Domestic violence and break-ins. That's year-round existence for the locals who barely manage to keep from being dragged out to sea.

There's no off-season for misery.

My mother moved here because she remembered good times on the Cape. As a tourist. As a kid. As someone who came to play for a week and then left.

Even Hell is probably tolerable in short doses.

"Davey?"

Flushing the toilet caused the bathroom door to rattle. "I'll be out in a minute, Ma."

The hot water ran brown but at least it ran. The bar of soap was etched with the name of a hotel where my mother cleaned rooms probably fifteen years ago. There was no towel.

After wiping my hands on my pants, I escaped the bathroom, but not the seediness.

Ma lived in a motel that had peaked in the mid-fifties and now subsisted on weekly residents like Ma whose rent was paid by the state. Neither the motel nor the state bothered to come in and clean. Nor did my mother.

Although I couldn't see the details in the gloom, I couldn't miss the smell, or the whine in my mother's voice.

"Do you think I could borrow some money? I'll pay you back."

"You're my mother. I don't expect you to pay me back."

"You're a good boy, Davey."

The diminutive didn't make me feel like a kid again, didn't flash me back to carefree days. My mother and I had been through too much together, and whatever might have been between us was long worn away.

A shaking hand emerged into the murkiness of a dirty twenty-watt bulb. "A good boy."

I wasn't, of course, moving off-Cape as soon as I could. I never exactly made plain my forwarding address. Never informed my mother I'd married. Never shared with Ma the news of my three children.

As to my children, once they were old enough to understand the lie, they'd each been told my mother was dead. It wasn't too much of a lie at that.

Of course now the oldest was old enough to want to visit her grave.

The shaking hand tore the outstretched money from my grip.

Strong when she wanted to be.

"Did you bring me anything else?"

I thought about asking if she meant flowers, but in the end simply handed her the small paper bag.

I heard the pint of bourbon shush from its wrapper. Heard the bag crumble and hit the ground. Heard the cap turn and then her throat working.

I retrieved, straightened, and folded the bag. Slid it into my rear pocket.

Smacking her lips, Ma thanked me: "You should visit more often."

"My schedule is pretty tight. I'm lucky I get to the Cape twice a year."

"Maybe you could bring me more when you do."

"That's a thought. How's the bourbon?"

"Nothing beats a good bourbon."

"Hmm." The best thing about bourbon was that the taste masked the addition of crushed pills. Over the counter, nothing fancy, but mixed with the alcohol they'd be enough to do the job. "I received a promotion at work."

"Well, that's good. Maybe you'll be able to visit me more often."

"The job comes with additional responsibilities." My eyes adjusting to the darkness, I could see my mother clutching the pint to her chest. My chest felt lightened by the words spilling out of my mouth. "Wouldn't you like me to settle down and start a family?"

"You don't need a family. You're got one. Me."

"Don't you want grandchildren?"

"Why would I?"

Not knowing how to answer that, I approached the truth of my real life from a different angle. "I've found someone who makes me happy."

"No. She just hasn't showed her true colors yet." Ma shook her head. "She will. The honeymoon always ends."

"I don't think it's going to be like that."

"Mark my words." Ma ended on a slur.

Unable to stop myself, I told her about the house and neighborhood where I lived, my wife and our children.

"Tired."

The pills and booze were doing their thing. Too late now for thoughts of reconciliation. Too late now for second thoughts. Too late now for any thoughts at all. "Why don't I let you go then? Promise you'll lock the door behind me before you fall asleep."

"'kay."

I knew better than to trust her. "Come here so you can lock the door as soon as I go. It will only take a second, and then you can lay down again."

She staggered to her feet and across the room as I backed towards the door and away from the skeleton.

"Lock it behind me."

'Yeah."

"Bye, Ma." I opened the door and stepped outside, threw up an arm to shield my eyes from the sun.

I heard the bolt slide home. That's when I remembered the empty pill bottle I'd meant to leave behind. Being on the Cape, I guess my brain had taken a little vacation. This was the place for it.

Lowering my arm, I blinked until I could see again.

The cops would wonder where the pills came from or they wouldn't.

Sunshine and clam plates. Domestic violence and drugs.

I set my sights for home.

Alan Jacobson

2010-10-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Alan Jacobson: VELOCITY, the next thriller in the FBI Profiler Karen Vail series, debuts Oct 5, 2010.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Alan Jacobson: Karen Vail is a funny, smart, realistic character who has resonated with readers of all types, as well as both genders. The stories are written to engage you emotionally, with twists and turns along the way to keep you turning the pages until you reach the ending—which will not disappoint. In addition, the exhaustive research I’ve done ensures that I’ve done my homework and respect the subject matter. I won’t insult my readers’ intelligence by taking the lazy way out and “making stuff up.” As the reader, you’ll learn a lot about different industries, law enforcement agencies, locations, and behind-the-scenes regional politics.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Alan Jacobson: I know my character extremely well, having lived with her for 13 years (even though she’s only appeared in three published novels), so nothing in the above question revealed anything to me. That said, two years ago during a TV interview with one of the FBI profilers I’ve worked with for 18 years, I realized that Karen Vail’s sarcastic dry wit came largely from my childhood growing up in New York. When I moved to California 28 years ago, I found that I had to lose the sarcasm because westerners took sarcasm as arrogance. When I started writing Vail, the long-buried sarcasm and dry wit emerged and formed the basis for an entertaining character. Nelson DeMille said that “Karen Vail is hell of a lady: tough, smart, funny, and very believable.”

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Alan Jacobson: Wow—the way I look at it, I’d better love ALL my scenes or they shouldn’t be in the novel. That said ... it’s impossible to answer the question because I love so many of them. Some bring out the essence of the main characters in a way filled with energy and emotion. Others are absolutely thrilling because of the setup of circumstances, the conflict, and the dangers my characters find themselves in.

5 - What's next?

Alan Jacobson: I’m just starting to write the next Karen Vail novel, and have just submitted another novel to my agent based on a new character that I’m very excited about (although Vail does appear in the novel).

Jeffrey Deaver

2010-10-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Jeffrey Deaver: EDGE, coming out in November.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Jeffrey Deaver: It's one of my one-offs (standalone) thrillers. It's a bit of a departure for me, because it's a thriller told in the first person, which made pulling off the twists and turns in the book a little tricky, but great fun!

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Jeffrey Deaver: As the author, there really isn't anything I haven't realized about the main character or any of the characters. Although I want my readers to be surprised by the characters and plot twists, I plan everything out in my books in such detail that nothing comes as a surprise to me.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Jeffrey Deaver: I can't tell what it is without spoiling some of fun twists in the book!

5 - What's next?

Jeffrey Deaver: At work nonstop on the new James Bond novel, due out next May.

Stephen Jay Schwartz

2010-09-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Stephen Jay Schwartz: Latest book is called BEAT, which is a sequel to my first Hayden Glass novel, BOULEVARD. BEAT arrives in the bookstores on September 28, 2010.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Stephen Jay Schwartz: BEAT is a very intense, fast-paced psychological thriller that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go until it kicks you off a ledge at the end

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Stephen Jay Schwartz: I realized that Hayden's desperate attempt to right a wrong makes the reader want to take the journey with him, even though the reader might come away feeling like he's been kicked in the gut along the way.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Stephen Jay Schwartz: I like the opening scene, not the "prologue," but the first scene of action, where Hayden finds the girl he's come to save and accidentally leads a set of kidnappers to her doorstep. It's a scene of intense action, shame, regret, humiliation and pathos. It sets the pulse of the entire novel.

5 - What's next?

Stephen Jay Schwartz: Next is a standalone, an international thriller with a young FBI agent as protagonist. Psychological and filled with twists and turns and extremely fast-paced. I'm embroiled in the research as we speak.

Joelle Charbonneau

2010-09-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

My first and latest is SKATING AROUND THE LAW, a comedic mystery from St. Martins/Minotaur Books.

Joelle Charbonneau: Rebecca Robbins is a woman on a mission---to sell the roller rink she inherited from her mother and get back to Chicago. Fast. However, when she discovers the dead body of the town’s handyman headfirst in a rink toilet, potential buyers are scared off. Now Rebecca is stuck in a small town where her former neighbors think she doesn’t belong, living with her scarily frisky grandfather, Pop, and relying on a police department that’s better at gardening than solving crimes.

Eager to move forward with her life, Rebecca begins investigating the murder herself, reluctantly accepting help from Pop and his extensive social network, which includes a handsome veterinarian and a former circus camel named Elwood. Nevertheless, someone isn’t happy she’s looking into the case, and their threats will have her questioning whether playing sleuth was such a good idea after all.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Joelle Charbonneau: Well, as far as I can tell, it is the only mystery out there that has an ex-circus camel. That's gotta be worth something, right?

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Joelle Charbonneau: Rebecca is secretly jealous of all her grandfather's social life. He's a man who has more dates than he can keep track of.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Joelle Charbonneau: I have to admit a certain fondness for the scene where Rebecca's grandfather turns into an Elvis impersonator. The grandfather is a fun character who is willing to try anything once. Dressing him up in sparkly spandex made me laugh.

5 - What's next?

Joelle Charbonneau: Book two of the Rebecca Robbins series - SKATING OVER THE LINE - will be released next year by Minotaur.

James Benn

2010-09-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

James Benn: RAG AND BONE; A Billy Boyle World War II Mystery, released September 1, 2010.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

James Benn: A rattling good read aside—to better understand the long reach of history, and how events from the past influence the present, and sometimes become the present. Case in point, the death last April of the president of Poland, along with most of his top government officials, in a plane crash in Russia. They were on their way to a commemoration of the Katyn Forest Massacre, where the Soviets executed thousands of Polish officers—ironically, to remove the top level of Polish society. RAG AND BONE is about the revelation in 1943/44 of those killings, and the effect it had both on the war, and on my fictional characters. The tragic accident in April is a reminder of how the past is never as far away as we think.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

James Benn: Hmmm. I know the guy pretty well, so that’s a tough one. Probably that Billy Boyle would not be at all interested in the long reach of history. Instead, he’d want to know what it meant to him, and the people he cares about, in the here and now. Or the here and then, to be more accurate.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

James Benn: Billy’s encounter with Archie Chapman, an East End crime lord who spends his nights in Tube Stations and his days in a brothel. Archie fought in the First World War, and is a bit unhinged by the experience. He served under Siegfried Sassoon, the English poet who was also a deadly killer in combat. As Archie says, Sassoon taught him how to appreciate poetry and slit a throat, and there’s not many who can do both well.

5 - What's next?

James Benn: In 2011, Billy will journey to the Anzio Beachhead in Italy, to pursue an unknown psychopath who is killing officers, starting with a lieutenant and working his way up to a general. Known as Red Heart, he leaves a playing card on each body, starting with a ten of hearts for the lowly lieutenant, working his way through a royal flush. The tentative title is MORTAL TERROR. I was intrigued by the idea of a psychopath in combat. One army doctor in 1945 said that after enough time in combat, 98% of all GIs would suffer from combat fatigue; the remaining 2% would be psychopaths.

Sara Paretsky

2010-09-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Sara Paretsky: BODY WORK.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Sara Paretsky: Because the curse of many Pharoahs will fall on all who ignore this important book. Joking aside, people who love thrillers tend to like V I and have found this one of her most satisfying cases. At a nightclub in Chicago, a performance artist sits naked on a stage and lets the audience paint their fantasies on her. The performance attracts a wide range of spectators, including some Iraqi war Vets, Ukrainian mobsters, a young woman whose family has been dogged by tragedy -- and V I's young cousin, Petra. When a woman is murdered outside the club, V I is hired to find the killer, and her search uncovers a terrifying vein of corruption that stretches all the way from Baghdad's Green Zone to the South Side of Chicago.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Sara Paretsky: Nothing.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Sara Paretsky: V I is aging and no longer leaps tall buildings at a single bound, so some of the action scenes seem both funnier and more mellow to me than in previous books. I like her confrontation with the head of the Ukrainian mob where she's been beaten up and finds herself drifting off to sleep in the middle of his angry confrontation. I also like a scene where she feels she's leading a circus parade of dogs, cousins, Veterans, and old men when she needs to search for some missing documents.

5 - What's next?

Sara Paretsky: V I AND THE VAMPIRES.

Ann Cleeves

2010-09-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Ann Cleeves: BLUE LIGHTNING

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Ann Cleeves: Because it's a book you can get lost in. It'll take you to Fair Isle, the most remote inhabited island in the UK. Autumn and a place of storms and wild birds. A scientist at the field centre is murdered - by one of the staff? A birder? An islander? A traditional enclosed community mystery, but set in the present.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Ann Cleeves: Jimmy Perez grew up on Fair Isle. He's influenced more than I'd realized by the isolation and the weather.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Ann Cleeves: There's a second murder and the victim is found in the Pund, a ruined croft house, lying on a pile of sheepskins in the loft. I spent a lot of time in the Pund with my husband before we were married. But I think the scene works well. It's physically and emotionally cold.

5 - What's next?

Ann Cleeves: I've nearly finished a new Vera Stanhope novel. ITV is filming the series for television and I don't want them to run out of books to adapt.

SJ Rozan

2010-09-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

SJ Rozan: ON THE LINE, St. Martin's Press, Sept. 28th.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

SJ Rozan: It's a ticking-clock thriller that sends Bill Smith racing all over New York. If you like high-octane action and a large cast of weirdos, try ON THE LINE.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

SJ Rozan: He can unravel.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

SJ Rozan: The one where Bill Smith, Lydia Chin's cousin Linus Wong, and a big yellow dog named Woof attempt what Linus refers to as "a split-second precision elite military rescue operation. Like Navy SEALs." Because I never got to write a scene for a swimming dog before.

5 - What's next?

SJ Rozan: GHOST HERO. Set in the art world -- galleries, artists' studios. Talk about weirdos...

Toby Ball

2010-09-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Toby Ball: My debut novel, THE VAULTS, is published by St. Martin’s Press.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Toby Ball: THE VAULTS has been described as dystopian noir. It has a unique atmosphere, a touch of the surreal, and an unlikely protagonist in Arthur Puskis, the Vaults' archivist.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Toby Ball: Arthur Puskis possesses that strange power that occasionally attaches itself to individuals who live outside society's norms. Police treat him with reverence though he has none of the characteristics that would normally earn him respect.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Toby Ball: I can't detail a number of my favorite scenes without giving away too much of the plot, so I'll pick one from fairly early in the book. Acting on a tip, Arthur Puskis leaves the City and drives to a rural town called Freeman's Gap to look for a missing person. Even more ill at ease than he is in the City, he navigates rutted roads through seas of wheat to find the shack where a surprise awaits him.

5 - What's next?

Toby Ball: My second novel, SCORCH CITY, will be published in summer or fall of 2011. It is a loose sequel, taking place about fifteen years after THE VAULTS.

Mary Daheim

2010-09-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Mary Daheim: My latest book in the B&B series from HarperCollins/Morrow is LOCO MOTIVE, due to be released September 7.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Mary Daheim: You should read it because innkeeper Judith McMonigle Flynn and her sometimes pain-in-the-neck cousin, Renie, are, as Carolyn Hart puts it, "Sleuths to treasure." (Some might say Renie should be a BURIED treasure, but that's because the character is based on the author.) You should, of course, read all the books in the series because they have humor, mystery (the kind that a sharp-eyed reader can solve), and feature two middle-aged women who are all too human.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Mary Daheim: I can’t tell you much--unless you're referring to last night's phone call to Coz Judy (the real Judith) I should add that neither Judith nor Renie are exact replicas of the real deals. But they're very near the mark.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Mary Daheim: My favorite scene is ... this is tough ... early on when Renie gets the switch from daylight saving time screwed up and they almost miss the train OR a scene toward the end involving mistaken identity of the cousins (and I won’t say how or why, as that would spoil it). The latter scene was the last of the wonderful ideas Dave, my late husband, gave me for the book before he died in early February. Since retirement, he had edited each book chapter by chapter. The really favorite scene might have been the one you--and I--will never see, because Dave didn’t get around to suggesting it to me before he died.

5 - What's next?

Mary Daheim: Next up is the new Alpine from Random House/Ballantine, THE ALPINE VENGEANCE, due out in late March 2011. The paperback version of the previous book in the series, THE ALPINE UPROAR, will be released in February 2011. ALPINE VENGEANCE is based on the homicide in THE ALPINE FURY and regular readers of Emma Lord might want to at least skim a copy of that one. I had to read the whole thing word for word to remember it after 15+ years had gone by since I wrote it. I always encourage ALPINE fans to read the books in order as they are more character-driven and a bit more serious than the B&Bs. After finishing the manuscript of ALPINE VENGEANCE, I took time to run through all the ALPINES and realized that what happens to Emma in the new book had been there from the start in THE ALPINE ADVOCATE. I'm currently working on the next B&B for 2011--ALL THE PRETTY HEARSES.

Lisa Black

2010-09-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Lisa Black: TRAIL OF BLOOD, released September 7.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Lisa Black: Because it deals with one of the most bizarre, true-life serial killer cases in America: The Torso Murderer, who terrorized Cleveland with dismembered bodies during the already dark days of the Great Depression. My character is a forensic scientist, and has my old job at the coroner's office there, where those bodies were sent and examined.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Lisa Black: That she's always been the good girl, the sensible one, the stable, logical, understanding one. And she's getting really sick of it.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Lisa Black: When she's dashing between trains in a dark, foggy valley, pursuing a guy whom (who?) she just found burying two bodies in a re-creation of the Torso Killer's second and third murders.

5 - What's next?

Lisa Black: Theresa encounters another serial killer, but as before, I just can't make myself kill any more beautiful coeds. So I'm killing off attorneys instead. (No offense to those in the legal profession, you're probably the only ones who work crappier hours than I do...)

Elizabeth Sims

2010-09-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Elizabeth Sims: ON LOCATION: A Rita Farmer Mystery, hardcover from St. Martin's Minotaur, released August 3, 2010. It's the third in the Rita Farmer series, (THE EXTRA, 2009; THE ACTRESS, 2008).

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Elizabeth Sims: You definitely should NOT read it if you hate 'crime fiction as smart as it is compelling,' which is what Booklist called it. If you're tired of 'maximum impact' (Publishers Weekly) and never again want to read a 'fabulous novel' (Harriet Klausner), PLEASE don't pick up this book. You'll just have a terrible time. On the other hand, if you've ever had an argument with a sibling and wondered how far brotherly or sisterly love--or hate-- can go, you should read ON LOCATION. If you want to lose yourself in a story that rips you from your worries and hurls you into an exhilarating maelstrom of wilderness suspense, personal courage, and calculated risk involving renegade loggers, millionaire heirs to a lumber fortune, and a little boy with a talent for drawing the truth---well then, give ON LOCATION a try.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Elizabeth Sims: I believe she has an appendectomy scar I hadn't noticed before.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Elizabeth Sims: This is hard. The story takes place mostly in the storm-lashed Pacific Northwest, where Rita's sister Gina has gone missing while scouting movie locations. It's tough to decide between two scenes: one is Rita's love interest George Rowe impersonating a yacht salesman to get a high-class dame to spill some tasty beans. The other is a fight to the death between sasquatch-like wilderness thugs and Team Rita. I can't spoil it, but I can tell you the scene involves Rita playing a role with the help of raccoon skins, a hatchet, and a 70-foot log bridge over a foaming river chasm.

5 - What's next?

Elizabeth Sims: Am working on the fourth in the series, titled BEST BOY, where Rita's son Petey gets even more involved in this business of distinguishing liars from murderers from good guys. Also, as a Contributing Editor at WRITER'S DIGEST magazine, I'm continuing to write features on how to write great fiction. Am also working on a book about that. www.elizabethsims.com.

James Hayman

2010-08-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

James Hayman: THE CHILL OF NIGHT. It's the second in the Detective Mike McCabe thriller series.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

James Hayman: Because once you pick it up you won;t be able to put it down. At least that's what most of my readers tell me.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

James Hayman: McCabe cares. Catching the killer is not simply a job for him. It is a mission. One that must be accomplished before another life is lost.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

James Hayman: A young woman who suffers from schizophrenia and the hallucinations and delusions that come with the disease is trying to defend herself against a cruel and heartless killer. Or is she?

5 - What's next?

James Hayman: I'm working on the third book in the series that is going to focus on McCabe's partner, Detective Maggie Savage.

Kat Richardson

2010-08-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Kat Richardson: LABYRINTH, which came out August 3.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Kat Richardson: Because you read the fourth book, VANISHED, and you just must know the resolution of the cliff-hanger ending in that book. (Or you'll have to go back and read the whole series to catch up.)

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Kat Richardson: She's a better person than she gives herself credit for.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Kat Richardson: I love the scenes with the friendly pit bull who eats monsters.

5 - What's next?

Kat Richardson: I need to turn in Book 6, DOWNPOUR, by October 1.

Stephen White

2010-08-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Stephen White: THE LAST LIE. It will be released on August 17. For the record, it’s not a golf book. Not that kind of "lie."

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Stephen White: The obvious reasons – it's great, etc. – but also to discover the many reasons why neither Kobe Bryant nor lawyer wizards will be enamored of it.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Stephen White: Alan Gregory seems to have dropped his moral compass on a rock. It no longer finds true north. Close, but . . .

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Stephen White: The one with the laundry chute, the dumbwaiter, and the MagLite. Writing it was like the chase-scene equivalent of building a ship inside a bottle. But I also like the scene with the purple chicken. No particular reason other than that it amused me.

5 - What's next?

Stephen White: I have no idea. You would think after two decades of doing this, I would plan a little better.

Carole Nelson Douglas

2010-08-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Carole Nelson Douglas: CAT IN AN ULTRAMARINE SCHEME

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Carole Nelson Douglas: These are not your grandmother's cat mysteries, but an "epic" cozy-noir feline PI series with an international espionage subplot. Midnight Louie, Sam Spade with hairballs, narrates part-time as four human crimesolvers clean up Las Vegas and tangle with each other. If you like this one, there are 21 previous books to read and more coming. This says it: "As twisty, riveting and intriguing [as ever], even longtime fans of the series are bound to say 'Wow, I never saw that coming' to the very end."
--RT BOOKREVIEWS Top Pick

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Carole Nelson Douglas: I have four antagonist-ally main characters--two pro, two amateur solvers, two men, two women--and too complex to explain easily, but it's why the series is so long-running.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Carole Nelson Douglas: The unexpected ending is a killer. It will stress all the main characters to their limits until the end of the series .

5 - What's next?

Carole Nelson Douglas: SILVER ZOMBIE, fourth entry in the Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator, series set in an apocalytic Vegas where crime lords mix it up with supernatural moguls like a vampire Howard Hughes. The genre is noir urban fantasy, and I've set it up so that every classic noir film character from Sam Spade to Asta can appear in the series.

Cynthia Riggs

2010-08-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Cynthia Riggs: TOUCH-ME-NOT (the release date was 17 August 2010, St. Martin's Minotaur).

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Cynthia Riggs: Read it for pure escape. The book deals with a video stalker and a group of mathematical knitters who are constructing a quilt (Mobius strip kelp and Klein bottle brain coral) to draw attention to global warming. It's set on Martha's Vineyard, so if you know the Island it will be fun to revisit it, if you don't know the Island, you'll learn a bit about it from a native.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Cynthia Riggs: Victoria Trumbull, my 92-year-old poet-sleuth, was able to convince an overly caring 60-year-old daughter that her daughter still needed her mother's protection, not the other way around.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Cynthia Riggs: Favorite scene? That's like having a favorite child. One scene I like is one night after LeRoy Watts, the electrician, is walking on the beach to cool off after a serious argument with his wife, he returns to his car to find a police officer. Sure the cop is there to arrest him for killing his wife, LeRoy learns he's been given a parking ticket on a deserted road at midnight because he parked the wrong way, facing the non-existent traffic.

5 - What's next?

Cynthia Riggs: The next book is THE BEE BALM MURDERS, an attempt on my part to combine the art and science of beekeeping with the Island-wide installation of an underground fiber optics cable.

Rick Mofina

2010-08-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Rick Mofina: THE PANIC ZONE.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Rick Mofina: You're missing a great page-turner. The PANIC ZONE, follows the first in the series, VENGEANCE ROAD, which the International Thriller Writers selected as a finalist for Best Paperback Original 2010. And this is what Dean Koontz says: "The Panic Zone is a headlong rush toward Armageddon. It's brisk pace and tight focus remind me of early Michael Crichton."

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Rick Mofina: Jack Gannon, a crime reporter, is a working-class hero. He paid his dues at a dying newspaper in Buffalo, New York, where he was beginning to think of himself as the all-time loser. He almost won a Pulitzer and he almost got married and he almost had a normal life. For years, he ached to escape for a job at a global wire service in New York City. Even though his dream was a few hundred miles down the road, it always seemed out of reach until we catch up to him in THE PANIC ZONE and he makes his last-chance power drive to prove that reporting is written in his DNA.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Rick Mofina: All of them are my favorites because each one is critical or it wouldn't be there.

5 - What's next?

Rick Mofina: Working on Jack Gannon 4.

Judy Clemens

2010-08-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Judy Clemens: THE GRIM REAPER'S DANCE, out July 2010 by Poisoned Pen Press.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Judy Clemens: This book is a mixture of mystery, martial arts, and the paranormal. The Grim Reaper is my protagonist's Watson. A lot of folks who have read the book enjoy that relationship.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Judy Clemens: Hmm. That's a hard one. Since I'm just on the third book in this series I am still learning a lot about her. In this book she deals with some teenagers, and I hadn't realized how much she would like people of that age.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Judy Clemens: Death tends to get all the funny lines in the books, and I enjoyed writing the scene where Casey and the GR are walking, and Death comes up with new lyrics to "How Many Roads Must a Man Walk Down" (or whatever the actual title is.). That kind of tickled me. Plus, I also enjoy writing the fight scenes, because that's just fun!

5 - What's next?

Judy Clemens: I am working on the third Grim Reaper mystery, plus a few YA and MG books. I love the kidlit genre, and find it fun and refreshing after dealing with Death and the adult issues in my mysteries.

Bill Crider

2010-08-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Bill Crider: MURDER IN THE AIR, St. Martin's, August 3, 2010. My preferred title was NO LES, NO MORE, but that's another story.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Bill Crider: Because it's sharp and funny. And it's about a very real problem that faces a lot of people in rural areas, a problem that's getting worse all the time but that very few people know about.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Bill Crider: I know the guy (Sheriff Dan Rhodes) pretty well, but until this book I didn't know he was ever likely to have mystical experience.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Bill Crider: The bow and arrow attack at the factory chicken farm. Where else are you going to find a mysterious Robin Hood shooting arrows at scantily clad protesters at a chicken farm?

5 - What's next?

Bill Crider: The next book about Sheriff Rhodes is one I call THE WILD HOG MURDERS. We'll see if the editors let that one stand. Whatever it's called, it should be out in 2011.

Ellen Crosby

2010-08-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Ellen Crosby: THE VIOGNIER VENDETTA, published by Scribner. (My new paperback, THE RIESLING RETRIBUTION, will also be out from Pocket Books).

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Ellen Crosby: Publishers Weekly calls THE VIOGNIER VENDETTA "an addictive whodunit" and Kirkus says it's "another pleasing combination of mystery, history, and romance in a series that never disappoints" so there are two good reasons. One comment I get a lot is from readers who have just discovered my books and are surprised by the quality of the writing and the fact that they are intelligently written. Years ago when I was living in London I took Robert McKee's Story Structure workshop which was flat-out fantastic. One thing he drummed into us was just that: readers are plenty smart -- aren't they always a step ahead trying to figure out whodunit? -- so it was important to write the kind of smart, fast-paced, unputdownable book that would keep someone up way past their bedtime hating you in the morning! And that's what I try to do. If you haven't read my books, you should!!

3 - What can you tell us about your main character> that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Ellen Crosby: THE VIOGNIER VENDETTA mostly takes place in Washington, D.C. about an hour's drive from the part of Virginia where the other books are set. What I didn't realize until I started writing this book was how much I would connect my main character, Lucie Montgomery, with a city that has been a big part of my life, where I lived, worked, and studied for many years.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Ellen Crosby: I have a lot of favorite scenes since the story takes place in Washington during cherry blossom season, but two of them involve spoilers so you'll just have to read the book! However one scene I particularly enjoyed writing is when Lucie has a meeting with the mother of her friend Rebecca, whose clothes were found folded in a rowboat floating in the Potomac River -- and Rebecca has vanished. Her mother asks to go to the National Arboretum on the outskirts of Washington to see the bonsai gardens where they can talk in private. When they arrive, she and Lucie discover a set of Corinthian columns rising on a hill like a ruined Greek temple and learn that they were once part of the East Portico of the US Capitol. There is no one there that day so the two of them talk on that hilltop among the columns, all alone except for the birds and the whistling wind.

5 - What's next?

Ellen Crosby: There will be a sixth book in the series that will be out in 2011. You can find all the latest information about that and the other books on my website, http://wwww.ellencrosby.com or on Facebook at EllenCrosbyBooks.

Deborah Sharp

2010-08-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Deborah Sharp: My latest is MAMA GETS HITCHED, the third book in the funny, Southern-fried 'Mace Bauer Mystery' series.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Deborah Sharp: The humor is probably the best reason to read MAMA GETS HITCHED. I love that my readers can escape for a few hours into a part of Florida the tourists never see; meet some offbeat characters; and celebrate Mama's 5th try at tying the sacred knot. It's a murder mystery, all wound up in the Wedding of the Century -- which, of course, goes terribly awry. The world is filled with sad stories (as a former reporter, I know this firsthand). Who doesn't need a laugh now and then?

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn\'t realized until you answered the question?

Deborah Sharp: Mace Bauer -- tomboyish, fiercely independent, and the foil to her mama's foolishness -- is not nearly as tough as she thinks she is.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Deborah Sharp: Hands down, my favorite scene in MAMA GETS HITCHED is a rolling-in-the-food fistfight at Mama's bridal shower. The frilly setting is already rife with conflict, since it's the last place on earth her tomboyish middle daughter, Mace, wants to be. An excerpt from Chapter 32, just after the battling gals topple a punchbowl full of Nuptial Nectar:

'' . . . A fruity smell rose in the room. Globs of lime sherbet dotted Betty's carpet, like green islands in a lilac sea . . . The two women went next, coming off the table only to lose their footing in frosting, sherbet, and bridal shower punch.

''Make them stop, Sal!'' Mama's hand clutched her throat. ''They're ruining my shower.''

As I watched Alice and C'ndee tumbling across the floor in white frosting and pink punch, I had to disagree with Mama. This was the best bridal fete ever.''

5 - What's next?

Deborah Sharp: I'm almost done writing the fourth book in the series, MAMA SEES STARS. When a Hollywood movie company comes to tiny Himmarshee, Fla., Mama snags a part. She thinks it's her star-crossed destiny, but will the movie role mean curtains for Mama? MAMA SEES STARS comes out in Fall 2011.

J.A. Jance

2010-07-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

J.A. Jance: QUEEN OF THE NIGHT.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

J.A. Jance: In view of the border war situation in Arizona, at the moment, it's far more timely than I anticipated. It will also give you insights into the world and legends of the Tohono O'odham, the native American tribe that has lived in the desert west of Tucson for thousands of years.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

J.A. Jance: I love this whole cast of Walker Family characters. They've been in the background of my creative life the whole time I've been writing.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

J.A. Jance: My favorite scene is when Dan Pardee's grandfather comes to Dan's foster home to take Dan home to Arizona.

5 - What's next?

J.A. Jance: Next up will be Ali Reynolds in FATAL ERROR in February, 2011.

Jane Haddam

2010-07-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Jane Haddam: WANTING SHELIA DEAD, which came out July 20.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Jane Haddam: I have no idea how to answer a question like this.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Jane Haddam: Nothing. I've been writing about Gregor Demarkian for twenty-five years. By now, I know more about him than I know about himself. But, you know, lately I've been thinking about how different he is from what he was when the series started, and how much older.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Jane Haddam: Oh, good question.

There are two mysteries in this book, not connected except by the fact that Gregor Demarkian investigates them.

In the first one, it's the enormous cat fight among a group of girls who are all contestants on the same reality show.

In the second one, it's when the comatose body of one woman and the dazed but nominally conscious body of another are found together, and that second person starts to talk.

In both cases, I think I got the speaking right, if that makes sense. It's hard to do.

5 - What's next?

Jane Haddam: Another GD, which I'm finishing up now. It's due out about the same time next year.

Elizabeth Duncan

2010-07-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Elizabeth Duncan: A BRUSH WITH DEATH, published July 20, 2010 by St. Martin's Press.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Elizabeth Duncan: For the beautiful Welsh scenery, well-developed characters and damn fine story telling!

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Elizabeth Duncan: She's smarter than she thinks she is.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Elizabeth Duncan: It's a rainy Saturday in April, 1967 and two strangers meet in Liverpool's Lime Street Railway Station and fall in love. I love the period and the place.

5 - What's next?

Elizabeth Duncan: Working on the third book in series involving a wealthy widow who falls for a con man who then takes a very nasty fall himself off a wall-walk of Conwy Castle.

Sheila Lowe

2010-07-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Sheila Lowe: LAST WRITES, the fourth in the forensic handwriting mystery series featuring Claudia Rose, forensic handwriting expert. Just came out July 6 (see web site for signings: http://www.claudiaroseseries.com/).

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Sheila Lowe: Because you'll want to know what an old stuffed bunny has to do with a religious cult. This is not the usual book about a fundamentalist religious cult with creepy people. These people are nice (mostly), they're true believers. It's already getting great reviews.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Sheila Lowe: I think that by now (4th book) I know Claudia pretty well. In LAST WRITES, as in WRITTEN IN BLOOD (book #2), she has an opportunity to champion the cause of a child in jeopardy, this time a three-year-old. Unable to have children of her own, and due to her past painful experience, which was revealed in DEAD WRITE (book #3), Claudia is drawn to try and save this little girl from a terrifying future.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Sheila Lowe: That's a tough question, but it's probably when Claudia confronts a character about what's going on behind the scenes in the cult. This was an opportunity to explore the depths of the character's emotions as he's torn between doing what he's been taught is right, and loyalty to his friend.

5 - What's next?

Sheila Lowe: Currently working on a standalone thriller that has cameo appearances by some of my series characters. Title: LYING...IN BED. A young woman wakes up on a train pulling into a station and realizes that she doesn't know who she is or where she's going. I'm also working on a non-fiction book about handwriting and relationships (RELATIONSHIPS THE WRITE WAY) to help people understand what motivates them to choose the relationships they do.

Alex Kava

2010-07-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Alex Kava: DAMAGED.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Alex Kava: I love the Alfred Hitchcock approach to suspense. I like to take my readers to the edge, then leave them to their imaginations, hopefully racing through the pages to find out what happens next. If you like that sort of thriller, I think you'll enjoy DAMAGED.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Alex Kava: Maggie O'Dell has ordinary fears like the rest of us, but somehow she can and does overcome them during extraordinary situations.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Alex Kava: DAMAGED takes place in Pensacola, Florida, with a hurricane headed directly at the area. One of the major characters is Liz Bailey, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer. She's new to her aircrew so she's still needing to prove herself to them. During a rescue of a boater, her pilot tells her she's to bring up the lone survivor but not his dog. He won't allow a dog inside his helicopter. When Liz gets down to the boat she discovers there's actually two dogs, not just one, and their owner refuses leave them. So Liz finds a way to save all three.

5 - What's next?

Alex Kava: HOTWIRE.

Tana French

2010-07-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Tana French: It's called FAITHFUL PLACE, and it's out in July in the US. Frank Mackey was nineteen, growing up poor on Faithful Place in Dublin's inner city, when he and his first love Rosie made plans to run away together. When she didn't show, he thought she had dumped him. He never went home again. Twenty-two years later, he's an undercover detective. Then Rosie's suitcase shows up in an abandoned house in Faithful Place, and Frank is going home whether he likes it or not.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Tana French: It's about family and the lifelong, tangled, bone-deep power it has, for better or for worse; it's about the many different kinds of love and what happens when they come into conflict; it's about home and what that means; and it's a love song to Dublin. If any of those sound like your kind of thing, give it a go.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Tana French: He could probably kick any of my other characters' arse.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Tana French: There's a scene, early on, where Frank and his two brothers and two sisters are sitting out on the front steps of their parents' home. They haven't been together like that for twenty-two years, and they're re-testing the boundaries of their relationships, falling back into old patterns, trying to work out who these people are now. I just like it. The complexities and nuances of sibling relationships fascinate me.

5 - What's next?

Tana French: I'm working on Book 4. This time the narrator is Scorcher Kennedy, Frank's old friend/rival/general nuisance from Faithful Place. Frank's take on him wasn't exactly objective, so Scorcher is a little different as a narrator than he was as a supporting character.

Dan Fesperman

2010-07-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Dan Fesperman: LAYOVER IN DUBAI.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Dan Fesperman: Because it's set in a truly bizarre part of the world, the likes of which has never been seen on the planet -- a hedonist dreamscape that rose up almost overnight in the bosom of Muslim severity, a speculator's nightmare/paradise (take your pick) populated by risk takers, global runaways, developers on the make (is there any other kind?), the mobsters of three nations, and, sprinkled here and there like grains of salt and pepper, the outnumbered locals, laying low but living well, the men all in white, the women all in black.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Dan Fesperman: Well, his name is Anwar Sharaf, and even though he's an Emirati cop from a completely different background -- a childhood among smugglers and pearl divers, with no electricity and no running water -- his befuddled and anxious view of the world around him is probably a lot more like mine than I'd care to admit, and he's also about my age.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Dan Fesperman: Probably the one where Sharaf and Sam Keller, a young American businessman whose colleague has been murdered, visit the security center of a luxury mega-mall -- which looks more like the control room of a nuclear power plant -- to secretly watch over a conclave of rival mafia factions, Russian and Iranian. The meeting takes place at an open-air restaurant on the third level. Only in Dubai would crime bosses see a mall not only as an optimum meeting place (while their wives shop, of course), but also as a tidy setting for disposing of a troublesome associate.

5 - What's next?

Dan Fesperman: A novel from the point of view of a fellow who is out on the cutting edge of modern warfare, and is slowly being driven crazy by its contrasts and strangeness. He commutes from the 'burbs of Vegas to a trailer in the Nevada desert where he pilots Predators drones over Afghanistan from 7,000 miles away. On a typical day he might watch a house for a few hours, kill everyone inside in a single minute, spend the next two hours assessing the carnage, then drive home just in time to catch his daughter's soccer game in an under-10 rec league, followed by burgers and beer on the patio.

Tess Gerritsen

2010-07-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Tess Gerritsen: ICE COLD.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Tess Gerritsen: Have you ever blindly followed the instructions from your auto GPS? Have you ever wondered, "how far off could it be?" In ICE COLD, things go very, very wrong for a group of five unfortunate tourists who put too much faith in a GPS and end up in a remote village where the residents have mysteriously vanished. The story turns into every traveler's worst nightmare.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Tess Gerritsen: The book features medical examiner Maura Isles, stranded with four unlikable companions. The story forced me to really probe Maura's character, and I found that she's on the precipice of a big change in her life -- and she's finally found the courage to make that change.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Tess Gerritsen: When the five travelers realize that they truly are stuck in the snow, they're thirty miles from help, and they could die. It's a horrible, sickening moment.

5 - What's next?

Tess Gerritsen: I'm just doing the research for the next book, due in December. No title, no details, but I've got a pretty good idea of what it's about.

Avery Aames

2010-07-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Avery Aames: THE LONG QUICHE GOODBYE, from Berkley Prime Crime, debuts July 6, 2010.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Avery Aames: Because it's a tasty mystery. It's got heart, spirit, humor. Charlotte Bessette, the protagonist, is a cheesemonger who cares about family andadores cheese. You'll visit a quaint town in Ohio and meet fun, quirky characters all while learning about the tasty world of gourmet cheese.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Avery Aames: I hadn't realized that she's very much a part of my soul right now. I feel as if I know her and we'd be best friends. Her energy is mine. Her passion for life is mine, as well.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Avery Aames: I have many favorite scenes...but one is with Charlotte and her grandmother, who is over-the-top with worry because she's suspected of murder, and Charlotte tries to coax her back to sanity with food, love, routine, and sass.

5 - What's next?

Avery Aames: The next book up in the series is LOST AND FONDUE, coming in 2011.

Gregg Hurwitz

2010-07-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Gregg Hurwitz: THEY'RE WATCHING (July 2010)

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Gregg Hurwitz: I suppose that depends on who you are. If you're a thriller fan, you should read it because it's a Hitchcockian suspense story -- my homage to Rear Window. Patrick realizes that someone is filming him at private moments and delivering the unmarked DVDs to his house. His curiosity and outrage lead him on a mysterious and dangerous quest to find out what's behind it. If you tend toward character studies, it's the tale of a couple with their marriage on the rocks who are desperately trying to find their way back to each other. Now they must do so under the most intense pressure they've ever faced.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Gregg Hurwitz: He is the only character I've written who is as curious as I am. And that leads him into great danger.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Gregg Hurwitz: The book opens with Patrick finding a DVD someone has left of him entering his bathroom in the morning and washing up. He goes outside his house to the bathroom window to look for traces of the camera that filmed him. Nothing. When he gets home from work that day, there's ANOTHER DVD waiting. This one filmed from the neighbor's roof, showing him that morning outside his house, looking for traces of that camera that filmed the first DVD. His realization then -- that this is a chess game and a massive intrusion into his life -- is my favorite story beat.

5 - What's next?

Gregg Hurwitz: Coupla things. Working on my next thriller. I'm a writer-producer on ABC's V and we just revved up Season Two. I write comics for Marvel, and I'm participating in their big Shadowland Event. And a director just snapped up the film rights to THEY'RE WATCHING, which I'll be producing as a film.

Claudia Bishop

2010-06-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Claudia Bishop: TOAST MORTEM, a Hemlock Falls mystery featurin Meg and Sarah Quilliam. The two sisters run a 27 room Inn in upstate New York. Guests check in, but they don't check out.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Claudia Bishop: It is very very funny.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Claudia Bishop: She's better at the job of Innkeeping than she thinks she is.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Claudia Bishop: The denouement, where she discovers who the murderer really is.

5 - What's next?

Claudia Bishop: I am working on the fifth Mary Stanton title--a Beaufort & Company mystery.

Barry Eisler

2010-06-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Barry Eisler: INSIDE OUT, a thriller about the real nature of the "War on Terror," out on June 29.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Barry Eisler: Because it's so topical and real, it's both more gripping and more important than an ordinary thriller. If you want to understand what the "War on Terror" really is and how it works, this is your book.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Barry Eisler: My black ops insider, Ben Treven, is under so much pressure he might do something irrational -- something he won't be able to revoke.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Barry Eisler: Oh, man, there are so many... I love the sex scene, which has proven a bit controversial; I love when my antagonist goes on a rampage in San Jose, Costa Rica, against the Blackwater operatives who are setting him up... and then there's this bit of dialogue, which encapsulates what's at the heart of the story: "The Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers... that’s all just window dressing now, the artifacts of an ancient mythology, the vestments of a dead religion. We need something different now, something suited for the modern world. We need realists, men like us. We are the change we’ve been waiting for."

5 - What's next?

Barry Eisler: A sequel, naturally -- there's more to this story than can be told in a single book.

Janet Evanovich

2010-06-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Janet Evanovich: SIZZING SIXTEEN, out on June 22.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Janet Evanovich: It's a face paced thriller with kidnapping, polygamy, a toilet paper bandit and an alligator named Jr. Jingles.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Janet Evanovich: She's always getting in over her head.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Janet Evanovich: I like when the Hobbits storm the castle. Why? Because they're Hobbits storming the castle, for crying out loud!

5 - What's next?

Janet Evanovich: TROUBLEMAKER, my first attempt at a graphic novel. It's out on July 20.

Blake Crouch

2010-06-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Blake Crouch: SNOWBOUND, coming June 22nd ... here’s the jacket flap:

For Will Innis and his daughter, Devlin, the loss was catastrophic. Every day for the past five years, they wonder where she is, if she is—Will’s wife, Devlin’s mother—because Rachael Innis vanished one night during an electrical storm on a lonely desert highway, and suspected of her death, Will took his daughter and fled. Now, Will and Devlin live under different names in another town, having carved out a new life for themselves as they struggle to maintain some semblance of a family. When one night, a beautiful, hard-edged FBI agent appears on their doorstep, they fear the worst, but she hasn’t come to arrest Will. “I know you’re innocent,” she tells him, “because Rachael wasn’t the first ... or the last.” Desperate for answers, Will and Devlin embark on a terrifying journey that spans four thousand miles from the desert southwest to the wilds of Alaska, heading unaware into the heart of a nightmare, because the truth is infinitely worse than they ever imagined.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Blake Crouch: Um, because it’s like, good and stuff? And because you just admitted you hadn’t and should feel very guilty. Also for one scene: see response to question no. 4.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Blake Crouch: That his name, Will, is actually my first name (William Blake Crouch).

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Blake Crouch: When my psychopath, Javier, goes into a Starbucks to order a simple cup of black coffee and gets stuck in line behind this woman who wants some skinny chai latte bullshit drink. It’s my favorite scene because I love how Javier handles the situation, and wish I could do the same. Of course, I would probably spend the rest of my life in prison if I did.

5 - What's next?

Blake Crouch: A novella in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and a super-secret collaboration project coming mid-summer.

Rebecca Cantrell

2010-06-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Rebecca Cantrell: A NIGHT OF LONG KNIVES, second in the Hannah Vogel mystery series (after A TRACE OF SMOKE).

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Rebecca Cantrell: You find out what happened to Hannah and Anton and get thrust into another historical era: 1934 Germany. It's set during the purge known as The Night of the Long Knives, when Hitler's forces killed up to 1000 people, including his best friend, and examines the purge from the point of view of the wives and mothers and sisters of the men killed. Plus, it starts with a zeppelin jacking.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Rebecca Cantrell: She's determined that no death go unnoticed, that the stories of the men who died be recorded.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Rebecca Cantrell: I hate favorite questions. But there is an interrogation scene where Hannah discover that everything she thought she knew about someone is false. I love that moment.

5 - What's next?

Rebecca Cantrell: A GAME OF LIES comes out in June 2012. It's set in Berlin during the 1936 Olympics.

Linda Castillo

2010-06-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Linda Castillo: PRAY FOR SILENCE, St Martin’s Minotaur, June 22, 2010

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Linda Castillo: PRAY FOR SILENCE is the second book in my Kate Burkholder series. You should read it because it offers a fresh take on the urban thriller. Sort of….JUSTIFIED meets WITNESS…..

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Linda Castillo: One word that very closely describes Kate Burkholder is flawed, but in a very human way. Perhaps the book’s Publisher’s Weekly review summed up Kate’s persona best: “A gun-toting, cursing, former Amish female chief of police...."”

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Linda Castillo: As a writer I really do love imperfect characters. And I love pushing the envelope. In PRAY FOR SILENCE, those two elements go hand in hand. The scene I enjoyed writing the most illuminates some of Kate’s more human moments. Suffice it to say there are times when she reacts to the events being thrown at her in ways that could be construed as self destructive.

5 - What's next?

Linda Castillo: Kate and John Tomasetti will return next summer in the third installment of the series. Without giving away too much, I can tell you Kate is once again faced with a terrible and wrenching case that hits very close to home for her. There are some surprises in the book and some twists that might shock a few readers.

Tarquin Hall

2010-06-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Tarquin Hall: THE CASE OF THE MAN WHO DIED LAUGHING. It's the second of my Vish Puri Most Private Investigator novels. It's set in Delhi, India and the murder takes place at an early morning Laughing Club (yes you guessed it a club where people get together and laugh). A scientist attending the session is killed by an apparition of the Hindu goddess, Kali. This is not the sort of thing you would generally expect to happen, even in India. Consequently, the public believe a miracle has happened. But Punjabi sleuth Vish Puri, lover of all things spicy, is not so easily fooled.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Tarquin Hall: Because it's got everything -- suspense, colourful characters and plenty of mouth-watering references to Indian food. There's humour as well -- Puri's interfering Mummy-ji works her own case on the side. Plus the book givev a lot of insight into modern India. With a population of 1.2 billion and an economy that could soon be as large as America's, it's a good idea to know more about the place.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Tarquin Hall: Hmmm. Hard one. I guess I'd say that if he carries on eating all those paranthas and chicken frankies then he's going to drop dead from a heart attack and then what am I going to do?

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Tarquin Hall: I like the very end. It's touching. My editor shed a tear when she read it and that made me happy.

5 - What's next?

Tarquin Hall: I think I'm going to call it THE CASE OF THE DEADLY BUTTER CHICKEN. It's going to be about corruption in cricket and the murder of a Pakistani player's father. But as with THE CASE OF THE MAN WHO DIED LAUGHING and THE CASE OF THE MISSING SERVANT (A New York Times notable crime book), I'll weave in a couple of sub-plots. Vish Puri's bread and butter work is matrimonial investigations (i.e. looking into the backgrounds of prospective brides and grooms entering into arranged marriages) which is a good way of highlighting the changes taking places in Indian society.

Alan Furst

2010-06-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Alan Furst: SPIES OF THE BALKANS, out 15 June.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Alan Furst: Very moving real story of Greece '41

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Alan Furst: My main character is "a senior Police official" who handles political cases in the Macedonian Greek city of Salonika.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Alan Furst: I have a character called The French King because he looks like Louis the 14th in profile and is the crookedest character I ever wrote. I like the scene with him in the back of a car so deluxe that the hero has no idea what it is and neither does the reader. (And neither do I!)

5 - What's next?

Alan Furst: Another book--just signed a new two-book deal with Random House.

Catherine Coulter

2010-06-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Catherine Coulter: My latest is the 14th FBI thriller, WHIPLASH, out June 15th.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Catherine Coulter: Because I go after the drug companies and you've got to know how good that would make you feel.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Catherine Coulter: It changes her life.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Catherine Coulter: My very favorite scene is between Sherlock and the big bad guy -- it's got grit and good triumphs, something very nice to experience in this bad old world, even if only in a novel.

5 - What's Next?

Catherine Coulter: The 15th FBI is SPLIT SECOND, out this time next year. I think it's really cool because Ted Bundy's involved in it.

CJ West

2010-06-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

CJ West: THE END OF MARKING TIME, a thriller about our society after the supreme court releases 2,000,000 felons at the same time.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

CJ West: THE END OF MARKING TIME is a unique look at an ultra-modern criminal justice system. The novel puts you (the reader) in the jury box while Michael O'Connor asks you to spare his life. Mystery surrounds Michael, his fate,and even who he is really telling his story to.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

CJ West: I wrote a blog post today and realized that Michael O'Connor is the result of years of thought about families, education, and social justice. The first draft burst forth in six short weeks, but the seeds of the story had germinated long before I began pressing the keys.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

CJ West: The ending is my favorite part of the book. I remember my excitement when the idea first came to me and when I have talked to readers, I see that same excitement in their eyes when they talk about the ending.

5 - What's next?

CJ West: I'm waiting for news on SIN & VENGEANCE, the movie. In the meantime I'm keeping myself busy writing ADDICTED TO LOVE, which is a love story/thriller due out in 2011.

Steve Liskow

2010-05-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Steve Liskow: WHO WROTE TEH BOOK OF DEATH? came out in May from Mainly Murder Press.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Steve Liskow: It's a book about fixing what went wrong the last time and trying to do it right this time, not to mention that it's a cool mystery with suspense, humor, and hot sex.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Steve Liskow: He's a lot more alpha than many of my other characters, but more sensitive, too. Maybe because he's been serious screwed over before through no fault of his own.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Steve Liskow: About half-way through the book, a woman gets electrocuted and my protag has to perform CPR on her. He has to fix it this time because he wasn't around when his wife died years before. It forces him to face the fear and pain again because he cares about this woman, too. I'd never tried that kind of juxtaposition in a scene before, and I think it worked. but I like a lot of other scenes, too. This book is different from a lot of my other work, so it made me develop in different directions.

5 - What's next?

Steve Liskow: I'm doing research for a mystery that will involve Roller Derby. I got the idea because my daughter is the Captain of the Queen City Cherry Bombs in New Hampshire. Now I've interviewed several skaters, coaches, and referees in Connecticut and I'm becoming a serious fan of the sport. It's a helluva lot of fun and the people are all seriously cool.

David Housewright

2010-05-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

David Housewright: THE TAKING OF LIBBIE, SD

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

David Housewright: LIBBIE deals with the slow death of the Great Plains. North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Montana have been losing population for decades. Look around and all you'll see are empty churches, abandoned farms, closed schoolhouses, shuttered businesses - there are six thousand ghost towns in Kansas alone. In fact, several hundred thousand square miles of the Great Plains have a population of fewer than six people per square mile. In some cases it's two people per square mile. The last time that happened was 1893 when many historians, including Theodore Roosevelt, who later became president, declared that the frontier was closed. Now imagine that you are 45 years old, married with children, and living in one the small town that you grew up in, a town that most likely will be dead and gone decades before you are. Think that might make you a bit desperate?

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

David Housewright: He's losing faith. For seven books now he has been doing "favors" for friends because he believed he was helping to make the world a better place. Now he's not so sure. Now he's wondring if he's not making it worse.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

David Housewright: The first scene in the book when McKenzie is kidnapped by bounty hunters and transported to Libbie because he's helpless and he realizes fior the first time just how vulnerable he is.

5 - What's next?

David Housewright: My 11th book - and eighth in the McKenzie series - is nearly completed. I call it HIGHWAY 61 - or THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE - or SNAFU. Actually, I'd be curious to learn which title your readers like best.

Craig Johnson

2010-05-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Craig Johnson: JUNKYARD DOGS, with Viking, May 28th.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Craig Johnson: Sixth in the Walt Longmire series; I think it’s the most humorous book I’ve written yet. It deals with a lot of the more venal aspects of human nature in a small town in northern Wyoming.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Craig Johnson: Sheriff Walt Longmire’s most devastating weapon is his sense of humor.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Craig Johnson: Probably the scene where Walt tries to ascertain why a young couple has their grandfather tied to the back of a ’68 Olds Tornado with a hundred feet of nylon rope....

5 - What's next?

Craig Johnson: HELL IS EMPTY is an analogy for Dante’s Inferno. It takes place mostly in the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area, where a group of convicts has escaped from a private transport company and Walt is the only one there to go after them.

Lila Dare

2010-05-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Lila Dare: My latest book is the first in the Southern Beauty Shop series from Berkley Prime Crime, TRESSED TO KILL.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Lila Dare: You should read it because it's funny, warm-hearted, and well-plotted, sort of a Steel Magnolias with dead bodies. Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review and Romantic Times blessed it with 4 1/2 stars.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Lila Dare: Grace knows she's a little gun-shy about men because her marriage ended badly--her hubby cheated on her almost from the moment they walked down the aisle. What she doesn't know (and I just realized) is how strong she is, how capable of being happy on her own.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Lila Dare: That's a hard one. If I only get one, I'll say the scene where Grace (the protagonist) meets Special Agent John Dillon of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. There's a lot of tension, humor and chemistry that I hope will carry through the next several books in the series.

5 - What's next?

Lila Dare: Next up is my PI novel set in Colorado Springs, SWIFT JUSTICE, which comes out from St. Martin's Minotaur in October under my real name, Laura DiSilverio. Think of it as a cross between Remington Steel and The Odd Couple, a female buddy series. Next up in the Southern Beauty Shop series is POLISHED OFF, due out in Feb 2011.

Gabriel Cohen

2010-05-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Gabriel Cohen: It's a crime novel called THE NINTH STEP, the fourth in my series from Minotaur Books/St. Martin's Press. They're set in Brooklyn, NY and feature NYPD homicide detective Jack Leightner.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Gabriel Cohen: Aside from the fact that I hope it tells a pretty exciting fictional tale about crime in present-day New York, the book incorporates a number of true historical events, including the most amazing story I've come across in 25 years of freelance writing: the story of how a munitions ship caught fire and almost blew up in New York harbor during WWII. If it had gone up, it might have led to the greatest disaster in human history (the shock wave would have taken out a number of towns along the Jersey shore, the northern tip of Staten Island, and the southern end of Manhattan). The only thing that saved the entire area was the incredible bravery of a little band oflocal firefighters and Coast Guardsmen.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Gabriel Cohen: I like the idea of main characters who change and discover new things about themselves over the course of a series of books, rather than staying exactly the same from book to book. (I was inspired early in my career by how the main character changes in Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder novels.)

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Gabriel Cohen: I'm partial to the first scene, in which a stranger shows up while Jack is at home enjoying breakfast on a day off and tells him something which totally changes his view of the most significant event in his childhood.

5 - What's next?

Gabriel Cohen: I'm writing a new novel, and also working on an essay about another true and very personal story: five years ago, I unwittingly moved into a Brooklyn apartment where an actual homicide had taken place just seven months before: my landlord murdered his wife. That apartment, believe it or not, is where I wrote THE NINTH STEP.

Deborah Coonts

2010-05-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Deborah Coonts: WANNA GET LUCKY?, on sale May 11th.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Deborah Coonts: Life being what it is these days, everyone needs a good laugh.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Deborah Coonts: That not only does she think like me, laugh like me, she even talks like me. Of course she is taller, prettier and can throw off funny lines that it takes me months to dream up.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Deborah Coonts: The first scene in Chapter 4 where the reader meets Teddie. He is my main character, Lucky's, best friend, and Las Vegas' foremost female impersonator--and he's also straight, which makes for an interesting paradox. When we meet him, he is just coming in from a night on the town, still in costume and he stops at Lucky's apartment to awaken her for the day. I like the scene because it exemplifies Lucky's non-judgemental nature and her ability to look beyond the surface to find and appreciate the person inside.

5 - What's next?

Deborah Coonts: Book 2 in the series, LUCKY STIFF, slated for a Feb 2011 release. All the main characters return. It's fight weekend in Vegas when pieces of a former rather unsavory oddsmaker are found in the shark tank at Mandalay Bay. The District Attorney pushes for a pick indictment against a friend of Lucky's, drawing her into the investigation. To complicate matters, the current reigning Hollywood hunk shows up needing Lucky's help with a matter that threatens to implode his career. Lucky's mother gains national media attention when she auctions a woman's virginity from her whorehouse in Pahrump and then expects Lucky to save her from the fire. And a handsome French chef proves to be a handful at work and a romantic complication Lucky doesn't need.

Stefanie Pintoff

2010-05-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Stefanie Pintoff : A CURTAIN FALLS came out from Minotaur Books on May 12th – the same day the paperback of my debut novel, IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM, was released.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Stefanie Pintoff : A CURTAIN FALLS is a fast-paced read that will take you to an era of New York City history -- the early days of the burgeoning Broadway theater -- that is at once accessible and yet unfamiliar. And, it features Detective Simon Ziele, a protagonist with a dark streak, well-suited to adapting early modern forensic techniques to traditional detective methods to solve the most baffling crimes of the day. In this case, he must track down the serial killer who is stalking actresses of the Great White Way in 1906 New York City.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Stefanie Pintoff : Ziele matures a great deal in this book; both personally and professionally, he comes into his own.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Stefanie Pintoff : Ziele encounters a person from his past - someone he hasn’t seen in over 10 years – which forces him to confront emotions he has buried deep inside of him.

5 - What's next?

Stefanie Pintoff : I'm just finishing the third in the series – which takes Detective Ziele into a New York City underworld filled with hidden ciphers, secret societies, and anarchist plots.

Peter Abrahams

2010-05-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Peter Abrahams: THEREBY HANGS A TAIL, under my pen name Spencer Quinn. It's #2 in the Chetand Bernie series. DOG ON IT was the first.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Peter Abrahams: For pleasure.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Peter Abrahams: This question is too hard.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Peter Abrahams: That's up to the reader to decide.

5 - What's next?

Peter Abrahams: I'm working on book #3 in the series. (THEREBY HANGS A TAIL, based on just a partial week of sales, will debut at #25 on the NYT extended list 1/24.) My new YA suspense novel (under Peter Abrahams), BULLET POINT,came out in April (Harper Teen).

Joanna Campbell Slan

2010-05-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Joanna Campbell Slan: PHOTO, SNAP, SHOT

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Joanna Campbell Slan: Publisher's Weekly called it, "a cut above the usual craft-themed cozy." I tackle big issues like hatred and prejudice while providing an enjoyable read. You know, when people are laughing, they let down their defenses. It's a great opportunity to consider tough topics. Literary Journal mentioned the book in a recent article touting cozy classics.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Joanna Campbell Slan: Oh, trust me, I recognized early on that angst and humor are roommates. I used to work as a humorist, a motivational speaker who uses laughter to deliver tough messages. My character provides a lot of laughs, but at the heart of the book are plenty of important questions.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Joanna Campbell Slan: When my protagonist Kiki attends a meeting of white supremists, she realizes she's surrounded by people who would want her daughter dead...just on principle. It's a powerful and compelling moment when we all recognize how totally irrational extremist thinking is.

5 - What's next?

Joanna Campbell Slan: MAKE, TAKE, MURDER is in the hands of my publisher, and it will be released in April 2011. Again, I tackle a tough topic: Domestic Abuse. I even look at how it starts early when young women don't expect the guys in their lives to treat them with respect.

Earlene Fowler

2010-05-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Earlene Fowler: State Fair

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Earlene Fowler: Because everyone loves the fair, even when someone is murdered.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character> that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Earlene Fowler: She wishes she had brown eyes.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Earlene Fowler: Whenever she gets to eat some crazy deep fried food, like pickles or Oreos. Because I like writing and reading about junk food.

5 - What's next?
Earlene Fowler: Spider Web (No actual spiders are involved...not even fried ones)

Ken Kuhlken

2010-04-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Ken Kuhlken: THE BIGGEST LIAR IN LOS ANGELES.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Ken Kuhlken: To be delighted by a gripping story and learn who was responsible for the upcoming World War III.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Ken Kuhlken: He’s obsessed with redeeming the damage his mother has done.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Ken Kuhlken: Aimee Semple McPherson preaching to a parrot, because I’m a fan of comic relief.

5 - What's next?

Ken Kuhlken: 1935, Tom Hickey’s search for his long-gone father leads him to authors B. Traven and Ambrose Bierce and gunslingers Pancho Villa and the Sundance Kid.

Tom Lowe

2010-04-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Tom Lowe: THE 24TH LETTER

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Tom Lowe: You'll be entertained. If you you enjoy a face-paced mystery/thriller, THE 24TH LETTER is the type of novel that grabs the readers and engages them for the 84 hours in which the story happens.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Tom Lowe: The main character is Sean O'Brien. Since I have written four books in this series (two published), I'm aware of much of his persona. However, in THE BLACK BULLET, a side of O'Brien is reveled that I didn't know existed.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Tom Lowe: There are many scenes in THE 24TH LETTER that I find in the favorite category. One of the chapters I really enjoy is when O'Brien discovers the connection between the killer and something in the Bible.

5 - What's next?

Tom Lowe: I've finished THE BLACK BULLET and THE BUTTERFLY FOREST. My new agent is trying to decide what's next. Maybe he'll flip a coin.

Thomas Perry

2010-04-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Thomas Perry: My latest is a stand-alone suspense novel called "Strip," which will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on May 13, 2010.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Thomas Perry: I would say that you should read "Strip" because you've never read anything like it before. It's an original story about the final week in power of a minor criminal boss in contemporary Los Angeles. It includes the unique stories of a number of other characters which overlap with his story. Parts of it are funny, others exciting, and others moving. It's very fast-paced, and the complex stories mesh with extraordinary efficiency. It's beginning to build some buzz among booksellers, who have already received their advance copies, and so far it's received starred reviews in Publishers' Weekly and Library Journal. No bad reactions yet that I know of.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Thomas Perry: One thing that's unusual that I hadn't thought about much is the fact that while Claudiu "Manco" Kapak, the old gangster and club owner, is at the center of the story, there are about nine characters who are described, followed, and studied as though they were the "main" character. For the time when each is on stage, we see him as he sees himself--the center of the universe.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Thomas Perry: I have a lot of favorite scenes in this book, but I'll pick one. Early in the book "Manco" Kapak is confronted by Joe Carver, the man he's been hunting because he suspects Carver is the masked man who robbed him while he was making a night deposit at his bank. Carver has come to Kapak's house to tell him he's innocent. But he has broken in while Kapak is in the shower. They have their conversation, and Carver goes out a window and leaves through the back yard. Kapak, still naked, but seeing his chance to settle things, runs to his bedroom for his pistol, and fires at Carver's back as Carver disappears among some bamboo plants. Kapak was in a hurry, so he's fired through the tall bedroom window without opening it. Now, as he watches, the glass comes apart in sheets, falls to the floor, and shatters into thousands of tiny particles that pepper his naked body from his forehead to his toes. He spends the next chapter in the police station talking to a police lieutenant while trying to hide the fact that he is in desperate discomfort from the ground glass on the most sensitive surfaces of his body. The combination of his extraordinary self-control and the ridiculous nature of his self-inflicted injury make me laugh. It also signals to the reader that this is going to be a hard week for Kapak.

5 - What's next?

Thomas Perry: What's next is the third novel in the sequence that began with The Butcher's Boy and was followed ten years later by Sleeping Dogs. The new book picks up the stories of the long-retired professional killer, who lives in England as Michael Schaeffer, and the Justice Departmentemployee Elizabeth Waring, who first discovered his existence twenty years earlier.

Laura Childs

2010-04-21T06:41:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Laura Childs: My latest book is THE TEABERRY STRANGLER, the 11th book in the Tea Shop Mystery Series.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Laura Childs: Pick up THE TEABERRY STRANGLER because it's fun and soothing like a cozy mystery, but has the pacing of a thriller (so a thrillzy!) It also made it onto the New York Times Bestseller List - very unusual for a cozy.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Laura Childs: My main character, Theodosia, gave up a stressful job in marketing to run the Indigo Tea Shop. I didn't set out to give her my background and engineer a major career shift, but it's awfully darn close to what I ended up doing!

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Laura Childs: My favorite scene is the big, crazy ending where a rather proper Theodosia gets into a knock down-drag out fight with the bad guy!

5 - What's next?

Laura Childs: Next up is SCONES & BONES. Theodosia introduces the new culinary trend of tea and cheese - but with a bizarre murder, raft of suspects, and bungled investigation, something smells funny, and it's not just the Gorgonzola!

Denise Mina

2010-04-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Denise Mina: STILL MIDNIGHT.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Denise Mina: Well, it's short. It's a police procedural, there are lots of twists, some blood spilled, and a giant pile of money and a family blown apart. Hurrah!

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Denise Mina: She's tall. Being a short arse myself I always assume everyone else is looking up perpetually but actually, I think she's a giant five foot eight.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Denise Mina: Favorite scene is when one of the gangsters gets out of the car to avoid having to listen to the other one rant about his ex wife. He finds himself near to a woman he adores and goes and leans on the wall of the building she is in, revelling in his proximity. I felt that stone of the wall on my back when I wrote it.

5 - What's next?

Denise Mina: A second Alex Morrow book called 'The End of the Wasp Season' about the social earthquake that came from the financial crash.

Rhys Bowen

2010-04-15T11:00:00.001-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Rhys Bowen: THE LAST ILLUSION, the 9th Molly Murphy mystery. Molly witnesses a horrible illusion gone wrong, meets Houdini and is hired to find out who is trying to kill him.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Rhys Bowen: All of my Molly Murphy books give a fascinating glimpse into life at the turn of the century. This one features Houdini, the world of illusionists and international espionage. It's a fast paced read. One review said, "You won't breathe until you've finished it."

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Rhys Bowen: I know my main character pretty well, after nine books. She is brave, headstrong, not always prudent, wants to be independent and make her own mark in society, which is not easy for a woman of her time, but also wants security and to be loved. Hence her constant dilemma.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Rhys Bowen: I have to say I enjoyed writing about a lady really being sawn in half. Not that I am gruesome but I've been labeled a "oozy" writer for so long that it was fun to write a really shocking opening scene.

5 - What's next?

Rhys Bowen: I'm just finishing the next Molly book--set in New York's Chinatown. Again fascinating research. And my next Royal Spyness book, featuring Lady Georgiana, 34th in line to the throne but penniless, comes out in September. It's called ROYAL BLOOD.

Jane Cleland

2010-04-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Jane Cleland: SILENT AUCTION, out in mid-April.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Jane Cleland: Josie Prescott, the protagonist, uses her knowledge of antiques to solve the crime; it’s smart and interesting.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Jane Cleland: Josie knows the questions to ask. This book features info about scrimshaw; she didn’t know a lot about it, so she learned.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Jane Cleland: When she visits a scrimshander in his studio, complete with waterfall, perched in the gorgeous New Hampshire fall foliage. I also like the ending… the last few chapters… sweet things happen.

5 - What's next?

Jane Cleland: I’m working on the 6th in the series—DEADLY APPRAISAL. The pivotal antique is vintage clothing.

Brian Freeman

2010-04-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Brian Freeman: My fifth novel THE BURYING PLACE arrives in U.S. stores on April 13. The paperback of my last book, IN THE DARK, was just released on March 30. Check out all of my books at my all-new web site,www.bfreemanbooks.com.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Brian Freeman: Both THE BURYING PLACE and IN THE DARK are exactly what I want to achieve in psychological suspense: deep characters whose emotions andsecrets drive the intense drama. Read them because you can't put them down and you have to get to the final twists -- but keep them on your shelf and pick them up again because you want to re-experience the characters.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Brian Freeman: Jonathan Stride makes a lot of mistakes...some in his personal life, some in his professional life. Then again, that's what makes him human, and I think that's why readers relate to him.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Brian Freeman: The last chapter of IN THE DARK may be my favorite scene in any of my books. It gets me every time.

5 - What's next?

Brian Freeman: My sixth book is done -- a stand-alone in the same psychological suspense style, set in Door County, Wisconsin. Stay tuned!

Sandra Balzo

2010-04-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Sandra Balzo: FROM THE GROUNDS UP, which came out March 1.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Sandra Balzo: My main character, Maggy Thorsen, has had her coffeehouse destroyed by a freak May snowstorm. She has to start over (you guessed it) from the grounds up. New location (a historical train station) and new partner (Sarah Kingston, the Brookhills real estate agent who give new meaning to "Don't partner with someone who's crazier than you are"). Never one to listen even when she's talking to herself, Maggy launches her new endeavor, only to find Sarah's nasty uncle squished under the wheels of a commuter train. It only gets worse from there. How could you NOT read it??

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Sandra Balzo: Maggy, apparently, is a masochist.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Sandra Balzo: Maggy's first meeting with Sarah's cousin Ronny. In contrast today-of-the-week panties, Ronny is all about decade-of-the-day. Today he's Mr. Rogers Meets West Side Story.

5 - What's next?

Sandra Balzo: A CUP OF JO is the sixth book in the Maggy Thorsen series and will be out in the US in September (June in the UK). THEN, the first book (RUNNING ON EMPTY) in a brand new series, which will alternate with the Maggys. I'm pumped!!

Linwood Barclay

2010-04-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Linwood Barclay: NEVER LOOK AWAY

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Linwood Barclay: It will help me with my mortgage payments. Also, everyone says it is my best book so far.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Linwood Barclay: He's too trusting. It gets him into some very big trouble.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Linwood Barclay: Can't tell you. The favorite scenes are all surprises and I can't give them away.

5 - What's next?

Linwood Barclay: Have one more rewrite to do of the book that will come out in 2011, tentatively titled CAN'T BE TRUE.

Dave Zeltserman

2010-03-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Dave Zeltserman: KILLER will be out in May, which is the third and final book of my "man out of prison" noir trilogy.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Dave Zeltserman: KILLER is quite a bit different than the first two in the series, SMALL CRIMES and PARIAH. It's a quieter book, more meditative, with a subtle mystery running through it, and a shocking conclusion. With its spare prose and tight, fast pacing, I think it's an absorbing crime read, as well as a fascinating character study.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Dave Zeltserman: That's a tough one. I lived and breathed the main character, Leonard March, for months while writing this book.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Dave Zeltserman: I can't tell you my favorite scenes, it would give too much of the book away. But one of the scenes I liked quite a bit was where Leonard plays hero and stops a liquor story robbery before it happens. I liked the way that scene plays out, how Leonard's action surprise him as much as they do the two punks, and the way it confuses the image of Leonard from despised hit man to hero.

5 - What's next?

Dave Zeltserman: THE CARETAKER OF LORNE FIELD is coming out this August. It's not crime fiction,
although it has a norish tone to it, and I think it's a book that's going to surprise any reader familiar with my crime fiction.

Karen E. Olson

2010-03-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Karen E. Olson: PRETTY IN INK, the second in the tattoo shop mystery series >>

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Karen E. Olson: PRETTY IN INK is all about drag queens and who's trying to kill them. Brett Kavanaugh, my tattoo shop owner/amateur sleuth, has a personal reason for getting involved and she finds herself in the middle of a possible terrorist plot as she maneuvers her way around the clues. The book is set in Vegas, which is so much fun and over the top.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Karen E. Olson: She's way too nosy but can't help herself.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Karen E. Olson: The first scene in the book, when Britney Brassieres gets hit with a wayward champagne cork and topples over on her six inch heels. Chaos ensues, and Brett matches wits with a responding cop, but not in the way you might think. It sets the scene for the entire book.

5 - What's next?

Karen E. Olson: The third in the series, DRIVEN TO INK, will be out in September. In that one, Brett discovers the body of a Dean Martin impersonator in her trunk.

Naomi Hirahara

2010-03-24T05:48:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Naomi Hirahara: BLOOD HINA, my fourth Mas Arai mystery, was available on March 2, 2010.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Naomi Hirahara: If you like tales of an everyman layered with history, you might enjoy Blood Hina.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Naomi Hirahara: More than being defined by his ethnicity or age, he's a regular bloke who wants a little more out of life.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Naomi Hirahara: One of the last action scenes, because I get a kick out of picturing an eightysomething man with a deadly weapon.

5 - What's next?

Naomi Hirahara: The fifth in the series. This time it's all about baseball. I hope that I can pull it off.

Lori Armstrong

2010-03-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

- What's your latest?

Lori Armstrong: My latest NO MERCY, the first book in the Mercy Gunderson series.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Lori Armstrong: Who doesn't love a kick-ass female character who can out shoot and out drink you?

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Lori Armstrong: That she'd probably rather shoot you than drink with you.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Lori Armstrong: The prologue, because it sets the tone for the book.

5 - What's next?

Lori Armstrong: Finishing up the second book in the series, MERCY KILL.

Clea Simon

2010-03-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Clea Simon: "Grey Matters," the second Dulcie Schwartz mystery, which comes out (in the US) in March. (It's been out in the UK since Dec.)

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Clea Simon: Because I adore Dulcie as a character? Oh, that's your next question. OK, because I use this sort-of-cozy, slightly paranormal to reexamine motive and the classic genre mystery problem of having a cast full of people who are hiding something and may be motivated to kill. How's that?

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Clea Simon: Well, that I'm really fond of her. Also, she's more naive than I realized originally. She's an academic and she is very smart, but she's a little dopey about people. She doesn't walk into danger. She's certainly not a "don't go in the basement" femme jep type of heroine. But she thinks that her intellect will help her out even when she needs something a little more concrete to go on.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Clea Simon: Possibly when she's interviewing one of the suspects - in the guise of doing an errand for her thesis advisor. She is talking with a crotchety book binder, a real artisan who has little use for the modern world, and she realizes that he's like some wild animal: fine in his own habitat, but a little scary.

5 - What's next?

Clea Simon: Dulcie #3! I have only the slightest idea of a plot as yet, but I do have a deadline. I'm also hoping to find a home for my tongue-in-cheek hardboiled mystery, my "pet noir," soon - but more on that if and when it happens.

Raffi Yessaran

2010-03-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

1 - What's your latest?

Raffi Yessaran: My latest novel is 2 IN THE HAT (Ballantine, April 13, 2010), the sequel to 8 IN THE BOX (Ballantine Paperback, March 23, 2010).

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Raffi Yessaran: Here's why you should read 2 IN THE HAT (and you might want to read 8 IN THE BOX first):

A serial killer the cops thought was long gone.

A good detective racing the clock to stop the murders.

A chilling and twisty thriller that will leave readers gasping.

A major spike in gang homicides has Boston on edge, leaving a growing body-count of bangers in its wake and the city’s police and DA’s office scrambling to catch up. Even the mayor’s Street Saviors taskforce of ex-cons, devoted to steering kids out of the thug life, are working overtime to stop the bloodshed. But who will stop the even greater threat that’s about to descend when a murderous psychopath steps out of the past?

Memories of the infamous Blood Bath Killer still loom large, especially for homicide detective Angel Alves, who helped bring down the multiple-murderer whose rampage shocked the city. So when a pair of students turn up bizarrely slain, Alves fears another serial killer is stalking Boston. A fear that becomes fact when his ex-partner, Wayne Mooney, recognizes the murders as the work of the Prom Night Killer—whose unsolved crimes have haunted Mooney for a decade. Now, with hands-on assistant DA Conrad Darget backing them, Alves and Mooney set out to stop grim history from repeating itself. But matching wits with a twisted mind is a dangerous game. Especially when there are no rules—and your allies may really be your enemies.

You should also read it because Robin Moore—author of The French Connection—says Raffi Yessayan is “the best prosecutor-turned-crime-writer to hit the streets since George V. Higgins and Scott Turow.”

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Raffi Yessaran: My main characters are Assistant District Attorney Conrad "Connie" Darget and Homicide Detective Angel Alves. Two men committed to making the streets of Boston safe. Although their jobs usually involve taking gangbangers off the street for their involvement in drug-related shootings, they now face the difficult task of trying to catch a serial killer who is terrorizing the city. In the process they learn that everyone is a suspect and no one can be trusted. I learned that the more complex the motivation, the more intriguing the character.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Raffi Yessaran: One of my favorite scenes is when ADA Connie Darget is trying to convince a concerned mother to let her teenage son testify against a gang member for a shooting. The mother's emotions run high as she fights with Connie to keep her son out of the investigation. She is concerned about his safety if he is seen as a snitch on the street. Ultimately, Connie convinces her that he can keep her son safe and that he can garner the support of the entire community to back her son against these thugs who are terrorizing the neighborhood. As the scene ends, Connie feels the pressure he has put on himself. Now he has to deliver on his promise.

5 - What's next?

Raffi Yessaran: My next project will be a sequel to the sequel. It will be the last installment of the trilogy. Who knows, maybe I'll even introduce another serial killer.

Lynne Heitman

2010-03-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

1 - What's your latest?

Lynne Heitman: My latest published work is "Exit Interview," which was included in the anthology Boston Noir, published last October by Akashic Books.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Lynne Heitman: Before Akashic asked for a submittal, I hadn't written a short story in over 10 years, not since a beginning writing class at the University of Washington. What I wrote then was definitely not for publication. I found novel writing soon after and that was the end of my short-story writing career. From that standpoint, "Exit Interview" is a departure. It's also my first published work in third person with a main character that is not Alex Shanahan. That might be why you the writer would be interested. You the reader might be interested in what one woman does after she gets passed over for a well-deserved promotion one too many times. She takes a particularly direct form of revenge against her insufferable boss, the downtown financial services firm they both work for, and the male gender in general.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Lynne Heitman: Sloan lives in a beautiful condo on Beacon Street with bay windows that look out over the Charles River and Cambridge, but she never opens the curtains.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Lynne Heitman: I had a fun time writing Sloan's rage and watching it explode all over the people who she believes did her wrong. I particularly liked writing the scene from her perspective where she killed her boss, and finding that one random detail that flipped her switch and turned a perfectly law-abiding(though tightly wound) woman into a murderer.

5 - What's next?

Lynne Heitman: Don't know. Maybe I'll try another short story.

SJ Rozan

2010-03-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

1 - What's your latest?

SJ Rozan: THE SHANGHAI MOON

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

SJ Rozan: It will take you through today's New York, World War II Shanghai, and a chapter in history (the story of the European Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai) that you probably didn't know existed.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

SJ Rozan: She -- Lydia Chin -- is beginning to mature, right before my eyes.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

SJ Rozan: The one where her cousin saves the day. More than that would be a spoiler, but it's my favorite because I totally didn't see it coming (and it cracks me up, but I'm easily entertained).

5 - What's next?

SJ Rozan: A Bill Smith thriller, where Lydia gets kidnapped by a madman and Bill has to save her by playing the madman's games.

Toni L.P. Kelner

2010-03-06T04:00:00.000-08:00

1 - What's your latest?

Toni L.P. Kelner: Who Killed the Pinup Queen?, the second "Where are they now?" mystery from Berkley Prime Crime.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Toni L.P. Kelner: It's got nearly naked women, cowboys, and murder. What more could you want in a mystery? And on a personal note, I need people to buy this book to buy for our guinea pigs. Pellets and hay don't come cheap--Patch and Spot are counting on you. (I could attach a photo of the two of them looking needy, but since guinea pigs pretty much just have the one expression, it wouldn't work very well.)

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Toni L.P. Kelner: I realized Tilda might ask this kind of question herself. She's a freelance entertainment reporter, and does lots of interviews.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Toni L.P. Kelner: In Pinup Queen? Probably the denoument, which I had a lot of fun with. Lots of suspense, or so I hope.

5 - What's next?

Toni L.P. Kelner: In March, I'll have a story in Carolyn Haines's anthology Delta Blues, from Tyrus Books, and in April, I'll have a story in the Charlaine Harris/MWA anthology Crimes by Moonlight. Plus Charlaine and I have our third co-edited anthology--Death's Excellent Vacation--in August.

Shelia Connelly

2010-03-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

1 - What's your latest?

Shelia Connelly: Red Delicious Death, #3 in the Orchard Mystery series, came out March 2.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Shelia Connelly: The Orchard Series focuses on a woman who was forced out of her Boston banking job and finds herself saddled with a creaky colonial farmhouse and an orchard she knows nothing about--plus the body of her ex-boyfriend in her back yard. She's learning fast, if only those bodies would stop showing up to complicate her life.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Shelia Connelly: That it's fun to throw unexpected things (like bodies--plural) at my heroine Meg Corey to see how she reacts. Why make her life easy?

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Shelia Connelly: Only one? I'm fond of the final scene in Rotten to the Core (August 2009), when Meg and her maybe-current-boyfriend come home, having solved the most recent murder and wrapped up all the loose ends nicely with an excellent dinner, hoping for...well, you can guess--and they are surprised to find her mother waiting on the doorstep.

5 - What's next?

Shelia Connelly: A new series from Berkley Prime Crime, about a fundraiser who works in a Philadelphia museum (she finds not only a body but a multi-million-dollar theft--and you thought fundraisers led boring lives). Look for the Museum Series in Fall 2010.

Hallie Ephron

2010-02-27T07:17:00.000-08:00

1 - What's your latest?

Hallie Ephron: NEVER TELL A LIE - the paperback edition is just out from HARPER. It tells the story of how expectant mother Ivy Rose's life is upended when an old acquaintance (also very pregnant) turns up at her garage sale, enters the Roses' house on the arm of Ivy's husband, and disappears.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Hallie Ephron: Because it'll give you the most visceral impression of what it's like to be 9 months pregnant...how can you resist? Also it'll keep you up nights.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Hallie Ephron: The book really is about the thing that so many women care most about-protecting the people we love.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Hallie Ephron: A favorite scene is when Ivy looks out onto the street from her kitchen window. Earlier, she and her husband David put an ancient wicker trunk out for garbage pickup. She can see that the lid of the trunk is open and someone is out there, picking through its contents. The person drops the lid and, in the flash of passing headlights, Ivy sees that it's a woman that, for a moment at least, looks exactly like Ivy. Why do I like it? Because it's unsettling without a hint of violence.

5 - What's next?

Hallie Ephron: I'm working on the final draft of a novel about a recluse, a woman who spends most of her hours in virtual on-line worlds. Her sister disappears, and the only way Diana can get up the courage to go out into the world is to dress up like her avatar. Working title: COME AND FIND ME.

JT Ellison

2010-02-24T05:47:00.000-08:00

1 - What's your latest?

JT Ellison: THE COLD ROOM, February 23, 2010!

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

JT Ellison: It’s an examination of the social mores that exist between….. naw, I’m just kidding. It’s a thriller. It’s thrilling. It’s the fourth book in the Taylor Jackson series, and explores some rather unsavory characters.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

JT Ellison: That I should know my character inside and out, yet she has a way of surprising me. Turns out her secret wish is to be short. Just for a day. Just to see what it would be like to be little and demure.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

JT Ellison: THE COLD ROOM was the most difficult book I’ve ever written, full of research into the dark nooks and crannies of necrophilia. My favorite scene would have to be the opening. When I wrote it, it creeped me out so much that I couldn’t come back to the manuscript for four days.

5 - What's next?

JT Ellison: THE IMMORTALS, in October 2010. This book takes Taylor into a whole new world – the secret underground movement of Nashville’s Goths and Wiccans, and delves a little further into John Baldwin’s background. A lot of fun!

Dana Cameron

2010-02-21T06:26:00.000-08:00

1 - What's your latest?

Dana Cameron: My latest is a short story, "Femme Sole," which came out in BOSTON NOIR (ed. Dennis Lehane) in October.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Dana Cameron: It's "colonial noir," set in 1740s Boston. It makes me crazy when people romanticize and idealize the past, so I wanted to show the grittier side of 18th-century Massachusetts.

3 - What can you tell us about your main character that you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Dana Cameron: One thing that has surprised me is the response to Anna Hoyt, the main character. The story's been very well received, and Anna's clearly struck a nerve. I never thought of her as angry, just as someone doing her best to survive in an untenable situation.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Dana Cameron: There are a couple, and I can't tell you, because they'd give too much away! But there is one scene at the end, where Anna has to make one final decision to survive or die on her own terms, and I was pleased with that moment.

5 - What's next?

Dana Cameron: Another historical short story--totally different! "Swing Shift" is set in 1940s Boston, and features my "Fangborn" characters (introduced in"The Night Things Changed," in Harris and Kelner's WOLFSBANE ANDMISTLETOE). I had fun adding werewolves and vampires to the mix of espionage, the Boston jazz scene, and nascent computer technology. That will appear in the MWA anthology CRIMES BY MOONLIGHT this April.

Charles Ardai

2010-02-18T04:58:00.000-08:00

1 - What's your latest?

Charles Ardai: My most recent novel is HUNT THROUGH THE CRADLE OF FEAR (published as "by Gabriel Hunt, as told to Charles Ardai").

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Charles Ardai: It's a better Indiana Jones movie than the last one that appeared in theaters.

3 - What can you tell us about your main characterthat you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Charles Ardai: That my credited co-author, Gabriel Hunt, is in fact a fictional character. No wonder he never showed up for meetings!

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Charles Ardai: Oh, there are so many scenes I love in this book...like "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the whole point is to have an adventure story made up of just the "good parts." But maybe the scene I like best is the one where Gabriel is racing away from the Pyramids in Egypt on the back of a camel while pursued from behind by men in trucks and suddenly his escape route is blocked when a helicopter rises up in his path. But the he discovers--- Ah, but I can't tell you what he discovers. You just have to read it and find out.

5 - What's next?

Charles Ardai: Next for me is a change of pace: I'm working on the new TV series "Haven" for SyFy in a writing and producing capacity. Lots of fun. But there will be another novel sometime, I promise...

Mary-Ann Tirone Smith

2010-02-15T07:41:00.000-08:00

1 - What's your latest?

Mary-Ann Tirone Smith: My latest is a collaboration with my son, Jere Smith: DIRTY WATER: A RED SOX MYSTERY.

2 - Assuming I haven't read it, why should I?

Mary-Ann Tirone Smith: You should read it because A. It's good; B. It's the 2007 team meaning it has a delirious ending. (Incredibly, my son and I started writing that book at the beginning of the 2007 season and we made a good choice.); and C. It's the first novel with a running BLOG!

3 - What can you tell us about your main characterthat you hadn't realized until you answered the question?

Mary-Ann Tirone Smith: That would be Rocky Patel, Boston Homicide Detective 1st Grade, originally from the Gujerat. The thing he likes most about older women is their age.

4 - What's your favorite scene and why?

Mary-Ann Tirone Smith: My favorite scene is the climax--the wild and violent shoot-em-up that every police procedural needs to have. It's my favorite because I was insecure about pulling it off and people keep telling me they loved it even though A-Rod doesn't get shot.

5 - What's next?

Mary-Ann Tirone Smith: As an American writer who has written ten books, it was time to take a shot at a Civil War novel. That's what I'm doing.