Alan Jacobson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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).