Top Suspense Group

Announcing Favorite Kills from Top Suspense

2012-01-09T07:29:00.001-08:00

In our second anthology, FAVORITE KILLS, we've collected our very best short stories. All major prize winning tales and personal favorites, each one a knock-out punch of suspense.

FAVORITE KILLS will be released as an ebook for the Kindle and Nook on March 15th, but we're providing a limited number of review copies now.

The Caretaker of Lorne Field now in paperback!

2011-10-21T11:43:00.001-07:00

The Caretaker of Lore Field was short listed by the American Library Association as one of the best horror novels of 2010 and was a Black Quill nominee for best dark genre book of the year. The book has garnered 1000s of devoted fans and received dozens of rave reviews, including a starred review from Publisher's Weekly calling it a "Superb mix of humor and horror" and Newsday calling it a "Delicious horror-ish novel". Now that it's in paperback, Aukowies have never been cheaper or more plentiful. If you haven't already, isn't it about time that you discover this modern horror masterpiece for yourself?

INSIDE TOP SUSPENSE: Clichés -- Love 'em or Leave 'em?

2011-10-20T01:00:00.000-07:00

Today INSIDE TOP SUSPENSE talks about clichés. Are they okay sometimes? For example, in dialogue? Or are they the result of lazy writing? Can you live with one or two, or should you root them out? Here’s what we think.

LIBBY: When I began writing my prose was full of clichés. I actually sought them out. I mean, clichés are ideas that everyone understands and can relate to, right? We live in a world of them, particularly on TV and radio. So why not incorporate them into my writing so that readers will really “get” what I’m trying to say?

It took my writing group months to pound it into my head that wasn’t the case. Since then, in fact, I've learned clichés have the opposite effect. But it’s subtle. Instead of bringing the reader closer to an understanding of a situation or character, clichés – because they’re so widely used – tend to deaden emotion and distance us from what we’re reading. Clichés also reinforce stereotypes and stereotypical behavior. How many times can someone be “over the top” or “red as a beet” before we yawn and lose interest?

Now I try to root them out in every paragraph. But it’s tough… even after 15 years, those little buggers still pop up.

MAX: Cliches can be a conundrum, because whether a phrase or a plot turn, every cliche bears an element of truth at its core...repetition of a seeming truth is the diamond that becomes coal, over time.

In terms of phrases, clichés should be rooted out because of their over-use and the laziness they imply on the part of the writer. A trickier question is whether to root them out of dialogue, or even a first-person narrative, since the character you're writing about might quite naturally use a cliché in speech or, for that matter, when writing a memoir...after all, our first-person characters aren't often intended to be professional writers, simply somebody with a story to tell. Sometimes avoiding the cliché in dialogue or first-person narrative screws up the tone and/or betrays the characterization. It's tricky.

A clichéd scene often grows out of the conventions of genre storytelling. Conventions, unlike clichés, are often unavoidable. In crime fiction, particularly the traditional variety I prefer, conventions are part of the fabric and even of the fun. The rogue cop is going to get called into his superior's office for a bawling out. A private eye is going to have a client walk into his office, and that client may be a beautiful woman...or the female P.I. may have a handsome male client walk into her office. The latter is at least an attempt to turn the convention on its head, and that's how you avoid a clichéd treatment of a scene that is inherently conventional. In other words, treat the conventional scene in at least a somewhat unconventional way. In some cases, it's as easy as providing an interesting location. Maybe the P.I. meets the prospective client, at that client's request, in some unusual location -- even a bar or the client's home is better than the office approach. Maybe the rogue cop gets bawled out by his superior on an answer machine, and the cop says, "Blah blah blah," and fast-forwards/erases it. Again, could be a change of location -- the police shooting range, maybe, or the break room where the superior sits down and seems to be having a little friendly breaking of the bread before he hands the rogue cop his ass or his badge.

You can always try acknowledging the cliché. In one of my stories (I don't remember which), I wrote something to the effect of, "Sooner or later, when you're a private eye, a beautiful client is going to walk into your office and there's nothing you can do about it." On the other hand, my mentor at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, the great mainstream writer Richard Yates, pointed out to that when I wrote "he broke the bottle off on the counter of the bar like a tough guy in a B movie," that didn't make it any less like a B movie. Too much self-awareness can make a writer too cute, and frankly that's at least as bad as being clichéd.

DAVE: In Jim Thompson's classic noir novel, The Killer Inside Me, Lou Ford uses clichés to strike at people and to make them squirm and fidget. 'It's not the heat, it's humidity.' 'Another thing about the weather. Everyone talks about it, but no one does anything.' 'Every cloud has a silver lining.' And so on and so on, until the poor hapless sap he's needling is dying to get away from him. That's the thing with clichés--whether it's in our plots, characters, or writing, they're annoying as hell. So as writers how do we avoid them? Vigilance. It's so easy to naturally fall into clichéd writing if you're not looking for it, and the only way to keep them out of our writing is to be always looking for them, especially when you're proofing your work.

BILL: Clichés are a dime a dozen, and a try to avoid them like the plague. When I was asked how to do that, I knew I had to think of something good. So I put my shoulder to the wheel, my nose to the grindstone, and my ear to the ground. (There are times when that semester I spent in contortionist school really comes in handy.) Here’s what I came up with.

If you’re going to avoid clichés, you have to know what they are. That requires reading books and watching movies. After a while, you learn that it’s really nothing new to have the villain tie up the protagonist and say, “I am going to set this bomb to explode in one hour, and then I’ll be leaving you. First, however, I’m going to explain to you in detail my entire fiendish scheme.”

While you’re watching movies, you’ll learn that some clichés are purely visual and won’t work too well when you’re writing a book. For example, it’s not nearly as exciting to write about how your protagonist avoided being killed by the explosion of a ten megaton bomb by running really fast and jumping really high at just the right moment. Looks cool on film, though.

Some clichés are just too good to give up. Like the psycho sidekick in the private-eye novel. Did Robert B. Parker create that one with Hawk? Plenty of people since then have given their detectives psycho sidekicks, and with great success. You probably know who I’m talking about.

By now you know what I’m talking about. You probably did from the very first. If something comes up again and again in the books you read and the movies you watch, you don’t want to do that thing. You want something new and fresh and different. And if you can’t think of anything, just do what I do. I explain that I don’t use clichés, that I’m merely sticking with the “respected conventions of the genre” or “presenting a respectful homage to some of the finest writers in the field.” It works like a charm.

Your turn now. What do you think about clichés?

TOXICITY -- my new thriller

2011-10-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

The reviews are coming in, and they're pretty darned good.

J. Carson Black,best-selling author of THE SHOP and DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN, says:

"Libby Fischer Hellmann’s thriller TOXICITY is as gritty as it is spellbinding. Populated with fully-realized characters, TOXICITY introduces us to Hellmann’s signature heroine, Georgia Davis. But we meet Georgia ten years earlier, when she is a young and determined rookie on a Chicago police force. In Georgia’s debut, we see her tenacity and strength, but also her vulnerability: the seeds sown for the woman she will become. TOXICITY works on all levels, drawing the reader inexorably into a web of deceit, heart-crushing loss, and righteous fury. This wicked brew explodes in a stunning and satisfying conclusion that answers every question. Hellmann pulls no punches."

Other reviews:

"I wasn't sure what to expect, but was blown away once I began reading. The author's style is fast paced and exciting. I literally couldn't put the book down....Think CSI meets Erin Brockovich. Combine that with excellent writing and you have a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat."

"TOXICITY is an engaging story that will haunt you on many levels. The characters are developed; the reader becomes invested. I found myself furious with every character at one time or another while reading this book which just goes to show how well written this story is."

"Hellmann writes with the economy and emotional punch of classic crime novelists like Lawrence Block. And she has created a perpetrator who is complex, realistic and completely unexpected..."

You can find it here. And on Nook here. And on the other usual suspects as well.

A Killer's Essence is now available

2011-09-27T07:54:00.001-07:00

A Killer's Essence is now in stock and shipping from Amazon and BN.com, and should be showing up soon at your local bookstores. You can read the first chapter here (it's a short one) or send me email for either a Nook or Kindle file.

"a memorable winner" Boston Globe

“Detective Green is a believable character, down on his luck with little going for him but his job. Nonetheless, he meanders through life, precariously balancing all its myriad and conflicting facets, and coming out on top in this chilling page-turner attuned to the most discerning of avid crime lovers. Well written and well paced. Recommended.” New York Journal of Books

"Last night I finished the best crime novel I have read in the last year -- an advance reading copy of Dave Zeltserman's book A Killer's Essence, which will be published by Overlook Press in September. The story line was superb as well as the characters . . . [Zeltserman] nailed the atmosphere of New York City and Brooklyn. There is no question that our customers will love this book. And there is no question that I want a copy for my collection, when this comes out." --Dave Kanell, co-owner Kingdom Books in Vermont

"Zeltserman’s signature creepiness is available here and there, but what really drives this novel is the engaging portrait of an honest, hardworking cop who, on the job and off, gives the best he’s got, knowing how rarely it will be enough." Kirkus Reviews

"A scary, keep-you-guessing thriller not to be missed." Elliott Swanson, Booklist

"This mix of police procedural, noir, spec lit, and domestic character study is entertaining and expertly plotted. Set against the backdrop of the 2004 ALCS, and the collapse of the Yankees against the Red Sox, New York City police detective Stan Greene investigates a brutal series of random murders while juggling (and dropping) the pieces of his personal life. Oh, and there’s a witness, a veritable shut-in who might be able to help despite his neurological damage and his demonic hallucinations. Like all of Dave’s novels, A KILLER’S ESSENCE is tightly plotted storytelling featuring realistically flawed and memorable characters." Paul Tremblay

The odds are...

2011-09-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

The odds are if you find a list of recommended contemporary noir you're going to find a Top Suspense author on it. In this case, you're going to find 2 of us.

Top Suspense congratulates Max Allan Collins

2011-09-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

Top Suspense congratulates Max Allan Collins, whose 'True Detective' is right now the #1 bestselling book at Amazon's Kindle store.

TRUE DETECTIVE

2011-09-21T05:56:00.001-07:00

The first book in my Nathan Heller series of historical thrillers is on sale today for 99 cents on Kindle. Right here:

http://www.amazon.com/True-Detective-Nate-Heller-ebook/dp/B0054LXWYQ/ref=kdd_page_title?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=012YBE0VQ39BP38VBQZ3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1318527842&pf_rd_i=3059207011

TRUE DETECTIVE won the Shamus from the Private Eye Writers of America for Best Novel in 1984. It follows Nate Heller, a young ex cop trying to make it as a PI in big, corrupt Chicago in the early '30s. Heller gets involved in the assassination of Mayor Cermak by Frank Nitti, and along the way meets Capone, "Dutch" Reagan, and George Raft, as well as several lovely damsels in and of distress (and "dis dress"). It's been called a modern classic and this is a good way to get a look at a much-acclaimed, well-reviewed series.

Amazon is making the first twelve Hellers available in trade paperback as well as on Kindle with two new short story collections -- everything is available now, except one of the collections (TRIPLE PLAY) which comes out next year. The other collection, CHICAGO LIGHTNING, is out right now.

And the first Heller novel in almost a decade, BYE BYE, BABY -- which has an older Nate looking into Marilyn Monroe's mysterious death -- has just been published by Forge simultaneously with a Brilliance audio (all of the Hellers that Amazon is publishing will be available as Brilliance audios...several are already out, and the reader is excellent).

I rate the Nathan Heller series as my best work, and my most famous work (ROAD TO PERDITION) was a spin-off of that work. This is a nice opportunity to check it out.

Top Suspense and THE DEAD MAN

2011-09-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint has picked up THE DEAD MAN series, co-created by Top Suspense author Lee Goldberg, in a unique and exclusive 12-book digital & print deal ... with an option for more. But that's not all. Brilliance Audio will be also be rolling out their own editions of the books.

The five books that have already been published -- FACE OF EVIL, RING OF KNIVES, HELL IN HEAVEN, THE DEAD WOMAN, and THE BLOOD MESA -- will be re-released in the days leading up to Halloween ... so keep your eyes peeled for great offers.

The sixth book in the series will be released in November and will be followed each month by another new adventure in the continuing saga of Matt Cahill, a man resurrected from the dead to battle evil among us that only he can see.

Amazon will also be releasing three-book compilations of THE DEAD MAN series in trade paperback (as well as in specially priced digital editions). The release dates of the first compilation, and the Brilliance Audio editions, have not been determined yet ... but we’re hoping they'll be ready for Christmas.

Lee Goldberg and Bill Rabkin will continue to run the series, which they are writing with a terrific group of action, horror, mystery, SF and western authors, including Top Suspense authors Harry Shannon, Joel Goldman, and Bill Crider.

CLAN is Kindle Nation Book of the Day $2.99

2011-09-14T05:55:00.000-07:00

Harry Shannon. My suspense novel CLAN, a fun mix of thriller and horror, is $2.99 and Kindle Nation Book of the day today. You can read all about it and catch a sample here...

http://kindlenationdaily.com/2011/09/kindle-nation-bargain-book-alert-harry-shannons-clan-is-our-ebook-of-the-day-at-just-2-99-with-4-9-stars-on-18-reviews-and-heres-a-free-sample/

Inside Top Suspense: Your Favorite Character

2011-09-07T11:40:00.000-07:00

From Vicki Hendricks

Marvin Molar in Harry Crews’ novel The Gypsy’s Curse!

Marvin is physically handicapped, deaf and malformed. His tough voice captures the reader from page one. He’s not a complainer, despite the fact that he was dropped as an orphan in the doorway of the Fireman’s Gym as a child or that he’s deaf with legs described as tadpole-like, only three inches in circumference, lacking feeling. And, otherwise, he’s built! He walks and performs on his twenty-inch circumference arms and signs while standing on one hand. He is obsessed with his normal girlfriend, his downfall. Possibly the darkest of noir characters, although Crews is not considered a noir writer, Marvin is capable in the area of violence and can take care of himself, except when it comes to love.

The novel is out of print—like many of my favorites—and I can’t imagine Crews ever putting one of his novels on an e-reader (though the world would surely benefit) but luckily, The Gypsy’s Curse is still available in the paperback collection Classic Crews.

INSIDE TOP SUSPENSE: Your Favorite Character

2011-09-06T01:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome back, everyone. This week on INSIDE TOP SUSPENSE we’re talking about our Favorite Characters from a suspense, thriller, mystery, or horror novel. (Excluding our own.) Who’s yours? Why? What makes them so memorable? Hope you’ll join the conversation.

Harry Shannon starts us off:

I'm a fan of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee, John Connelly's Charlie Parker, Michael Connolly's Harry Bosch and several other series characters...But if I had to choose one favorite suspense hero, I guess it would have to be James Lee Burke's immortal Dave Robicheaux. From Black Cherry Blues and The Neon Rain all the way through to The Glass Rainbow, the series has held up beautifully. Robicheaux has lost a wife and numerous friends and lovers, been shot and stabbed and beaten and abandoned, gotten drunk and gotten sober. Through it all he's struggled to be dignified and compassionate, generally under the worst of circumstances. Hell, his wounded companion Clete Purcell is like another old friend, almost as real to me as the worn face in my bathroom mirror. As for Dave, he has become an old man now, one who still battles a horrendous temper, the urge to drink, and a wonderfully wrought, self destructive, deeply existential angst. He is an archetype and a contradiction in terms, a character who gives life to the phrase "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for a good man to do nothing."

Libby Hellmann says:

I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with my favorite characters. As Harry said, there are so many memorable ones. Steve Hamilton’s THE LOCK ARTIST turned the genre upside-down with his young, mute lock-picker, Michael. And I confess to a fondness for Bob Crais’ Joe Pike as well as Ree Dolly in Daniel Woodrell’s WINTER'S BONE. All of them are people of few words (Hmm, maybe there’s a pattern here?) but a strong sense of justice and loyalty.

But I keep coming back to two characters, both of whom I never tire: Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski and Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon. V.I. is the kind of person I want next to me in a fight. If we don’t win, we’ll have given it all we had. She can’t suffer injustice without needing to do something about it, and yet she’s savvy and experienced enough to pick her battles wisely. I trust her implicitly, knowing she’ll always have the right motivation for her actions. Gabriel Allon is more of an enigma. He has baggage, some of which we still don’t know, but that only adds to his allure. His skill set as an assassin is unparalleled, and yet he’d rather be an artist. The combination of brutal cunning and sensitivity is incredibly appealing.

Bill Crider adds: My favorite thriller character is any first-person narrator in an Alistair MacLean novel published before 1970. You might be thinking that’s a lot of different characters since MacLean didn’t write a series, but they way I see it, all his first-person narrators are the same guy, no matter when or where they might be. He (or they) is tougher than industrial leather, resourceful, able to go without sleep for days under conditions that would kill most people, and prone to make terrible blunders that get people killed. That last one might not seem very heroic, but anybody else in a similar situation would get hundreds more killed. If not thousands. He’s often handicapped by some injury or wound, he’s clever, and (this is important for a first-person narrator) he knows how to conceal important information from the reader without cheating too much. I read many of MacLean’s books well over 40 years ago. They thrilled me then, and they thrill me now, thanks to thanks to that wonderful character.

Dave Zeltseman says: "There are so many good choices for best thriller character, but I'm going with Hammett's Continental Op from Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, and 24 short stories. Hammett's nameless PI is tough, smart, resourceful, and also persistent as all hell. He might take a beating or two, but he's going to get his man (or dame) even if he's got to steal crutches from a cripple to do so!"

Lee Goldberg says: I can’t pick a favorite…but I can give you some favorites… Robert B. Parker’s Spenser (the early books, not the last 378 of’em), Richard S. Prather’s Shell Scott, Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe, Gregory McDonald’s Fletch, and Charles Willeford’s Hoke Moseley. What makes these characters so terrific is that that they all have distinct voices and attitudes, strong and often brilliantly flawed personalities that totally shape the stories that are being told, and how they are told, whether it’s in first person or third person. It’s their voices, as much as their characters, that stick with me. I may forget the mysteries, but I can’t forget these characters.

And now, Max Allan Collins: It may be cheating a little, since I am working with the Spillane estate to complete various novels from the late writer's files, but...Mike Hammer is by far my favorite of the thriller heroes. The toughest of all P.I.s, Hammer was a post-war sensation who established a new threshold of violent response -- and sexual responsiveness -- for fictional protagonists. His vengeance-prone ways inspired every tough private eye and rogue cop who followed, as did his active libido, and it's no wonder that James Bond was first marketed in the USA as the 'British Mike Hammer.' But it's not just Bond, it's everybody from Peter Gunn to Dirty Harry, from Shaft to Jack Bauer.

Ed Gorman also weighs in: I'm going to disappoint a lot of people by saying that my favorite thriller protagonist is Lew Archer. There's dumb tough and there's smart tough and Archer is of the latter variety. And by tough I also mean perceptive and obstinate in pursuit of the truth. He found real tragedy in the everyday and wrote as well about the poor as the rich. I prefer the early novels (before the 1970s) because there's more action and less NYC-crowd pleasing (all the critical praise seemed to soften the books). I don't believe any writer has challenged him as the great psychologist of my era or as a storyteller who came closest to equaling the fine psychological novels of Simenon. If, as his critics insisted, he wrote the same book over and over again, it's a book I never tire of reading."

TOXICITY -- my new thriller

2011-09-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

by Libby Hellmann

Hi, everyone. It's a new month, and I have a new e-book out! It's a police procedural/thriller and it turned out to be the prequel to my Georgia Davis PI series.
Here's the description:

Ten years before EASY INNOCENCE, PI Georgia Davis was a police officer on the force in a Chicago suburb. And while homicides are rare on the North Shore, three bodies turn up in quick succession—all of them dumped in waste disposal dumpsters or landfills. The investigations into the murders test the mettle and professionalism of a combined police task force. Along the way, they also test the strength of Georgia’s relationship with one of the detectives working the case. While Georgia, her detective boyfriend Matt, and his sometime partner John Stone pit their skills against those of an ingenious killer, the daughter of a real estate mogul-- who just happens to have her eye on Matt -- complicates matters. A dark police procedural and thriller, TOXICITY is a prequel to the Georgia Davis PI series (EASY INNOCENCE and DOUBLEBACK).

It just went up, but already there's a review, and it's pretty awesome. Of course, I had to let you know about one of the sentences: ((Be still, my heart....)

"Hellmann writes with the economy and emotional punch of classic crime novelists like Lawrence Block."

I hope you'll give it a look. You can find it on Amazon, on Nook, on Smashwords, and soon, hopefully all the others.

Have a great holiday, everyone.

Boston Globe: "a memorable winner"

2011-09-01T06:47:00.000-07:00

My latest book, A Killer's Essence, gets a terrific review in today's Boston Globe.

The New York Journal of Books also reviews A Killer's Essence today, saying in part:

A Killer’s Essence seems slow-paced but packs in a powerful wallop as it vacillates between hard-boiled crime fighting, the love of baseball, and the compulsion to repair broken relationships. Detective Green is a believable character, down on his luck with little going for him but his job. Nonetheless, he meanders through life, precariously balancing all its myriad and conflicting facets, and coming out on top in this chilling page-turner attuned to the most discerning of avid crime lovers. Well written and well paced. Recommended.

CLAN is out!

2011-08-22T19:35:00.000-07:00

CLAN by Harry Shannon $3.99 on Kindle, soon to be on Nook...

They have been among us for thousands of years. One mysterious gene they carry lies dormant—until they change. Joe Case is an ex-cop searching for the man who humiliated his sister. Kelly McCammon is a Hollywood executive running from the Russian mob. Destiny leads them to tiny Salt Lick, Nevada…A town under siege.

"CLAN is a thriller with a genuine bite. Once Harry Shannon gets his claws in you he will not let go! Highly recommended."
—Jonathan Maberry, New York Times Bestselling author of Patient Zero and Dust & Decay

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005IDKXDI/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_SfNuob0Z436WN

Mystery Scene Features "Flesh & Bones"

2011-08-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

Paul Levine here...

Today's Mystery Scene Blog features the e-book version of "Flesh & Bones" with a nice mention of my September hardcover, "Lassiter."

Many thanks to Oline Cogdill, the dean of mystery reviewers.

INSIDE TOP SUSPENSE: Writing the Bad Guy

2011-08-08T06:30:00.000-07:00

We’re baaack… and this week we’re talking about the Bad Guys. How do you write a Bad Guy who’s not cardboard, stereotypical, or boring? Our very own “bad guys” Bill Crider, Dave Zeltserman, Harry Shannon, and Paul Levine will tell you. But don’t let them stop you. Please join us with your two cents. (Of course they may have to kill you afterwards…)

Bill Crider here. Everybody likes to write the villains. I’m sure a good analyst could explain why better than I can. Anyway, for me there has to be something in even the worst villain that people like. Or maybe that’s the wrong word. “Recognize” might be better. Villains have to be as human as the other characters. They should also have reasons for what they do. I’m not a fan of the book that ends with the “he must have been crazy” explanation. And while Shakespeare can get away with attributing Iago’s misdeeds to “motiveless malignity,” I’d never try that one, not being quite in Shakespeare’s league. One more thing: The villain has to be right for the story. Hannibal Lecter wouldn’t fit in Cabot Cove, or at least he wouldn’t work for me in that setting. (Jessica Fletcher could probably handle him, though.)

Dave Zeltserman here. I’ve written a lot of bad guys, but none badder than Kyle Nevin. Violent, amoral, near-psychopathic, Nevin is my protagonist for Pariah. That’s right. The main guy, the one who the reader is going to follow throughout the book. This is a character who thinks nothing of breaking a man's fingers and slamming a car door into his face for leaving a dumpster in the neighborhood uncovered, or beating someone to near death for failing to pay him what he considers the proper respect. But readers need to like and sympathize with your main character, right? Well, Nevin has a certain verve and charm to him, but what readers really need is to be fascinated by him and want to know what’s coming next. What’s important in creating a character like Nevin, and really any bad guy is that he has to feel very real and can’t be some drooling cartoonish version of a villain. The things that Nevin does might be very wrong, but in his skewed way of thinking it all makes sense and is justified, and the reader needs to believe that also. As long as Nevin’s logic, no matter how screwed up it might be, is consistent, he will seem very real to the reader, and very scary.

Harry Shannon here. We'll use "guy" knowing the antagonist could easily be female, especially these days. As any actor will tell you, the bad guy has rationalized his behavior and rarely thinks of himself as the bad guy. The rest us have treated him unfairly, or someone else's cruelty has justified his own. A sociopathic personality is driven by fear, anger, avarice and not much else--but isn't ever at peace. He tends to believe the rest of us are the same way, i.e. crying crocodile tears, manipulating for advantage and so on. That makes for a scared and hollow experience of life. Knowing this can help create a far more realistic enemy. The sexual psychopath is often driven by a punishing super ego. John D. MacDonald understood both those folks very well, and gave them voice as few authors have done. Evil humans are like the rest of us in that sense, that is to say tortured by inner demons they usually don't even recognize as their own. If we can relate to them on a psychological level they are that much more terrifying.

Paul Levine here. Harry referred to John D. MacDonald, author of the classic “Travis McGee” series. MacDonald also said “there are no one hundred per cent heroes.” I’d like to turn that around and say that the best antagonists are not “one hundred per cent villains.” Remember cold-blooded assassin Alan Ladd in “This Gun for Hire.” He feeds a stray cat…before slapping around his landlady and shooting the target of a paid hit. The best villains believe what they’re doing is right, at least according to their own skewed moral codes. Remember “Max Cady,” the relentless ex-con portrayed by Robert DeNiro in the remake of “Cape Fear.” Was he evil? You bet. But Cady doubtless thought he was justified in terrorizing Nick Nolte’s family. After all, Nolte, his own lawyer, sold him down the river. That violated the code of lawyers…and criminals alike. (Coincidentally, “Cape Fear” was adapted from a novel by MacDonald, “The Executioners.”) Something else we can learn from the vicious Max Cady. A villain can be uneducated and crude and yet brilliant in his own, twisted way. And that’s far, far better than a stupid, brutish villain. The antagonist should be a worthy opponent of the hero, whose task must be challenging, both physically and mentally, and sometimes morally as well.

Inside Top Suspense is coming back this Monday

2011-08-06T09:09:00.001-07:00

Join us Monday as we discuss writing the bad guy.

More Inside Top Suspense topics are also planned. And if you've got topics you'd like us to discuss, let us know about them.

SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE at KindleBoards

2011-08-03T08:47:00.000-07:00

Hi, all. Those of you who are on KindleBoards might be interested in a discussion about SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE. It's part of their "Read With The Author" Book Klub, which they're in the process of reviving. I am one of six authors they asked to lead a discussion, and I had the "good fortune" to be the guinea --er -- first.

So, I'd love it if you popped over and put in your two cents. There are a bunch of threads, but you really don't have to have read the book to participate -- some of them are pretty general.

Thanks. See you over there.

"the best of both crime fiction worlds into one delightfully charming read"

2011-08-02T14:09:00.000-07:00

Julius Katz and Archie is a wonderful mix of old school and new. It’s old school in that the mystery is presented in a slight variation on the classic British drawing room setup (the suspects are all gathered together, though not in a secluded location), the violence is minimal and offstage, with the investigator solving the crime through intelligence and deduction instead of car chases, fist fights and shootouts. New school, on the other hand, is well represented by Archie’s very high tech presence (he’s constantly hacking into various databases to gather information) and hard-boiled personality. Indeed, in Julius Katz and Archie author Dave Zeltserman has packaged the best of both crime fiction worlds into one delightfully charming read.

Elizabeth White's review of Julius Katz and Archie

Today's Sizzling Summer Read: Blood Dreams by Jack MacLane

2011-07-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

I'm Bill Crider. Jack MacLane is my evil twin. He's usually chained up down in the basement, but back in the late 1980s he somehow got loose, got hold of a computer, and wrote some horror novels for Zebra Books. The family never thought much of Jack, even when he became a writer, but the funny thing is, he coulda been a contender.

At least his editor at Zebra Books thought so. After Jack's first couple of novels, she was going to give Blood Dreams a big push. It's the story of a man named Hubert, who runs a used-book store in a small town. His hobby is killing people. He's very clever, so he's never been caught or even suspected. Not until a boy who has strange dreams, nightmares, really, and all of them about Hubert, comes along. Bad things ensue. And there are alligators!

But I digress. I was going to tell you about how Jack almost became a contender. The editor at Zebra really liked his work, and she had big plans for Blood Dreams. A die-cut foldout cover. A dump full of the books to put at the front of the big chain bookstores. Stuff like that. Jack still has a couple of proof copies of that cover among his little treasures.

But that's all he has because the editor left before the book was published. It became an orphan, and while it did have a cool cover, it didn't get the big push. The new editor shoved Jack's next two books way to the back of the catalog, and Jack, in a black depression went out and, . . . Never mind. We still don't talk about that. He's been down in the basement since then, fondling the tattered paperback editions of his work, talking to spiders, and staring at those cover proofs, now growing moldy with age.

Not even the news that his books are now available in e-book format seems to cheer Jack up, but I have a feeling you could help. Here's how. Buy Jack's books! Especially Blood Dreams. Help him remember the glory days, when he was an up-and-comer. If he cheers up, maybe we'll even let him out of the basement for a while.

Today's Sizzling Summer Read: Blood Moon

2011-07-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

by Ed Gorman

Judging by reader mail over the years Blood Moon is the most sinister of all my suspense novels.

"Blood Moon has everything--prison drama, horror story, whodunit, psycho-thriller--all skillfully combined to lead you to a shock ending." Scotland on Sunday.

I started working on the story after reading two unrelated news stories. One had to do with a strange series of murders in a rural community. The other was about a very rich young man who'd been found guilty of second degree murder for the death of his girl friend and was serving time in particularly violent prison. I wondered both about the nature of the murderer in the boonies and also how the young men, accustomed to a rather cushy life from all accounts, would survive behind bars. A story began to emerge.

"As much a superb thriller as it is a well-plotted detective story." Mystery News

The novel was first published in England where the reviews were generally excellent. The major book club in the UK picked it up and it did well for them. Over here the reviews were also good. I'd written a fair share of horror in the eighties and I was glad to see that mystery readers appreciated how I'd combined the mood of my earlier stories with the whodunit form.

"An expertly wrought atmospheric mystery featuring modern psychological crime fighting by a winning detective." Publisher's Weekly

So I'm happy to see it here on our Top Suspense Group's summer reading list. Happy reading!

"An unusually grueling and suspenseful climax...and uncompromising and unprettified account of violence and human evil..." Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

BLOOD MOON is ON SALE now for a limited time for $0.99. To buy for the Kindle click here.

Today's Sizzling Summer Read: Dying Memories

2011-07-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

by Dave Zeltserman

Dying Memories opens with a woman shooting a man to death on a crowded street in Boston, claiming that this man raped and murdered her eleven-year old daughter. Except he didn't, because this woman never had a daughter. Another man stabs an MIT professor to death in front of a crowd in Harvard Square, insisting that he witnessed the professor running down his wife in the street. Except the MIT professor was three thousand miles away when the man's wife was killed.

Reporter Bill Conway discovers that these victims are connected to ViGen Corporation, a shadowy pharmaceutical company. When he tries to investigate ViGen Corporation and their role in these deaths, things quickly turn dangerous for him. The following short excerpt has Bill being questioned after being grabbed from the street and thrown into a van, with his interrogators insisting that his real name is Jeffrey Vozzmer.

“Yes you do, Jeffrey. We’re not idiots here. Tell me what I want to know and this will all be over.”

“Check my wallet,” Bill pleaded. He was nauseous, his left ear throbbing. “My driver’s license will show you that I’m not this Jeffrey Vozzmer.”

“And what would that prove?” Simon asked. “That you took the precautions to be carrying a fake ID? Please, Jeffrey, we’re not amateurs. You should know that.”

“This is all fucked up,” Bill insisted weakly. “I’m not Jeffrey Vozzmer. I never heard that name before.”

Simon ignored Bill, said patiently, “Tell me what I want to know.”

“I don’t know what you want to know.”

The same behemoth who had punched him before raised an eyebrow, asking an unspoken question. Simon, sitting opposite Bill, took his time before shaking his head.

“No, I don’t believe that will be necessary,” he said. “I’m sure we can facilitate Jeffrey to talk without having to resort to any further violence, even if it won’t be of his own volition.” Then to Bill, “One last time, tell me what I want to know.”

Numbly, Bill shook his head. “I swear, I don’t know what that is,” he said.

Simon sighed and picked up a small leather case that was on the seat next to him. He opened the case carefully, almost lovingly, and took from it a hypodermic needle, which he held up for Bill to look at.

“Relax,” Simon lied. “It’s only sodium pentothal. More than enough to loosen your lips but not enough to cause any serious damage. At least not usually.”

Simon then leaned forward. Bill tried to struggle, but the two thugs held him steady.

“If there was a chance that you would cooperate and remove your jacket I wouldn’t need to inject this inside your gum,” Simon cooed softly. “But one must do what one must do. Now, please open your mouth or I’ll have my associates force it open.”

Then it was as if a bomb had been detonated.

Bill escapes this ordeal, but soon finds that it’s not just these mysterious forces after him as he’s framed for a brutal murder. Or at least Bill’s pretty sure he’s been framed. The thing is, as with the reader, Bill’s never quite sure what’s real or not. All he knows is his peril, as well as the stakes involved, keep escalating by the minute.

Dying Memories has some similarities with my crime novels. It’s bullet paced with whiplash-inducing twists and turns throughout which will keep both Bill and the reader off balance. Where it’s very different than my crime novels, like Small Crimes, Pariah, Killer and Fast Lane, is that while they’re pitch black descents into the abyss, Dying Memories is more of a rollercoaster ride colored a murky gray that’s brightened by constant flashes of red. And where my crime novel protagonists, Joe Denton, Kyle Nevin, Leonard March and Johnny Lane, are, putting it as delicately as I can, pretty much bastards who readers root for (at least at some level) to find the hell they deserve, the hero of Dying Memories, Bill Conway, is very different. He’s someone the reader is going to be able to care about.

I hope you enjoy Dying Memories. To buy for the Kindle click here. For the Nook, here.

Today's Sizzling Summer Read - Motion To Kill by Joel Goldman

2011-07-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

I wrote Motion To Kill when one of my then law partners complained about another partner. My advice was to write a murder mystery, kill the son-of-a-bitch off in the first chapter and spend the rest of the book figuring out who did it. I took my own advice, created the character Lou Mason and let him figure it out.

Here's the set up.

The ink is barely dry on Mason's business cards when the body of the firm's senior partner, Richard Sullivan, washes ashore at a lake where the firm is having its annual retreat. New enough to the firm to be above suspicion, his partners ask him to investigate. Mason takes on the case, looking for a killer who's got Mason in his cross-hairs. Investigating the case means running through a maze of high-level corruption, sexual misconduct, organized crime and cold blooded murder. Hell of a way to get to know your new partners - the ones that survive, that is.

Motion To Kill is set at the Lake of the Ozarks in southern Missouri and in my hometown of Kansas City. Whether he's in the Ozarks or the courtroom, Mason is a long way from being out of the woods.

Here's an excerpt.

A dead partner is bad for business, even if he dies in his sleep. But when he washes ashore on one side of a lake and his boat is found abandoned on the other side, it's worse. When the sheriff tells the coroner to "cut him open and see what we've got," it's time to dust off the resume. And the ink was barely dry on Lou Mason's.

The time was seven-thirty on Sunday morning, July 12. It was too early for dead bodies, too humid for the smell, and just right for the flies and mosquitoes. And it was rotten for identifying the body of a dead partner. These were the moments to remember.

Mason's dead partner was Richard Sullivan, senior partner in Sullivan & Christenson, his law firm for the last three months. Sullivan was the firm's rainmaker. He was a sawed-off, in your face, thump-your-chest ball buster. His clients and partners loved the money he made for them, but none of them ever confessed to liking him. Though in his late fifties, he had one of those perpetually mid-forties faces. Except that now he was dead, gray as a Minneapolis winter and bloated from a night in the water.

Sullivan & Christenson was a Kansas City law firm that employed forty lawyers to merge and acquire clients' assets so they could protect them from taxation before and after death. When bare-knuckled bargaining didn't get the deal done, they'd sue the bastards. Or defend the firm's bastard if he was sued first. Mason's job was to win regardless of which bastard won the race to the courthouse.

Hope you love it!

Today's Sizzling Summer Read: No One Will Hear You

2011-07-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

NOW HEAR THIS! by Max Allan Collins

Two serial killers vie for the attention of the public in NO ONE WILL HEAR YOU, the second J.C. Harrow thriller by Matt Clemens and me. You needn’t have read YOU CAN’T STOP ME to jump in here, however, and as much as we like the first book – recently a nominee for the Best Paperback Thriller of the Year – Matt and I feel we’ve upped the ante and improved our game second-time around.

We listened to reviewers and readers and sought to make NO ONE WILL HEAR YOU a state-of-the-art thrill ride. We made the chapters shorter, increased the plot twists, even while trying to delve deeper in the characters...not just Harrow and his superstar forensics team, but the killers themselves. And we introduced a secondary protagonist, LAPD sex crimes detective, Lt. Anna Amari, who more than holds her own with Harrow.

J.C. Harrow is a tragic hero, a former Midwestern sheriff who once saved the President’s life at the Iowa State Fair but – on the same day – lost his family to a homicidal maniac. The national attention this brought him inspired Harrow to become the host of “Crime Seen!” – a sort of reality TV version of CSI, providing Harrow with the platform...and funds...to track down his family’s murderer.

This he did in YOU CAN’T STOP ME, and now in NO ONE WILL HEAR YOU he is questioning whether he should continue on as host of this popular show, contemplating returning to law enforcement in some other small Midwestern town. That’s when a video shows up at Crime Seen HQ from “Don Juan” – a serial killer who murderers a woman on camera by way of “trying out” to be the show’s next villain. When a second killer makes a similar demand, Harrow and his team wonder if they are breeding killers as much as tracking them down....

In addition to being a thriller that has been called “riveting,” NO ONE WILL HEAR YOU takes a sharply critical and satirical look at the reality TV craze and its downside.

True-crime writer Matt Clemens and I collaborated on the first eight CSI novels, and the first two CSI MIAMI novels, selling millions of copies. We later wrote the only BONES novel and three CRIMINAL MINDS novels, becoming along the way a team well-versed in serial killer-fueled suspense and forensics sleuthing. We feel NO ONE WILL HEAR YOU is the best – and certainly most exciting and frightening – of the thrillers we’ve written together.

Will Harrow return? Well, that’s up to you....

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAX ALLAN COLLINS is the author of ROAD TO PERDITION, the graphic novel basis for the Tom Hanks Academy Award-winning film.

No One Will Hear You is available now for both the Kindle and Nook.

Windsurfing Injury Led to "Riptide"

2011-07-22T07:41:00.000-07:00

But for an injury, I might never have become a novelist.

This is the backstory of “Riptide,” a Jake Lassiter novel, now available on Kindle and Nook for $2.99.

In 1986, I rented a condo on Maui for the summer, intent on polishing my skills as a competitive windsurfer. My second day at Hookipa Beach, bouncing over the lip of a roller, the board exploded out of the water and smashed my femur. The E.R. physician told me nothing was broken and recommended smoking a little Maui Wowie for the pain. (No, not Dr. House).

So I sat on the beach with a yellow pad and started handwriting a novel featuring a character that popped into my mind: linebacker-turned-lawyer Jake Lassiter. Here’s the first sentence of fiction I ever wrote, (not counting certain statements in my appellate briefs). “The old man loved gadgets, money, and large-breasted women, and at the moment, he had all three.”

When I returned home to Miami to resume practicing law, I put the novel aside and wrote “To Speak for the Dead,” which became my first published book. I kept re-writing “Riptide,” which appeared as a William Morrow hardcover under the title “Slashback.” And that line about gadgets, money, and breasts? It’s now the first sentence of chapter two. Here’s what the Tampa Tribune had to say:

“A thriller as fast as the wind...a bracing rush, as breathtaking as hitting the Gulf waters on a chill December morning.”

There’s more about the Jake Lassiter series on my website, including info about “Riptide,” in which Jake Lassiter chases two dangerous professional windsurfers from Miami to Maui in pursuit of the old man’s stolen bonds. You can buy the e-book from Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, and Smashwords for $2.99.

Paul Levine

Sizzling Summer Read RUNNING COLD (A Mick Callahan Novel)

2011-07-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

Harry Shannon, here. I created media psychologist Mick Callahan as the protagonist of my debut hardcover mystery. Mick was born and raised near the small town of Wells, Nevada. He's an alcoholic, a loyal friend, a hot tempered genius. After a failed stint in the Navy Seals, Mick studied Psychology and ended up hosting a television show. Booze, sex and ego brought him down. Over the course of the four novels in the series, he's gone from humiliated and sober and on the comeback trail (Memorial Day), working in radio again (Eye of the Burning Man), back on track but in trouble with the mob (One of the Wicked) and now, in RUNNING COLD, your Top Suspense Sizzling Summer Read of the day, Mick is on the edge of collapse, fighting a return to the bottle and mourning the loss of his girlfriend.

And then one of Callahan's clients is murdered. The client's son Wes McCann is a soldier recently returned from Afghanistan. Wes blames Callahan. These two dangerous men are set on a collision course, one crazed with grief and the other tortured by guilt. I've been told that Running Cold is the darkest of the four Callahan novels, and I suppose that's true, though for me Callahan's deep concern for others and his sense of integrity always shine. He's flawed and troubled, but he's a good man. If character is destiny, Mick will likely end up okay when this series ends. Hell, he deserves that much after all I've put him through!

"A flawed and edgy hero. Dark wit, excellent writing and action-packed pace."
—The Rap Sheet, January Magazine

"Mick Callahan is a man with a past, a mean right hook, and a radio talk show. He's pretty good at giving people advice - just not necessarily good at taking it. The strength of this series is in its central characters, flawed, human, often funny, sometimes tragic, and the relationships among them."
—Mystery Scene

"Mick Callahan is not only likeable (as deemed by Library Journal) but he manages to endear himself as a very realistic hero, with a strong sense of purpose and an equal dash of vulnerability."
—Cemetery Dance

"Mick's road to redemption is wry, bittersweet and altogether touching."
—New Mystery Reader

Buy the book here.

Today's Sizzling Summer Read -- SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE by Libby Hellmann

2011-07-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

"A tremendous book - sweeping but intimate, elegiac but urgent, subtle but intense. This story really does set the night on fire." --Lee Child

"A brilliantly-paced thriller, transitioning seamlessly from modern-day Chicago to the late '60s. First-rate characterization...Best to start early in the day, as it is easy to stay up all night reading it." --Foreword Magazine

"RT Top Pick for December: "Electric... a marvelous novel."
--RT Book Reviews

"Set the Night on Fire is a compelling story of love, truth and redemption. This will be a break-out novel for this talented writer. Highly recommended." --Sheldon Siegel, NYTImes bestselling author of Perfect Alibi

"A top-rate thriller that taps into the antiwar protests of the 1960s... A jazzy fusion of past and present, Hellman's insightful, politically charged whodunit explores a fascinating period in American history."
--Publishers Weekly

That's what reviewers are saying. Here's what I say:

TRUE CONFESSION:

I do remember the Sixties.

Especially 1968. That was the turning point in my political "coming of age." I was in college in Philadelphia on April 4th when Martin Luther King was assassinated. I watched as riots consumed the inner cities. I was saddened and disappointed -- as a teenager growing up in Washington DC, I'd gone to plenty of concerts at the Howard theater where blacks and whites grooved to Motown artists together. I actually thought we were moving towards a color-blind society -- I was young and idealistic then). So the frustration and rage expressed through the riots was - in a way- confusing.

Two months later I understood. My college boyfriend had been tapped to head up the national "Youth for Bobby Kennedy" program. I was really excited; I planned on dropping out for a semester to work with him. For some reason I couldn't sleep the night of June 5th and turned on my radio. Bobby had been shot just after winning the California Democratic primary. He died the next day. So much for the Youth for Kennedy campaign.

Sadness soon gave way to bitterness. The country was falling apart. Over the years some of our brightest lights had been snuffed out. Internationally our government seemed to be supporting the "bad guys." And underlying it all was an unwinnable war that - perversely -- was escalating and risking the lives of my peers. I began to question why I should work through the system, especially when the system wasn't working for us.

I wasn't alone. Plenty of others yearned for change. Fundamental change that would rebuild our society and culture. The next few years were tumultuous and volatile, but in the final analysis, we failed. Maybe the task was impossible -- how many Utopias exist? Sure, there were cultural shifts. But political change, in the sense of what to expect from our leaders and our government? Not so much. The era left me with unresolved feelings. What should we have done differently? Are all progressive movements doomed to fail?

At this point you're probably wondering what this has to do with writing a thriller. And you'd be right. It's never been my intention to write a political screed. I am a storyteller whose stories, hopefully, you can't put down. I realized that if I was going to write about the Sixties, I needed a premise that would hook readers in the present, regardless of how much they know or remembered about the Sixties.

I found that premise in a film. Do you remember SIGNS, starring Mel Gibson? It came out in 2002, and I thought the first half was the most riveting film I'd ever seen. Gibson's family is being stalked, but they don't know who and they don't know why. The second half of the film, when we discover it's just your garden variety aliens, was an enormous let down. Putting a face, an identity, on fear reduces its power. But NOT knowing who's targeting you -- or why -- is the most frightening thing I can imagine.

So that's what happens to Lila Hilliard, a thirty-something professional who's come home to Chicago for the holidays. Someone has killed her family, and now they're after her. She has no idea who or why. As she desperately tries to figure it out, she finds wisps of clues that lead back to her parents' activities forty years ago. In the process she discovers that her parents were not the people she thought.

The relationship between the past and present, the consequences of events that occurred years ago fascinate me. I also love stories that plunge characters into danger and make them draw on resources they didn't know they had. SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE was the way to combine all those themes. Writing the book was an exorcism of sorts, a way to make peace with the past. And while I enjoyed reliving the past, I loved putting it behind me even more. I'm finally ready to move on.

I hope you enjoy the read. To buy the book from Amazon click here. From Nook, here. And for more about the book, and me, and everything else, just click here.

Inside Top Suspense and other news

2011-07-18T14:22:00.000-07:00

Due to our summer book club we're going to be rescheduling the following Inside Top Suspense topics to start up again in August:

Writing the Bad Guys
Great First Lines
The Best Character in Suspense awards

Watch this blog over the next few weeks for the new schedule. And speaking of our Summer Book Club, check our website!

Over the next few weeks we're also going to be providing more information on our upcoming anthology "Favorite Kills: The Best from Top Suspense"

And finally, now's your chance to suggest additional Inside Top Suspense topics!

Today's Sizzling Summer Read -- Summer of the Big Bachi

2011-07-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

by Naomi Hirahara

My first mystery novel, SUMMER OF THE BIG BACHI, is probably the most challenging one in my mystery series featuring cranky gardener Mas Arai. From start to publication, it probably took me fifteen years. It’s a flawed book yet a very ambitious one. For all these reasons, it still remains my favorite.

Mas Arai (pronounced “awry,” as in things go “awry”) is an atomic-bomb survivor who has lived in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California for more than half a century. He lost his wife years ago. He is estranged from his daughter. Other than a beat-up Ford truck and a couple of good friends, he doesn’t have a lot going for him. But, of course, there’s more to Mas than meets the eye. He has a secret from his days in Hiroshima during World War II and, of course, that secret is now ready to unravel in Los Angeles 1999.

Why do I describe my first novel as flawed? This is not a finely tuned mystery novel, as sits probably in the middle of being a traditional mystery and literary fiction. Mas is very broken in this novel and not that likable at times. And I use a lot of dialect. BACHI, for instance, means “what goes around, comes around.”

I feel that SUMMER OF THE BIG BACHI captures a community of people that you probably never knew existed. They have survived and thrived through experiences you couldn’t imagine. This summer, spend a few days in Mas Arai’s world. It will be a fresh, and unique experience and probably one you won’t forget.

You can read reviews and a sample right here. Or if you're on Nook, here.

Sizzling Summer Read: VALLEY OF LIGHTS

2011-07-15T05:18:00.000-07:00

I was within two blocks' drive of Paradise when the call came over the air. It was a 927, a general code meaning to investigate unknown trouble. The dispatch girl was offering it to Travis and Leonard, both of whom were checking IDs for warrants in the scrubby little park around the Adult Center on Jefferson; knowing that I could have them as backup in three minutes or less if the 'unknown trouble' turned out to be something bigger than anticipated, I cut in and took the call. Squad Sergeant responding, one minute or less.

Valley of Lights is a fusion of crime and horror, a dance between predator and prey in which the story twists, the stakes increase, and the tables are repeatedly turned.

It grew out of time that I spent in Phoenix, Arizona, researching the city and the desert and going on ride-alongs with the Phoenix PD. I was working on a novel that I never actually got to write. That novel idea was ambitious and sprawling. It was everything I ever wanted to say. It was art. It would have been as boring as hell. Instead, I wrote this.

It began as a simple idea for a short story and grew as I wrote it, in the way that no book had ever grown in my hands before. The story flew. All those days in the squad car with Lieutenant Dave Michels, the late shifts with Sergeants Tom Kosen and Jesse James, the flophouses and the trailer parks and the stakeouts in gaudy motels and the millionaires' houses in the Camelback Mountains - everything came together to feed the tale.

This is the book of which Dean Koontz wrote, "If thriller reading were a sin, Stephen Gallagher would be responsible for my ultimate damnation. His work is fast-paced, well-written, infused with a sense of dark wonder, and altogether fresh."

When I selected the title to present as my Sizzling Summer Read, fellow Top-Suspenser Ed Gorman kindly wrote, "I still think that Valley of Lights is one of the coolest - and most imitated - novels I've ever read."

Here's what Phoenix PD Sergeant Alex Volchak finds on his arrival at the Paradise Motel:

We came to the last of the units. Beyond this was some empty parking space and then a high cinderblock wall topped with wire. Not a place, on the whole, that I'd have cared to spend any time in. The desk clerk stood out front and gestured me towards the window as if to say take it, I don't want it, the responsibility's all yours. I was aware that, some distance behind me, one or two people had emerged and were watching to see if anything interesting was going to happen. I stepped up to the window and looked inside.

The sash was open an inch at the top, and some faint stirring of the air had caused the drapes to part down the middle. The bug screen and the darkness inside made it difficult to see anything at all, but as my eyes adjusted I began to make out shapes. Something that had at first looked like a bean bag resolved itself into a human form, slumped, halfway out of a low chair as if he'd fainted while sitting. The details weren't clear, but also in my line of sight across the room was the end of the bed with somebody lying on it. I could see a pair of soiled tennis shoes for this one, not much more.

Just drunks sleeping off a party, I thought, remembering the heavy breathing that was being picked up by the dislodged phone, and I turned to the clerk and said, 'Who's the room registered to?'

'A little s...' he began, but then he caught himself. 'A Hispanic guy. I don't think he's even one of them.'

'Well... all I see is people sleeping. I don't know what's so unusual in that.'

'For four straight days? It could have been longer. He registered weeks ago, he closed the drapes on day one and he musta sneaked the others in when no-one was watching.'

'What about the maid?'

'We're residential, maid service comes extra. She just leaves the towels and sheets outside, doesn't go in. What do you think?'

I felt a definite stirring of interest. I said, 'I think you should get your pass key so we can go inside and find out what the problem is.'

'And that's legal? I mean, I'm all square with the owner if I do what you say?'

'Get the key, all right?'

We went inside; or rather, I went inside and the little monkey in the technicolor shirt hovered in the doorway behind me. My first expectation, which was of the smell of opium smoke, turned out to be wrong; what hit me instead was a rank odor like bad breath and drains. I crossed the room and opened the window as wide as it would go, and then I turned to look at the place in the harsh angles of daylight.

Nobody had moved. There were three of them. Slumped in the low chair opposite the window was a man in a grey business suit, an expensive-looking summer lightweight with the pants stained dark where his bladder had let go. He was the one who'd fallen against the phone and dislodged the receiver, as if he'd been propped awkwardly and hadn't stayed that way. The soiled tennis shoes on the bed belonged to a short, muscular-looking man in his late thirties, while over in the other chair by the key-operated TV sprawled a black teenager in a leather jacket.

All three of them were inert, like corpses; but I checked for a pulse on each one, and they were all alive and steady. The arms of the man on the bed, who was wearing a T-shirt, showed no fresh needle marks or even old scars.

I said to the clerk, 'Did you move anything when you came in before?'

His face was that of an animal that had just been stunned prior to slaughtering. Perhaps he thought I'd read his mind; he probably didn't realise that he'd already given himself away.

'No,' he finally managed. 'I didn't move a thing.'

You can find Valley of Lights for the Kindle right here.

Voluntary Madness in a Dream

2011-07-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

The mind is a wonderful thing, especially the subconscious. Knowing I had a blog to write, last night I dreamed that Top Suspense Group accidentally killed someone as the result of a publicity push. The dream started in the midst of the problem, just like a short story, so I don’t know how we did it, but we were genuinely sorry (being all nice people) and fearful enough of the police not to report the death, thus setting ourselves up for a murder charge. Our plan of defense was to “act normal.” This is what Dave Zeltserman told us, and Paul Levine (a lawyer as well as a writer) seconded it.

Dave’s wife, Judy, (although she was uninvolved, having been away practicing homeopathy) and I decided that shopping was the proper normal action. The scene jumped from a view of tall buildings in NYC to a huge clothing department where everything we tried on fit! We had very little time before the police interview and, apparently, lots of money to spend. Just in time, both of us managed to put together charming outfits with many accessories, mine including a small powder blue book bag that I was crazy about. (Freudian or Jungian interpretations invited.) However, our normal behavior and chic outfits were not enough to get us off the charges, and suddenly, as only in a dream, we were all headed for prison. I was stressed and uncomfortable until I opened my eyes and saw my ceiling fan.

How does this connect with my novel Voluntary Madness, a sizzling summer read, that is the supposed subject of this blog? Ha! In Voluntary Madness, Punch and Juliette accidentally kill someone and cover it up!

Okay, beyond that, Juliette flashes nude in an alley in Key West to create a scene for Punch’s novel, the couple breaks into Hemingway House to avoid the crowds, and they steal carry-outs from gourmet restaurants, among other quirky criminal antics, amidst bohemian Key West personalities and places. None of that was in my dream, but maybe if I’d slept later . . . .

I guess what I’m thinking is that if you enjoy characters with off-kilter psychology, then you’ll like the book. It’s filled with light crime, heavy sex, and Key-west weird. There’s a Yorkie seeing-eye dog to satisfy your animal cravings and a visit to Coral Castle where you’ll learn the meaning of true love—the stuff dreams are made of.

Voluntary Madness, first published by Serpent’s Tail, UK, 1999, now available on Kindle.

http://tinyurl.com/65v8dgq

Sizzling Summer Reads - WATCH ME DIE

2011-07-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

Lee Goldberg's Watch Me Die, one of the most acclaimed PI novels in years and a finalist for best novel by the Private Eye Writers of America, is now available as an ebook and in a new paperback edition.

"As dark and twisted as anything Hammett or Chandler ever dreamed up...." Kirkus, Starred Review

"Approaching the level of Lawrence Block is no mean feat, but Goldberg succeeds with this engaging PI novel." Publishers Weekly

Harvey Mapes is a 26-year-old security guard who spends his nights in a guard shack outside a gated community in Southern California, reading detective novels, watching reruns, and waiting for his life to finally start... which happens when Cyril Parkus, one of the wealthy residents, asks Harvey to follow his beautiful wife Lauren.

The lowly security guard jumps at the opportunity to fulfill his private eye fantasies and use everything he's learned from Spenser, Magnum, and Mannix. But things don't exactly go according to the books...or the reruns. As Harvey fumbles and stumbles through his first investigation, he discovers that the differences between fiction and reality can be deadly.

(This book was previously released under the title The Man With the Iron-On Badge)

A SAMPLING OF THE ACCLAIM FOR "WATCH ME DIE"

"A wonderfully fresh voice in the mystery genre, Goldberg will delight fans of Janet Evanovich and Robert Crais," - Rick Riordan, author of "The Throne of Fire."

"Great concept and great execution...it's funny, thrilling, and quirky, with a completely satisfying ending you won't see coming. --Barry Eisler, New York Times bestselling author of "The Last Assassin"

"Lee Goldberg is known for his cleverness and sense of humor. He shows how a masterful plotter can take a character in a comic situation and lead him into unexpected danger in an eye-blink," --Thomas Perry, New York Times bestselling author of "The Informant."

"Lee Goldberg bravely marches into territory already staked out by some fierce competition--Donald Westlake, Lawrence Block, the early Harlan Coben--and comes out virtually unscathed." The Chicago Tribune

"Goldberg has a knack for combining just the right amount of humor and realism with his obvious love for the PI genre and his own smart ass sensibilities. [...]A terrific read. Goldberg is the real deal and should be on everyone's must read list." Crimespree Magazine

"Likeable loser Harvey Mapes is my new favorite private eye," —Victor Gischler, Edgar-nominated author of "Gun Monkeys"

"More than any other element in the book, it's Harvey's voice you'll remember. There's a workaday universality to it that gives the novel its wit and insight and truth," Ed Gorman, founder of Mystery Scene Magazine and author of "Blood Money."

"A quick, fun read with a satisfying and unexpected ending. Harvey Mapes is a hero I hope we see in a sequel." -- Phillip Margolin, author of "Gone But Not Forgotten"

THE FIRST CHAPTER...

I don’t know if you’ve ever read John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee books before. McGee is sort of a private eye who lives in Florida on a houseboat he won in a poker game. While solving mysteries, he helps a lot of ladies in distress. The way he helps them is by fucking their brains out and letting them cook his meals, do his laundry, and scrub the deck of his boat for a few weeks. These women, McGee calls them “wounded birds,” are always very grateful that he does this for them.
To me, that’s a perfect world.

I wanted his life.

This is the story of what I did to get it.

My name is Harvey Mapes. I’m twenty-nine years old, six feet tall, and I’m in fair shape. I suppose I’d be better-looking if I exercised and stopped eating fast-food three times a day, but I won’t, so I won’t.

I’m a security guard. My job is to sit in a little, Mediterranean-style stucco shack from midnight until eight a.m. six days a week, outside the fountains and gates of Bel Vista Estates, a private community of million-dollar-plus homes in the Spanish Hills area of Camarillo, California.

The homes at Bel Vista Estates are built on a hillside above the farms of Pleasant Valley, the Ventura Freeway, and a really great outlet mall, about a quarter of the way between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. I say that so you can appreciate the kind of drive to work I have to make each night from my one-bedroom apartment in Northridge.

There are worse jobs.

Most of the time, I just sit there looking at my black and white monitor, which is split into quarters and shows me three different views of the gate and a wide angle of an intersection up the hill inside the community. I’m supposed to watch the intersection to see if people run the stop sign, and if they do, I’m supposed to write them a “courtesy ticket” when they come through the gate.

I’d like to meet the asshole who came up with that.

It’s no courtesy to give one, and the folks who live here certainly don’t think it’s a courtesy to take one. Most of the time, they don’t even stop to get it from me; they just laugh or flip me off or ignore me altogether.

And why shouldn’t they? It’s not like I’m going to chase them down to the freeway or put a lien on their homes.

Enforcement really isn’t my job anyway. I’m there to give the illusion of security. I don’t have a gun, a badge, or even a working stapler. If there’s any real trouble, which there never is, I’m supposed to call my supervisor and he’ll send a car out.

The guys in the car, guys so inept and violent the police department wouldn’t hire them, are the “armed response team” the company advertises. If I were a resident, I’d feel safer taking my chances with the robber, rapist, or ax murderer.

I’m just the guy in the shack. The one who either waves you through and opens the gate, or stops you to see if you’ve got a pass. If you do, or if I get the homeowner on the phone and he says you’re okay, then I jot your name and license number in my ledger, open the gate, and return to my reading.

I do a lot of reading, which is the one big perk of the job and, truthfully, the reason I took it in the first place, back when I was going to community college. Mostly I read paperback mysteries now, cheap stuff I get at used bookstores, and it’s probably why I was so susceptible to his offer when it came.

I guess on some level I wanted to be like the tough, self-assured, no-problem-getting-laid guys I read about. I conveniently forgot that in a typical book, those guys usually sustain at least one concussion, get shot at several times, and see a lot of people die.

It was after midnight, but still early enough that I hadn’t settled into a book yet, when Cyril Parkus drove up in his white Jaguar XJ8, the one with a forest of wood and a herd’s worth of leather inside, and instead of going through the resident lane to wait for me to open the gate, he drove right up to my window.

We’re supposed to stand up when they do that, almost at attention, like we’re soldiers or something, so I did. The people who live at Bel Vista Estates are quick to report you for the slightest infraction, especially one that might imply you aren’t acknowledging their greatness, wealth, and power.

Even just sitting in that car, Parkus exuded the kind of laid-back, relaxed charm that says to me: look how easy-going I am, it’s because I’m rich and damn happy about it. He was in his mid-thirties, the kind of tanned, well-built, tennis-playing guy who subscribes to Esquire because he sees himself in every advertisement and it makes him feel good.

In other words, he was the complete opposite of me.

I’d see him leave for work every morning around six thirty or seven a.m., and it wasn’t unusual for me to see him coming home so late. But he rarely stopped to talk to me, unless it was to leave a pass or get a package from me that his wife hadn’t picked up during the previous shift. I’d only seen his wife, Lauren Parkus, once or twice, and when I did, it was late and she was in the passenger seat of his car, her face hidden in the shadows as he sped by.

“Good evening, Mr. Parkus,” I said, adopting the cheerful, respectful, and totally false tone of voice I used with all the residents.

“How are you, Harvey?”

I caught him glancing at my nameplate as he spoke. Each guard slides his nameplate into a slot on the door at the start of his shift for exactly this reason. You can’t expect the residents to remember, or care about, the name of the guy in the shack.

“Fine, sir,” I replied. “What can I do for you?”

He smiled warmly at me, a smile as false as my cheerful respect and admiration.

“Could I ask you a couple of questions about your work, Harvey?”

“Of course, sir.”

I figured there must be a complaint coming, and this was just his wind-up. In the back of my mind, I tried to guess what I could have done to piss him or his wife off, but I knew there wasn’t anything.

“What are your hours?” Parkus asked.

I told him. He nodded.

“And then what do you do?” he asked.

That question had nothing to do with work, and I was tempted to tell him it was none of his fucking business, but I wanted to keep my job, and it wasn’t like there was anything in my life worth keeping private. Besides, I was curious where all this was going and how I was going to get screwed in the end. At that moment, I had no way of knowing just how bad it would be or how many people would get killed along the way.

“I usually grab something to eat at Denny’s, since they serve a decent dinner any time and have good prices, and then I go home.”

“You go right to sleep?”

“No, sir, I like to sit by the pool if it’s sunny, swim a couple of laps, maybe go to a movie or something. Then I go to bed around three in the afternoon, wake up around nine or ten, have some breakfast, and come back here for another day of work.”

“So, you only work this one job and don’t go to school or anything.”

“That’s right, sir.”

Parkus nodded, satisfied. Apparently, I told him what he wanted to hear. I confirmed that I was a complete loser and that yes, his life was a lot better than mine.

“Could I meet you at Denny’s in the morning and buy you dinner?” he asked. “I’d like to talk over a business proposition with you.”

“Sure,” I said, too stunned to say anything more.

He drove up to the gate and waited for me to open it. I hit the button, the gate rolled open, and I watched him drive up the hill, wondering what he could possibly want from me.

I kept watching him on the monitor. I couldn’t do that with most residents, but Parkus happened to live on one of the corners of the intersection that I’m supposed to watch for those “courtesy tickets,” so technically, I wasn’t spying, I was just doing my job.

Cyril Parkus lived in a huge, Spanish-style house that had two detached garages out front and a couple of stone lions on either side of the driveway, each with one stone paw resting on a stone ball. I’ve never understood the point of those lion statues, or why rich people think it’s classy to have them. I’ve thought about buying one and sticking it in front of my apartment door, just to see how my life changes, but I don’t know what they’re called or where you find them and I probably couldn’t afford one anyway.

Once he went inside his house, the excitement was over and I was in for a long, restless night, waiting for daybreak, unaware that with the sunrise, my life would change completely.

Sizzling Summer Reads

2011-07-12T05:17:00.000-07:00

It's going to be a long, hot Top Suspense Summer! Here 12 masters of the genre will keep you on the edge of your beach towel with 12 sizzling summer reads guaranteed to get your pulse pounding.

Join in the discussions this summer and win a free copy of our second anthology! With our second Top Suspense anthology we’ll each be contributing an award nominated, an award winning, or a personal favorite story. It will be out in the Fall, and anyone who reads and joins in the discussion on our Facebook page of four of our summer books--or better yet, reviews the books on Amazon--will receive a free copy before we make it available to the general public.

Watch this blog over the next three weeks as each Top Suspense author will talk about their sizzling summer books.

Blood Dreams by Jack MacLane (Bill Crider)

Blood Moon by Ed Gorman

Dying Memories by Dave Zeltserman

Motion to Kill by Joel Goldman

No One Will Hear You by Max Allan Collins & Matthew Clemens

Riptide by Paul Levine

Running Cold by Harry Shannon

Set The Night On Fire by Libby Hellmann

Summer of the Big Bachi by Naomi Hirahara

Valley Of Lights by Stephen Gallagher

Voluntary Madness by Vicki Hendricks

Watch Me Die by Lee Goldberg

And don't forget to join our Summer Sizzling Reads discussions all summer long at our Top Suspense Facebook Page!

INSIDE TOP SUSPENSE: SEX

2011-07-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

It’s gonna to be a long, hot summer, and you’re probably wondering how you’ll get through it. What do you think about when the nights are hot and heavy, it’s impossible to move without sweating, and the smell of someone's perfume or aftershave hangs in the air? Well, if you’re INSIDE TOP SUSPENSE, you think about sex.

So that’s our topic this time. How do you mix sex, murder, and suspense? Do they go together at all? When you write sex do you close the door and cut to the next scene? Or do you give readers all the details? Top Suspense gives you our opinions, starting with the Mistress of Erotic Suspense, Vicki Hendricks. You'll also hear from Lee Goldberg, Ed Gorman, and Naomi Hirahawa.

Hope you’ll join the conversation, too… it’s bound to be a hot one.

From Vicki Hendricks

Since I’m first on this topic, I'll start with the most basic part of writing: words. Whether you’re writing a suspense novel or any novel, the choice of language level for a sex scene has to be made by carefully considering the characters and the type of writing. For example, is the point of view you’re using a shy college professor or an ex-con? In a suspense novel you want to be realistic, so you would not use romance language—a common error—but you might not want to dip too far into slang either. It always takes plenty of rewriting and reading aloud to get the right tone, since there can be a fine line between sounding like a “normal” sexual participant and a physician writing for a medical journal. However, sometimes, you can get down and dirty in order to bring out a gritty character, especially in noir. Here are the three basic categories:

Romantic (abstract and soft, sometimes clichéd)
For example: member, rod, loins, love juice
cave, mound, peaks,
the earth moves

Realistic (concrete, physiological)
For example: penis, testicles, semen,
breasts, vagina, lubrication
orgasm, intercourse, climax

Slang (concrete, idiomatic, graphic and visual)
For example: cock, balls, jism,
pussy, tits, clit,
cum/come

Of course, there are many other words to choose from, especially in the slang category, but I’ll save the titillation for my novels. Make your own list. It’s fun!

From Lee Goldberg

I think the words you choose to describe sex...and the body parts...has to be a reflection of the characters and their attitudes...and the overall tone of the book. To me, writing a sex scene is less about the sex itself than what the scene is supposed to accomplish as far as revealing character or furthering the plot. It shouldn't just be there to turn the reader on...even if you're writing erotica. The sex act, in and of itself, will be mere coupling between two creatures...and certainly won't be compelling, entertaining or arousing if the reader isn't emotionally invested in the characters. Here's an example of what I'm talking about, from my book WATCH ME DIE.

I guess something I learned from “Mannix” was true. Being a private eye really is an aphrodisiac to women. Carol had never attacked me like that before.

I’m afraid the surprise and excitement were too much, because I came in about three minutes. But I don’t think Carol minded; it calmed me down and allowed me to concentrate real hard on getting her off. And believe me, it took my complete attention. Pleasing a woman, especially Carol, isn’t easy and with me, at least, there’s a lot of potential for embarrassment and humiliation.

She rewarded me for all my hard work with a nice, squealing, writhing orgasm that nearly broke my nose on her pubic bone, but I didn’t mind. I even jumped in, literally, to enjoy the last few squeals of it with her.

It was so dark, and things happened so fast, she never saw my cuts and bruises, so she mistook my occasional groans of pain for pleasure.

Carol fell right to sleep afterwards.

Between the sex, the pain, and the things on my mind, I didn’t get as much sleep as I would have liked. But I get laid so rarely, I’m willing to sacrifice just about anything for it, especially sleep, when I usually dream about having sex anyway.

While the scene is explicit, more by implication than actual description, it's not about the choreography or body parts. It's about attitude and character -- or, at least, I hope it is. To me, that's how you get around the pitfalls of writing the sex scene.

From Ed Gorman

The late poet Charles Bukowski once said something to the effect that no man is more dangerous than when he’s having trouble with the woman he loves. Especially if she’s left him for someone else. I don’t know about dangerous but I do know that I’ve seen a good number of swaggering macho men brought low when the women they’re with say time out or even goodbye.

The power of love and sex has caused wars; certainly it’s caused murders. No one wears jealousy well but most of us cloak ourselves in it from time to time. Nothing animates a story like love and sex. And betrayal.

Some stories work perfectly without graphic elements such as Somerset Maugham’s killer short story “The Letter” (and great Bette Davis movie) or loaded with it such as Nabokov’s LOLITA. As the writer the choice is yours.

As for me, I tend to favor the late John D. MacDonald’s notion that after awhile the ”gymnastics” of sex get dull when what you really want to know is how the two people (or since these are modern times the three or four or five people) feel about each other.

But as somebody who decades ago wrote many porno house name westerns I appreciate sex in stories if the writer gets to the psychology of the scene. If it’s just rutting that’s fine but we live in an age when various sexual encounters have been properly categorized-there’s the grudge, the pity, the merry fornicator, the deeply in-love, the monotony-breaker and the well know Patriot. And those are just a few of the categories I learned from carefully reading Hustler’s letter columns.

From Naomi Hirahawa

I will be the first to admit that I’m probably the “softest” of this bunch here at Top Suspense, in that I don’t write explicit sex scenes (more so in my short stories) and suspense usually comes in the form of historic betrayal and feelings rather than the end of an Uzi machine gun. But that is not to say that “Sex and Suspense” is not key in any kind of storytelling and especially in genre fiction.

First about sex – replace it with passion and that’s what makes the world go-around. Even if you write the coziest of cozies with an amateur sleuth like I do, your detective must understand human passion because it often fuels murder. And in writing genre fiction, you must touch people emotionally and sensually.
In terms of actually writing sex and romance scenes in a traditional mystery, it is a delicate balancing act. My sleuth is now in his seventies and there’s a potential romantic interest ten years his junior. Will I perpetuate the stereotype that once someone reaches their golden years, there is little sex? How will I continue this relationship without turning off my core readership who might be uncomfortable traveling in this arena? Honestly, I don’t know the answers to these questions – I just have to follow my character and see where his passion takes him.

Some tips to think about when writing a traditional mystery:
When in doubt, always think about your character and his/her POV. What turns him or her on? And there’s no need to go back to the 1940s and their tropes i.e. femme fatales. What does the love interest smell like? What does his or her hands and fingers feel like? A peck or simple squeeze may unleash passionate feelings that will keep your protagonist up at night.
With passion come other uncontrollable feelings, like jealousy and despair. Here’s your chance to add more conflict to your character’s life. Have fun with it!

3 Free Stories from Dave Zeltserman for your Kindle

2011-07-03T08:10:00.001-07:00

So let's say you've read The Canary in the Top Suspense Anthology, or Some People Deserve to Die in the current issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, or When Death Shines Bright in the recently released Cape Cod Noir, or Emma Sue in the recently released On Dangerous Ground Stories of Western Noir, and you want to read some more stories of mine for free. Here's an easy way if you've got a Kindle. Download the free sample of 21 Tales and start reading right now for free Danny Smith, More Than a Scam (Best Mystery Stories Anthology honorable mention) and Flies.

Blood Crimes: "a great summer beach book"

2011-07-02T15:36:00.000-07:00

This reviewer nails exactly what Blood Crimes is meant to be. If you want something more literary from me with deeper thematic meaning, there's Killer, The Caretaker of Lorne Field, Pariah, etc., but if you want a high octane thrill ride that's heavy on the noir, violence and horror, there's Blood Crimes.

Top Suspense Anthology currently at #127

2011-06-29T17:13:00.000-07:00

Our Top Suspense Anthology is currently the 127th bestselling Nook Book at BN.com. Have you gotten your copy yet? If not, find out what you've been missing! And don't forget, the action continues from our round robin story, The Chase, in our $0.99 ebook, Die, Lover, Die!

INSIDE TOP SUSPENSE

2011-06-29T06:19:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all the comments last week, folks! Keep 'em coming! And just so you can plan in advance, here's our summer schedule of conversations. Be sure to join us.

July 5th and 6th: Sex and Suspense

July 18-19: Writing the Bad Guys

August 1-2: Great First Lines

August 15-16: The Best Character in Suspense awards

We're open for suggestions! Let us know if you have other topics you'd like Inside Top Suspense to discuss.

Die, Lover, Die! Now on Kindle for .99

2011-06-22T21:02:00.001-07:00

This unplanned, round robin story by all of the members of Top Suspense Group is a non-stop rush from the opening line, and you can't beat the price.

http://www.amazon.com/Die-Lover-ebook/dp/B0057ILU5E

Die, Lover, Die! by Top Suspense

2011-06-22T13:28:00.001-07:00

Die, Lover Die! by Top Suspense is now available for $0.99 for the Nook, and soon to be available for the Kindle.

And don't forget the Inside Top Suspense discussion that will be going on all week.

INSIDE TOP SUSPENSE

2011-06-20T04:19:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the launch of INSIDE TOP SUSPENSE, an ongoing discussion on the craft of fiction writing. Between us, the members of the Top Suspense group (you can see who we are on the right) have published literally hundreds of novels and stories, many of them best-sellers and award-winners. In the coming months we hope to share our knowledge with you.

Each week (or maybe two, depending on our schedule) several of us will discuss a topic related to the craft of writing and publishing crime, thrillers, and horror. We’ll let you know what’s worked for us and what hasn’t. But that's only part of the conversation. We'd also like you to join in. Ask questions, share reactions, tell us what works for you.

One caveat – this is not a place to BSP. While we might mention how a technique worked (or didn’t) in one of our novels, this isn't the place to advertise your work. We want this to be a forum that helps us all become better writers.

NOTE: HUGE APOLOGIES TO EVERYONE WHO CAME TO READ MAX ALLAN COLLINS TAKE ON SUSPENSE AND DIDNT FIND IT. THE BLOG ADMINISTRATOR (THAT WOULD BE ME... LIBBY... HAS BEEN WITHOUT POWER... (THANK YOU COM ED...) SINCE TUESDAY. I HAD TO FLY TO NEW ORLEANS TO GET ELECTRICITY... AND I'M ONLY HALF KIDDING. SO SCROLL ON DOWN TO FIND MAX'S TAKE ON SUSPENSE, AND LET'S GET THE PARTY ROLLING AGAIN. STEPHEN GALLAGHER, OUR BRIT MEMBER, HAS ALSO WEIGHED IN. WE STILL HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND IN STORE FOR YOU.

Our first topic is -- not surprisingly – suspense. What technique of suspense is most effective for you… and why? Thriller author Joel Goldman, whose first Lou Mason novel, MOTION TO KILL, has just been republished as an e-book, leads off, followed by Libby Fischer Hellmann. On Tuesday, Vicki Hendricks reports in, and Wednesday, the one and only Max Allan Collins. Finally, on Thursday, UK author and screenwriter Stephen Gallagher weighs in. During the week you’ll hear from the rest of us in the comments section as well. So, grab your favorite beverage, pull up to the screen, and join in. We hope INSIDE TOP SUSPENSE will become your favorite place to hang out!

Joel Goldman here and thanks to Libby for kicking things off. Suspense depends on several things. First, the reader has to care what happens to the characters. If they don't, the payoff is nothing more than a curiosity. Second, suspense has to build slowly at first and then accelerate with a combination of inevitability and unpredictability. The payoff can be something the reader knows is coming but dreads or something the reader doesn't see coming that leaves her gasping and shouting Holy Crap! Finally, the mix of plot and character has to make sense, even if it involves characters making bad choices or events that strain (but don't break) credibility. Don't confuse suspense with suspension of disbelief. And it never hurts to make your prose sing and zing.

Libby, here. I agree suspense has to accelerate, but one of my favorite techniques -- which you can only use during moments of high suspense and/or action -- is something I call "Literary Slow Motion." It's what William Goldman did in HEAT where he spent something like 6 pages describing 18 seconds. I love to s-l-o-w down the action using as many sensory details as possible... ie the hero has been knocked to the ground, and he sees a boot coming at him, feels the snow and ice on his cheek, hears a laugh from the enemy, tastes blood in his mouth... etc. The more details you can add, the more the reader is invested, and hopefully is compelled to keep reading.

I have a question for you, Joel... or anyone. How far can you strain credibility? How much is too much?

From Vicki
I'll let someone else answer that question and go on with my tip for the day.
The most well-known and easiest to explain suspense technique, the only one that I know of with a name, is called “The Ticking Clock.” The writer sets a figurative clock ticking or, in the case of the TV series 24, a literal clock. Other examples: the cop is given 24 hours to find evidence on the murderer to avoid being accused, the woman has 2 hours to get an antidote for her snake bite, or the scuba diver has half an hour of air left, it’s getting dark, and murderers are on a boat above her, looking for her bubbles. The last one is from my novel Iguana Love, and it was a challenge to think of a way out for the character with that set up, but knowledge of equipment always offers possibilities, while underwater vulnerability and lurking creatures keep the reader turning pages. Once the time is set in any story, the reader’s subconscious will keep the clock ticking to heighten the tension in every scene.

From Stephen Gallagher
My take on suspense is a pretty straightforward one, I think. You have a character with whom the reader empathises, who needs to achieve something. Bad things are going to happen if he or she doesn't achieve it.

As they set out, everything seems set for success. But then obstacles arise - immediate, unplanned-for problems that have to be solved before your protagonist can move forward toward the greater goal. Meanwhile, the bigger situation deteriorates and the bad consequences loom larger.

Solving the lesser problem may get your protagonist closer, but gives rise to further problems that will impede progress even more. This is where the art comes in. Those problems have to be entertaining, and the effect of the delays and diversions has to be a pleasurable one. Suspense isn't about making the reader uncomfortable. It's about deferring closure in a way that heightens the anticipation of it.

The reader is trusting you to deliver an ultimate reward. But there's only a slim chance of success for your protagonist. And it gets ever slimmer, the closer you get to it. Will that slim chance disappear altogether just as you get there, or will your protagonist make it in time? For me that's the essence of suspense.

From Max Allan Collins
I don't really think in terms of suspense techniques. I am an instinctive writer and fairly linear, and just set up suspenseful situations and let them play out, as dictated by character. The most conscious craft decision I make along those lines is where to start and end chapters. Like many, if not most writers of msytery/crime fiction, I try to start at an exciting point. I was raised on Mickey Spillane, and his beginnings -- and for that matter his endings -- are always the gold standard for me. In KISS ME DEADLY, a beautiful woman, (naked but for a trenchcoat) jumps in front of Mike Hammer's car, to force him to pick her up, in the first paragraph. So I am very careful to start at an interesting, compelling point. That strategy works for the first chapter, but really every chapter. And the end of the chapter -- yes the cliff-hanger -- is equally important. The idea is to make the reader start reading, and keep reading.

Another technique -- really a strategy -- is to play against the reader's expectations. In a thriller there are certain conventional situations that can't be avoided, so giving them a fresh spin can keep the reader guessing and ratchet up the suspense. In the Nate Heller novel I'm working on, a very cliched moment arrives -- two thugs show up to take Heller for a ride to see a mob boss. But Heller knows these guys are killers and just goes Nancy Reagan on 'em ... just says no. He says he will follow them to the mob boss and will take the meeting, but will not get in the car with them. No violence breaks out, but the threat of it hangs over a very tense scene.

More Praise for Julius Katz and Archie

2011-06-19T14:16:00.001-07:00

Wendy reviews Julius Katz and Archie over at the Minding Spot, and wraps up her review saying:

"Another superb Julius Katz and Archie mystery! Their are clues revealed through-out for the reader to try and figure out who the killer is, with Archie leading the way. But Julius always does something "off-screen" to trip Archie up. The plot it tight and sound, having this reader guessing the whole way while being thoroughy entertained! Archie is one of the best characters out there in mystery and suspense. Very cleverly written -- I can't wait for the next one!"

A Chat With The Little Guy

2011-06-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

I have a friendly chat with Archie here.

If anyone has additional questions they'd like me ask Archie, or even possibly Julius, leave them here, and I'll see if I can get them answered.

--Dave Zeltserman

Why I Donate Royalties "For the Kids"

2011-06-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

“Flesh & Bones” a bestselling Jake Lassiter thriller, is now an e-book priced at 99 cents for a short time. TSG author Paul Levine explains why he has pledged all royalties to childhood cancer treatment.

By Paul Levine

In the United States today, one in 300 children will be diagnosed with some form of cancer. All of us have friends or family members who have fought that grueling battle. These days, with great advances in medicine, there’s a increasing chance the fight has been successful.

Yet, progress seems excruciatingly slow for those on the front lines.

A few years ago, one of my dearest friends, the godfather of my son, lost his daughter Margaux to Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare but vicious bone cancer. Another friend, a well-known author, has lost both a child and a grandchild to the disease. The survival rate for Ewing’s sarcoma that metastasizes is a disheartening 10 per cent.

Ten per cent!

In this age of medical miracles, how can that be?

After Margaux’s death at age 14, I dedicated a book to her. Such a feeble gesture. I wanted to do more. Still do. Here’s how.

“Flesh & Bones,” a legal thriller in which Jake Lassiter falls for his client, a woman who may have murdered her own father, was published internationally to wide acclaim in 1997. Out of print for many years, it’s now a 99-cent e-book, with all proceeds going to the Four Diamonds Fund, a charity that pays for treatment of pediatric cancer patients at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital.

This is my second venture into publishing for charity. Last summer, my first novel, “To Speak for the Dead,” was brought out of retirement as an e-book and produced thousands of dollars for the Four Diamonds Fund. That book introduced the world to Jake Lassiter, a linebacker-turned-lawyer who searches for justice but seldom finds it.

Penn State students have adopted the Four Diamonds Fund as their cause and have contributed an astonishing $78 million through their annual dance marathon, which goes by the slogan: “For the Kids.” This year’s event raised more than $9 million alone.

One more thing. If each of us can contribute – just a bit – we may help do something everlasting “for the kids” by conquering childhood cancer.

“Flesh & Bones,” priced at 99 cents for a short time, is available on Kindle, Nook, and at Smashwords. More information on Paul Levine’s Website.

A Cool New Cover for Dying Memories + free copies

2011-06-16T06:45:00.000-07:00

To celebrate this cool new cover for Dying Memories, I'll be giving away free copies to the first 5 people who ask for one. Send me an email to dave.zeltserman@gmail.com and let me know whether you'd like a kindle or nook version.

--Dave Zeltserman

The Stoker Awards

2011-06-14T19:41:00.000-07:00

The Horror Writers Association Stoker awards ceremony will be broadcast live and advertisement free Saturday June 18th. The feed will begin at 9:30 PM EST at this web address:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/horror-writer-awards

I'm up for a Stoker for Best Collection (A Host of Shadows) and plan on losing to some guy named Stephen King. Happy Father's Day!
Harry Shannon

FINAL COUNTDOWN!

2011-06-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

FINAL COUNTDOWN!

The final countdown is on for the launch of the ebook edition of Motion To Kill!! In only 48 hours - absent any last second techno-glitches, my first self-published ebook will go live on Amazon and I can't wait!

Help make the launch rocket through the roof by going to my Amazon page and "Like" Motion To Kill and read the reviews (all 5 and 4 stars!) and click "Yes" on each one as a helpful review. Amazon loves these kinds of statistics and the more "Likes" and the more "Yes" clicks, the more Amazon will promote the book and the happier my wife will be!

And, if you prefer another format besides Kindle, you can order it right now on Smashwords!

Stay tuned! It's going to be a great week!

13 Facts About Julius Katz

2011-06-09T09:19:00.001-07:00

1) Julius Katz is a brilliant, eccentric and, ultimately, very lazy detective, who like another brilliant, eccentric and lazy detective, Nero Wolfe, needs to be pestered by a sidekick named Archie to work. But there are distinct differences between Julius and Nero, just as there are between Nero’s Archie Goodwin and Julius’s Archie.

2) Julius owns a townhouse in the Beacon Hill section of Boston, while Nero resides in Manhattan.

3) Julius is a wine connoisseur with an extensive wine collection, while Nero drinks beer.

4) Julius is handsome, physically fit, and a 5th degree black belt in Kung Fu. Nero is none of those, weighing in at one seventh of a ton.

5) Julius is a womanizer, at least he was before he fell madly in love with Lily Rosten, who did the same with Julius. Nero is afraid of women.

6) Julius’s favorite pastime is gambling, especially poker. Nero’s is taking care of his orchids.

7) Julius is a gourmet, as is Nero.

8) Julius’s arch nemesis on the police force is Detective Mark Cramer. Nero’s is Inspector Cramer.

9) Julius’s favorite freelance PIs to hire are Saul Penzer, Tom Durkin and Willie Cather. Nero’s are Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin and Orrie Cather.

10) Julius has a bit of a larcenous streak in him. I haven’t done a family tree yet, but I suspect he shares some DNA with my con man Pete Mitchel.

11) Julius will only allow himself to be pestered by Archie into taking a case when his funds have reached dire levels.

12) While Nero’s Archie Goodwin is a flesh-and-blood hardboiled PI, Julius’s Archie is something entirely different, although he has the heart and soul of a hardboiled PI.

13) While fiercely loyal of Julius, Archie dreams of beating his boss to the punch in solving case. Maybe some day it will happen.

About Julius Katz and Archie

The award-winning Julius Katz mysteries have delighted thousands of mystery fans since first appearing on the pages of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in 2009, winning a Shamus, Derringer and Ellery Queen’s Readers Choice Award. ‘Julius Katz’ introduced readers to Boston’s most brilliant, eccentric and possibly laziest detective, Julius Katz, as well as his sidekick, Archie, a tiny marvel of whizbang computer technology with the heart and soul of a hard-boiled PI. Now in Julius Katz and Archie’s first full novel, the stakes have never been higher when a famous Boston mystery writer, Kenneth Kingston, tells Julius he wants to find out who’s planning to kill him. The problem is almost everyone in Kingston’s life has good reason to want to kill him, and this case soon plunges Julius and Archie deep into the world of murder and publishing. Julius Katz and Archie is available for #2.99 as either a Nook or Kindle download.

Black River Falls, classic noir

2011-06-07T06:25:00.000-07:00

Harry Shannon here. Our colleague Ed Gorman's classic mass-market noir novel "Black River Falls" is available on Kindle for only $2.99!

http://dailycheapreads.com/2011/06/07/black-river-falls-noir-classic/

RUNNING COLD is Kindle Book of the Day

2011-06-04T06:52:00.000-07:00

Harry Shannon here. We have a very nice Kindle Nation feature today on both "Running Cold" and "The Mick Callahan Novels" at discount Kindle prices.

http://kindlenationdaily.com/2011/06/kindle-ebook-of-the-day-harry-shannons-running-cold-the-latest-in-the-popular-mick-callahan-mystery-series-4-9-stars-from-21-reviews-and-just-2-99-on-kindle-read-this-free-sample-and-yo

Buy THE WALK for 99 cents this week...and get THE DEAD MAN for free!

2011-05-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

It was two years ago today that, at Joe Konrath's urging, I began my "Kindle Experiment" by making my out-of-print book THE WALK available as an ebook. I've sold close to 20,000 copies of THE WALK since then...and to celebrate, I am pricing the book at just 99 cents for the next week.

And as a special gift, if you email me proof of purchase of THE WALK at lee AT leegoldberg.com, I will email you, in return, a free copy of my new book THE DEAD MAN #1: FACE OF EVIL.

That's two books for just 99 cents. You can't beat that!

Interview with Criminal-E

2011-05-27T06:37:00.001-07:00

Harry Shannon here, have a new interview up with the UK's Allan Guthrie at Criminalk-E

http://criminal-e.blogspot.com/2011/05/harry-shannon-interview-running-cold.html?spref=fb

Julius Katz and Archie endorced by the Wolfe Pack!

2011-05-23T06:36:00.001-07:00

'Julius Katz and Archie' ($2.99) gets a very nice endorsement from the Wolfe Pack.

The multi-award winning novellas by Dave Zeltserman, originally published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine are now available as e-books, online, AND the long-awaited, full length novel is also now available online for download -- all in a variety of formats.

This intriguing mystery series evidences some similarities to Rex Stout's detective pair, Nero & Archie, but only some. This modern-day duo from Boston's Beacon Hill, are well worth a try. One of the more striking similarities is the humor evoked by first person narrator, Archie Smith.

The Funky Werepig Interview

2011-05-20T17:15:00.001-07:00

Harry Shannon here. Horror talk show host Greg Hall interviews me live on his blog talk radio program The Funky Werepig this Monday. Rated R. Generally profane, outrageous and very off the wall.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/the-funky-werepig/2011/05/23/tfw-harry-shannon

RUNNING COLD (A Mick Callahan Novel)

2011-05-16T06:16:00.000-07:00

RUNNING COLD (A Mick Callahan Novel) just $2.99

Media psychologist Callahan is a failed Navy Seal, a recovering alcoholic and a loyal friend. He's also a man with a hot temper and a talent for getting himself into trouble. In this brand new adventure, the fourth book in the popular series, Callahan finds himself up against an angry young soldier just home from Afghanistan. Wes McCann's father is a compulsive gambler and one of Mick's clients. His brutal murder sets these two dangerous men on a collision course.

"Mick Callahan is a man with a past, a mean right hook, and a radio talk show. He's pretty good at giving people advice - just not necessarily good at taking it. The strength of this series is in its central characters, flawed, human, often funny, sometimes tragic, and the relationships among them."
-Mystery Scene

http://www.amazon.com/Running-Cold-Callahan-Novels-ebook/dp/B0050USCBE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1305467911&sr=1-2

Julius Katz and Archie now available for $2.99 -- Kindle or Nook!

2011-05-14T16:21:00.000-07:00

The award-winning Julius Katz mysteries have delighted thousands of mystery fans since first appearing on the pages of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in 2009, winning a Shamus, Derringer and Ellery Queen’s Readers Choice Award . 'Julius Katz' introduced readers to Boston's most brilliant, eccentric and possibly laziest detective, Julius Katz, as well as his sidekick, Archie, a tiny marvel of whiz-bang computer technology with the heart and soul of a hard-boiled PI.

Now in Julius Katz and Archie’s first full-length mystery, the stakes have never been higher when a famous Boston mystery, Kenneth Kingston, tells Julius he wants to find out who’s planning to kill him. The problem is almost everyone in Kingston’s life has good reason to want to kill him, and this case soon plunges Julius and Archie deep into the world of murder and publishing.

Buy now for $2.99 for either Kindle or Nook!

New-- now available at Smashwords

New -- early review for Julius Katz and Archie

PRAISE FOR JULIUS KATZ AND ARCHIE:

“Julius Katz may be the titular star of Dave Zeltserman's new novel, but it's the voice of his AI assistant, Archie, that carries the day. Archie's more human than most "real" people, and funnier, too. The satire bites, and the mystery satisfies. Julius and Archie became favorites of mine when they first appeared in Zeltserman's award-winning short stories, and they're even better in novel form. Long may they thrive.” Bill Crider, author of the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series

“Fans of Donna Andrews's Turing Hopper artificial intelligence mysteries, rejoice! Award-winning author Dave Zeltserman has created silicon chip Archie, the high-tech sidekick to Julius Katz, Boston's most famous and laziest wine-drinking detective. Here is a delightful traditional mystery that follows in the footsteps of Dorothy L. Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey series.” --Naomi Hirahara, Edgar Award winning author of the Mas Arai mysteries

“Julius Katz and Archie is a charming and sophisticated drawing room mystery from the pen of the multifaceted Dave Zeltserman. Although the book harks back to the classic whodunits of the Nero Wolfe era, eccentric detective Julius Katz’s sidekick, Archie, is a character straight out of tomorrow: the brilliantly conceived spawn of our digital world. The clever plotting will satisfy mystery aficionados, while long time Zeltserman fans will be pleased to hear that there is a fist of steel lurking under the elegantly tailored velvet glove.” Roger smith, author of Wake Up Dead and Mixed Blood

"It's a nifty change-of-pace for the usually hard-boiled Dave Zeltserman. Clever, sophisticated and witty, 'Julius Katz & Archie' will thrill fans of Nero Wolfe...and readers who never heard of him! Zeltserman knows how to mix character, action, and plot and create a pitch-perfect, modern mystery. More, Sir! The sooner the better." -- Paul Levine, author of "Flesh & Bones"

"Julius Katz is not only one of the most popular and award-winning creations in modern mystery fiction, the sheer wit and cunning of Dave Zeltserman's writing takes you into a world as amusing and surprising as the Rex Stout novels that Dave honors with this character." Ed Gorman, author of Stranglehold

"I’ll say no more but rest assured this is another zesty page turner choc full of smart twists, colorful characters and laugh out loud moments. Katz is a great creation and he and Archie, the heart of the book, are a smashing team." Paul Brazill

Ed Gorman's The Marilyn Tapes for 99 cents!

2011-05-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

Daily Cheap Reads is offering Ed Gorman's classic novel The Marilyn Tapes on Kindle for just 99 cents! Download intrigue, JFK, RFK, Marilyn Monroe and J. Edgar Hoover now.

http://dailycheapreads.com/2011/05/10/the-marilyn-tapes-historical-fiction-mystery-and-intrigue-99-cents/

Night of the Beast .99

2011-05-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

DailyCheapReads.com » Night of the Beast – “tour-de-force of pulp horror” – 99 cents for the first t

Harry here. The cool site dailycheapreads.com features "Night of the Beast," a loving, over-the-top homage to pulp writing and the 1970′s-80′s mass-market horror explosion. It cheerfully salutes every trope in the genre. The novel has become something of a cult classic. Newly proofed and formatted, only .99 for a short time only.

New double e-book from Zeltserman and Zandri

2011-05-06T08:49:00.001-07:00

From award-winning author, Dave Zeltserman, and Amazon bestselling author, Vincent Zandri, comes a double e-book featuring their latest thrillers, Dying Memories and God Child, for $3.99. Check it out!

Still #1

2011-05-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

Latest rankings from Amazon for the Top Suspense Anthology:

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #191 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

#1 in Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery > Anthologies
#54 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers
#55 in Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

For $0.99, see what the buzz is all about!!

We're #1 Mystery Anthology on Kindle!

2011-05-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

"Top Suspense" is the #1 Mystery Anthology on Kindle, and the #3 "Mover and Shaker" at the same time, i.e. fastest moving. Remember, it is priced at only .99 for the next two weeks, so grab your copy now.

http://www.amazon.com/Top-Suspense-Classic-Stories-ebook/dp/B004S7ACY0/ref=pd_sim_kinc_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC

Top Suspense Specials for May

2011-05-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

All of these e-books are being priced at $0.99 for the month of May only, with prices being set back to $2.99 for June 1st

Top Suspense: 13 Classic Stories by 12 Masters of the Genre

From Lee Goldberg:

THE DEAD MAN: FACE OF EVIL

From Libby Hellmann:
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE
EASY INNOCENCE
DOUBLEBACK
NICE GIRL DOES NOIR

From Paul Levine:

THE ROAD TO HELL

From Harry Shannon:

Dead and Gone

From Dave Zeltserman:

Julius Katz Mysteries
Blood Crimes

3 Mick Callahan Novels $4.99 Daily Cheap Reads!

2011-04-30T06:29:00.001-07:00

Harry Shannon here. The first three Mick Callahan hard cover novels are now in one Kindle bundle on Daily Cheap Reads for $4.99

http://dailycheapreads.com/2011/04/30/savings-by-the-bundle-three-nick-callahan-novels-for-4-99/

And now back to your regular programming :D

SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE now 99 cents thru May

2011-04-27T18:07:00.001-07:00

The price of my latest thriller, which goes back, in part, to the late Sixties in Chicago, has just come down to 99 cents on Kindle. Here's what they're saying about it:

"A tremendous thriller, sweeping but intimate, elegiac but urgent, suble but intense... this story really does set the night on fire.." Lee Child

"Superior .. Passion, pain, and protests emerge in vivid detail.." Chicago Tribune

"A jazzy fusion of past and present, Hellmann's insightful, politically charged whodunit explores a fascinating period in American history..." Publishers Weekly

You can find it here. The price will go up again in June, so I hope you'll give it a look now.

Thanks.... Libby

Blood Crimes reduced to $0.99

2011-04-24T14:46:00.001-07:00

The price of Blood Crimes is being reduced to $0.99 until the end of May!

Here's what people having been saying about Blood Crimes:

"I've just read the manuscript of Dave Zeltserman's new novel, Blood Crimes. This is one of the few fresh takes on vampirism I've read in years. It's as if Charles Bukowski sat down and said, OK, Bram Stoker, how about this?" -- Ed Gorman, author of Cage of Night and The Poker Club.

"I'd call it the anti-Twilight, and in my book that's a good thing." Bill Crider

"BLOOD CRIMES is a fast-moving, masterfully written, first-rate vampire tale for the intellectual set." David Cramner, Education of a Pulp Writer

"Dave, has managed to meld the two genres of crime and horror into one one hell of a ride, PI's, crime lords, drug gangs, sultry babes and more low life scum than you can count all collide with explosive results in this genre bending master piece. If you like crime buy this book, if you like horror buy this book, if you like well written books, buy this book." Jim Mcleod, Ginger Nuts of Horror

"Mix in an angry biker gang, lots of guns, and samurai sword fights, and you’ll start to understand what makes Blood Crimes such a great opener to what I hope will be a great series. Zeltserman holds nothing back with this book. Full throttle all the way. Very bloody. Very noir. I can’t wait for the sequel to drop. Highly recommended." Spinetingler Magazine

"From here on in Zeltserman's vamp/crime thriller takes off at a breakneck speed. The action that follows is intense and blood drenched. There are also unexpected twists that will take you by surprise and leave you gaping at your Kindle in shock."
Peter Leonard, Man Eating Bookworm

"Zeltserman, a noir author from deep in his bones, has always flirted with horror--his Caretaker of Lorne Field ranks as one of the best novels in that category back in 2010. Blood Crimes goes over the retaining wall and into the dark woods, throwing in delightful twists on reliable tropes... These aren't your sister's romantic vampires, to say the least." Harry Shannon

"Okay. Let's see if I can explain this. Take today's typical vampire fiction, shove it into Bedlam House and whip it with a cat-o'-ninetails to force it to breed with your grittiest crime thriller. That's what you'll get when you open up this book. Blood Crimes is fast. It's visceral. It's definitely not your fourteen-year-old sister's dreamy vampire fantasy. This book grabs you by the guttiwuts, wrenches hard, and doesn't let go. But don't get me wrong, this isn't your run-of-the-mill shock literature. Zeltserman weaves a disturbing noir with a passionate craftsman's hand over his characters." Mindy Mackay, Protect Your Sensibilities

Now's your chance to try Blood Crimes Book One for $0.99 as either a Kindle or Nook download. The price will be set back to $2.99 June 1st.

Two Sixties Stories

2011-04-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

By Libby Hellmann

As some of you know, my most recent novel, SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE, is a thriller that goes back, in part, to the late Sixties in Chicago. Fortunately or unfortunately, I remember those years and would like to share with you two stories from that time. An abbreviated version of one – a love story -- is in the book, but the other has an ending I just discovered a few months ago.

I lived in Georgetown during what I now call “The Summer of My Discontent.” I shared an apartment with four other people above a movie theater at 28^th and M. (Both are gone now). I was working at an underground newspaper, selling them on the streets, and generally trying to make sense of the world. Next door to the movie theater was a head shop run by a weird – but sweet -- guy named Bobby. He wore black all the time, before there were Goths. The scent of Patchouli oil hung in the air.

I used to drop in every once in a while. Often two of his friends, Donna and Linda, would be there. They were a couple: Linda had long brown hair and appeared to be kind of spacey. Donna had short blond hair and wore a leather jacket, even during July. They were cool, though, in the way that everyone was cool back then, and we’d smoke a joint, laugh a lot, and discuss what a shitty place the world was becoming. Then, around August, they disappeared. After not seeing them for a week or so, I asked Bobby where they went. He hemmed and hawed and wouldn’t tell me. Finally, he did.

Donna used to be Don, he said. And was going through the process of becoming a woman, but hadn’t completed it when she met Linda. They fell in love, and because of that, they jointly (no pun intended) agreed that Donna should turn back into Don. So they hustled some money from someone and were off to California to reverse Donna’s transformation.

That’s what I call a love story. Btw, I never saw them again, but I still think about them.

The other story is more political. As I said, I worked at an underground newspaper in DC for a summer. I was just a flunkie, not even considered staff. But there was a photographer, Sal, who was in and out all the time. He took photos at every demonstration, interview, and event that could be considered “alternative.” I actually had a crush on him at one point. (Yes, I know. Very bourgeois).

At any rate, the editor of the newspaper was very cautious about trusting people, almost to the point of paranoia. He always thought the paper was being infiltrated by CIA or FBI types (these were the days before COINTELPRO proved the FBI was indeed infiltrating radical groups) At the time, I thought his paranoia was exaggerated. Triggered perhaps by an inflated sense of self-importance.

I left at the end of the summer to hitchhike across country (That’s a different story), but I heard a few months later that Sal had left too, and was off to Paris. He stayed there for a while, then disappeared. I never knew what happened to him.

Then, about a month ago, well after I finished SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE, I Googled some of the people from the newspaper. Suddenly a photo of Sal popped up. It turns out he had been featured in Secrets: The CIA's War at Home by Angus MacKenzie.

You guessed it. Sal had been a CIA agent, recruited when he was in college in Chicago. The entire time he was taking photos for the paper, he was reporting to his CIA handler. Eventually, I think the editor suspected him. Maybe he even confronted him, which precipitated his abrupt departure.

It doesn’t end there. According to MacKenzie’s book, Sal went to Paris, befriended Philip Agee, himself a former CIA agent turned whistleblower, and fiddled around with the typewriter on which Agee was writing his story. Agee discovered it, and Sal fled. From what I understand he changed his name and now lives in Southern California.

True stories. Really. I mean, who could make this stuff up?

Mick Callahan invades the UK

2011-04-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

Harry Shannon here. Happy to note that my series character Mick Callahan gets a bit of respect from across the pond.

http://thegingernutcase.blogspot.com/2011/04/question-how-do-make-harry-shannon.html#links

My New Kindle Book

2011-04-17T06:55:00.001-07:00

A YA mystery novel about a girl who thinks she's related to Sherlock Holmes. Get it here. Help me become Kindle millionaire like Lee Goldberg!

Ed Gorman interviews John D. MacDonald!

2011-04-17T06:39:00.001-07:00

Harry Shannon here. Ran across this interview Ed Gorman did with John D. MacDonald a ways back. Found it via Google. Fascinating stuff.

http://www.mysteryfile.com/JDM/Interview.html

By the way, our esteemed colleague Ed's classic dark mystery novel "Black River Falls" is now on Kindle for just $2.99! Check it out here:

http://www.amazon.com/Black-River-Falls-ebook/dp/B004D4ZQMQ/ref=pd_sim_kinc_6?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Coming June 1st --Julius Katz and Archie

2011-04-16T06:29:00.000-07:00

Coming June 1st, the first full-length Julius Katz novel will be published as an original e-book, and will be available for $2.99. Here's some advanced praise for Julius Katz and Archie:

“Julius Katz and Archie is a charming and sophisticated drawing room mystery from the pen of the multifaceted Dave Zeltserman. Although the book harks back to the classic whodunits of the Nero Wolfe era, eccentric detective Julius Katz’s sidekick, Archie, is a character straight out of tomorrow: the brilliantly conceived spawn of our digital world. The clever plotting will satisfy mystery aficionados, while long time Zeltserman fans will be pleased to hear that there is a fist of steel lurking under the elegantly tailored velvet glove.” Roger Smith, author of Wake Up Dead and Mixed Blood

"Julius Katz is not only one of the most popular and award-winning creations in modern mystery fiction, the sheer wit and cunning of Dave Zeltserman's writing takes you into a world as amusing and surprising as the Rex Stout novels that Dave honors with this character." Ed Gorman

Lauren's run--giving readers a chance to catch up

2011-04-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

Parts 8-12 will run Monday-Friday of next week. For now we'd like to give readers a chance to catch up what's been posted so far for Lauren's Run.

Parts 1 - 7
____________

Lauren Blaine rolled down the window as she cruised up Lake Shore Drive in the stolen Camry. No one ever told her the Windy City was so pretty, even at two in the morning. On one side a silver moon spilled a veil of sparks on the lake; on the other a few insomniacs’ lights twinkled in the high-rises. Chicago might be nicer than LA. She smiled, looking forward to a fresh start. Why not? She had the money and the talent. And the Glock.

She turned off the Drive, looking for a twenty-four-hour restaurant. Danger always gave her an appetite, and there’d been plenty of that back in Kansas. She’d spent the last twelve hours racing north to Nebraska in Marlboro Man’s pickup, leaving the carnage – and the bodies -- behind. Then east into Iowa where she ditched the truck at a rest stop and hot-wired the Camry. She mentally thanked Hank for teaching her the necessary survival skills.

Now, she spotted the yellow sign above a Golden Nugget on a corner. She parked, slipped the Glock into her waistband, and stashed most of the cash in the trunk. Ducking her head to avoid the video camera tilting down on the sidewalk, she pushed through the door to the restaurant.

Inside, the staff outnumbered the customers. A waitress chatted up the short order cook behind the counter, and the sole customer, a man, crouched over a plate of what might have been meat loaf.

She slid into a booth in the back and picked up a greasy, laminated menu. She was ravenous. The waitress sauntered over and gave her the once-over.

“What ‘ll it be, honey?”

Lauren was about to answer when the door of the restaurant swung open.

A woman came in wearing tight, black leather pants and a faded bomber jacket over a Roots hoody. Her short-cropped hair was jet-black and so was her skin. She looked directly at Lauren with an intensity, and a smile of recognition, that made her stomach seize up.

She knows me.

But that wasn’t possible. There were thousands of miles, and several dead bodies, between her and any place she’d ever been before and anyone who’d ever known her.

It had to be a mistake.

“She’ll have a rare, double-cheese burger with mayonnaise, catsup, mustard, and raw onions, no tomato, crispy fries and a Coke, no ice,” the woman said as she strode over and slid into the booth across the table from Lauren.

Oh yes, she knows me.

It was exactly what Lauren was about to order, her favorite midnight snack.

But Lauren wasn’t hungry any more. She was scared and tired and pissed off.

The waitress scratched out the order on her pad then looked up at the black woman. “What’ll you have?”

“A slice of chocolate cake,” she said. “Black and sweet, like me.”

“I’m sure you are,” the waitress said and lumbered off.

Lauren stared into the woman’s eyes. Her Glock was already aimed at the woman’s crotch under the table.

“Who are you?”

The woman smiled. “That depends, Lauren. If you give me the money you took, I’m the seductive Nubian goddess you had an erotically-charged, late-night meal with one dark night on the road and always regretted not fucking. If you don’t give me the money, then I’m the bad-ass black bitch who killed you with that Glock you’re holding and then burned this hell-hole to the ground.”

Lauren kept her gaze level and her face expressionless.

Never let them see your fear.

“So you work for that low-life Jimmy?” she said.

“More like he works for me, angel.”

“And the money...”

“Mine. Just like your white ass.”

“Bullshit. Jimmy runs all the crank between St. Louis and–”

The woman’s laugh could have scared a Doberman Pinscher. “He told me you liked double cheeseburgers and were smart as hell. As least he got it half right.”

Under the table, Lauren’s hand was beginning to cramp. A Glock with a full clip is a helluva lot heavier than a man’s cock, even Jimmy’s. “What’s there to keep me from shooting you and hitting the road before you bleed out?”

“Think about it. Jimmy works for me. I work for The Man. You fuck with Jimmy, I’m on your ass. You fuck with me, The Man unleashes a shit storm you cannot imagine.”

The waitress delivered the cheeseburger and fries, but Lauren had lost her appetite. The woman grabbed the burger, French kissed a glob of mayo oozing out of the bun, and took a bite. Grease coated her lower lip, and she flicked at it with her tongue.

After a moment, Lauren said, “I don’t have your money.”

“No shit.”

“I stashed it in a farmhouse in Kansas.”

“You stashed it in the trunk of that dumb-ass Camry.” Another laugh like a barking dog.

Shit. She followed me. Maybe all the way from Kansas.

“So you’ve got the money back...”

“Except for what’s stuffed in your bra. Or did you suddenly become a D-cup?"”

“I don't get it. What do you want with me?”

The woman picked up a fry. Her long nails were perfectly manicured and painted blood red. “You gotta pay for what you did.” She sucked the fry into her mouth, took one bite, and swallowed. “You gotta do a job for The Man.”

One quick fluid motion, and Lauren slid out of the booth and pointed the Glock at the woman’s chest. “Tell the bastard to make an appointment.”

The woman’s fist shot out so quickly Lauren didn’t realize she’d been hit until she heard the Glock hit the tile floor and felt the stinger deep in her shoulder joint. A split second later, the woman was on her feet, a strong hand clamped around Lauren’s neck.

“This is the one who killed all those guys in Kansas?”

It was a man’s voice coming from behind Lauren. Filled with disbelief.

“She’s better than this,” the black woman said.

“I hope so, for your sake.”

Lauren strained to turn her head but the woman’s grip was too tight. She knew it was The Man behind her. What she didn’t know was what the hell he wanted with her.

“Hey! Leave her alone!” It was the guy at the counter. He gave up on his meatloaf and slid off the stool, hands on his hips. “I said let her go or I’ll call the cops!”

The Man laughed and nodded at the black woman. Still squeezing Lauren’s neck, she reached inside her bomber jacket with her other hand, whipped out a six-inch carbon steel throwing knife and let it fly, catching the guy in the throat. His carotid artery erupted in a bloody geyser as he melted to the floor.

Bug-eyed, Lauren looked around the diner. There was no sign of the cook or the waitress. For their sakes, she hoped they’d hit the street running and weren’t looking back. The Man had the same question.

“The cook and the waitress – where the hell are they?”

The black woman shrugged. “Fuck if I know.”

“Well find out, you stupid bitch! Now! We can’t afford any witnesses.”

“What about her?”

The Man grabbed Lauren’s arm, twisting it behind her back until Lauren was certain he’d rip it out of her shoulder. “Her? I can handle her. Now lock the door, turn off the lights and find those two!”

The black woman picked up Lauren’s Glock, did as she was told and disappeared in the back of the diner.

The Man tightened his grip on Lauren’s arm until she grunted in pain.

“You really bite that farm boy’s cock off?”

“Yeah.”

He leaned in close, cupping her breast and rubbing his cock against her, whispering in her ear. “Guess I’ll just have to play it safe and give it to you up the ass.”

A woman’s scream echoed from the back of the diner. The Man grinned until the lights came on and he saw the waitress, holding the black woman’s head in one hand, blood dripping from her severed neck, and aiming Lauren’s Glock at him. She put a round in the center of his face before he could make a sound.

“I swear to God,” the waitress said, “one more ball-sack-for-brains man comes in here and there’s going to be some serious shit go down. Now what’s all this talk about money?”

She dropped the severed head onto the linoleum floor. A bloody cleaver hung from her apron pocket, soaking the cheap fabric red. The waitress was as good with the knife as with the gun. Lauren knew that she was in trouble.

Still gripping the Glock, the waitress made her way closer to Lauren. Her hair was the color of twine with just about the same frizz. Lauren noticed for the first time that her face was completely dotted like her mother’s—you couldn’t tell when the freckles stopped and the age spots started. The skin underneath her chin sagged. The waitress was too old to accept any bullshit, especially from a younger woman. Lauren would have to play this straight.

“They have it now. Or at least had it.” Lauren gestured back towards the Man’s lifeless body and the smear of brain left on the wall.

“Get his keys.”

Lauren complied, stuffing her hand into the man’s jeans pocket, one at a time. Her suspicions were confirmed: the Man didn’t have much to offer.

“Somethin’ funny?”

Lauren remained silent, and fished a circle of keys—including a Ford’s—in the left pocket. She also felt something round and hard which she kept hidden in her palm.

She dangled the keys for the waitress to see. The nose of the Glock directed her out the door to the parking lot.

Police sirens wailed in the distance and Lauren estimated that they had a good five minutes before the black-and-whites arrived.

“Let’s get on with it.”

Lauren didn’t have any arguments with that. But she discovered that she didn’t need any keys because the truck door was already open. The cab was empty, aside from a couple Circle K coffee cups on the passenger side floor.

Underneath a dim street light, yards away, they saw a slight man in an apron carrying a duffel bag make a run for an old Impala. The door slammed and the engine revved before the car tore out of the gravel lot onto the street.

“Fuckin’ Felipe,” the waitress said.

Around the corner on the other side three police cars came speeding in, their sirens and lights blazing.

Before Lauren could react, the waitress had grabbed her by the good arm and hustled her around behind the truck. Five minutes? There were still sirens in the distance but these boys couldn't have been more than a block or two away. As the cruisers slammed to a halt before the restaurant, the waitress put a hand on Lauren's head to push her down and out of sight. The muzzle of the automatic pressed hard against her temple. The waitress peered through the cab and didn't let her up until the cops were safely inside the building.

"Okay, Barbie," the waitress said. "Let's see how well you drive."

"I got punched in the arm," Lauren said. "I can't feel my fingers."

"Sunnuvabitch," the waitress said. "Just get in."

The cops were still inside the diner as the truck pulled away. If any of them heard the squeal of the tires, no one made it out in time to witness their departure.

Two skipped red lights later the waitress said, "I guess it's fair to say that's me well and truly fucked insofar as Cook County's concerned." The woman glanced at Lauren across the cab of the Ford truck, her expression hard in the passing streetlights. "You got a lot to answer for."

"Sorry," Lauren said, squeezing her shoulder and wincing as sensation returned.

"Where are we going?"

"Got to take care of some business," the woman said. "Lucky for us Felipe drives like somebody's Grandma."

The Impala was about half a block ahead of them on an empty street of parked cars, and the distance was narrowing fast. The waitress sped up to get alongside and then, with one deft tweak of the wheel, cut across Felipe and drove him into the side of the road where he hit first a Volkswagen and then a Toyota, which rammed the empty Chevy van in front of it.

About a dozen car alarms were making a screamers' orchestra as the waitress climbed out of the truck and walked toward the Impala. Felipe was kicking at the driver's door to get it open. He scrambled out just as she got there, and tried to run. She tripped him easily, put a foot on his back to stop him rising, and a shot in the back of his head to stop him for good.

Then she got back behind the wheel.

"Poor guy was heading for home," she said. "Got a wife and two babies waiting for him there. It's a damned shame."

They made a U-turn, and headed back toward the diner.

“The fuck are you doing?” Lauren shouted. “The money’s back in the Impala!”

“Yeah, but I got to get rid of you, first, Barbie.” The waitress laughed. “The cops ‘ll wanna give me a fucking medal when I deliver their prime suspect -- all tied up with a neat pink bow.”

Lauren stiffened. She felt her eyes narrow. No fucking way was this bitch gonna get her stash. It belonged to her. No one else. She’d decide who to share it with. Maybe Hank. Maybe she’d even give Jimmy a cut. If she was feeling generous. She whipped her head around. The Impala was receding in the rear view. They were just about back at the diner. She had to act fast.

Three cruisers were double-parked in the street, their engines running. She lunged across the front seat of the truck. Before the waitress could react, Lauren wrenched the wheel hard to the left. The truck slammed into one of the cruisers. The impact threw her back, and Lauren felt her shoulder tear. A wave of pain washed over her. But the Glock, which had been in the waitress’s lap, slipped to the floor. Gritting her teeth against the pain, Lauren bent down and grabbed it. Opening the door with her good arm, she rolled out of the truck and onto the street. She had about two seconds to take off before the cops came outside. She staggered to her feet and took one last look at the waitress. The bitch hadn’t moved, and blood was trickling down her cheek.

Lauren's Run -- Part 7

2011-04-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

“The fuck are you doing?” Lauren shouted. “The money’s back in the Impala!”

“Yeah, but I got to get rid of you, first, Barbie.” The waitress laughed. “The cops ‘ll wanna give me a fucking medal when I deliver their prime suspect -- all tied up with a neat pink bow.”

Lauren stiffened. She felt her eyes narrow. No fucking way was this bitch gonna get her stash. It belonged to her. No one else. She’d decide who to share it with. Maybe Hank. Maybe she’d even give Jimmy a cut. If she was feeling generous. She whipped her head around. The Impala was receding in the rear view. They were just about back at the diner. She had to act fast.

Three cruisers were double-parked in the street, their engines running. She lunged across the front seat of the truck. Before the waitress could react, Lauren wrenched the wheel hard to the left. The truck slammed into one of the cruisers. The impact threw her back, and Lauren felt her shoulder tear. A wave of pain washed over her. But the Glock, which had been in the waitress’s lap, slipped to the floor. Gritting her teeth against the pain, Lauren bent down and grabbed it. Opening the door with her good arm, she rolled out of the truck and onto the street. She had about two seconds to take off before the cops came outside. She staggered to her feet and took one last look at the waitress. The bitch hadn’t moved, and blood was trickling down her cheek.

Lauren's Run -- Part 6

2011-04-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

Before Lauren could react, the waitress had grabbed her by the good arm and hustled her around behind the truck. Five minutes? There were still sirens in the distance but these boys couldn't have been more than a block or two away. As the cruisers slammed to a halt before the restaurant, the waitress put a hand on Lauren's head to push her down and out of sight. The muzzle of the automatic pressed hard against her temple. The waitress peered through the cab and didn't let her up until the cops were safely inside the building.

"Okay, Barbie," the waitress said. "Let's see how well you drive."

"I got punched in the arm," Lauren said. "I can't feel my fingers."

"Sunnuvabitch," the waitress said. "Just get in."

The cops were still inside the diner as the truck pulled away. If any of them heard the squeal of the tires, no one made it out in time to witness their departure.

Two skipped red lights later the waitress said, "I guess it's fair to say that's me well and truly fucked insofar as Cook County's concerned." The woman glanced at Lauren across the cab of the Ford truck, her expression hard in the passing streetlights. "You got a lot to answer for."

"Sorry," Lauren said, squeezing her shoulder and wincing as sensation returned.

"Where are we going?"

"Got to take care of some business," the woman said. "Lucky for us Felipe drives like somebody's Grandma."

The Impala was about half a block ahead of them on an empty street of parked cars, and the distance was narrowing fast. The waitress sped up to get alongside and then, with one deft tweak of the wheel, cut across Felipe and drove him into the side of the road where he hit first a Volkswagen and then a Toyota, which rammed the empty Chevy van in front of it.

About a dozen car alarms were making a screamers' orchestra as the waitress climbed out of the truck and walked toward the Impala. Felipe was kicking at the driver's door to get it open. He scrambled out just as she got there, and tried to run. She tripped him easily, put a foot on his back to stop him rising, and a shot in the back of his head to stop him for good.

Then she got back behind the wheel.

"Poor guy was heading for home," she said. "Got a wife and two babies waiting for him there. It's a damned shame."

They made a U-turn, and headed back toward the diner.

Lauren's Run -- Part 5

2011-04-09T15:17:00.000-07:00

Top Suspense Group: Lauren's Run -- Part 5

Lauren's Run -- Part 5

2011-04-09T10:44:00.000-07:00

She dropped the severed head onto the linoleum floor. A bloody cleaver hung from her apron pocket, soaking the cheap fabric red. The waitress was as good with the knife as with the gun. Lauren knew that she was in trouble.

Still gripping the Glock, the waitress made her way closer to Lauren. Her hair was the color of twine with just about the same frizz. Lauren noticed for the first time that her face was completely dotted like her mother’s—you couldn’t tell when the freckles stopped and the age spots started. The skin underneath her chin sagged. The waitress was too old to accept any bullshit, especially from a younger woman. Lauren would have to play this straight.

“They have it now. Or at least had it.” Lauren gestured back towards the Man’s lifeless body and the smear of brain left on the wall.

“Get his keys.”

Lauren complied, stuffing her hand into the man’s jeans pocket, one at a time. Her suspicions were confirmed: the Man didn’t have much to offer.

“Somethin’ funny?”

Lauren remained silent, and fished a circle of keys—including a Ford’s—in the left pocket. She also felt something round and hard which she kept hidden in her palm.

She dangled the keys for the waitress to see. The nose of the Glock directed her out the door to the parking lot.

Police sirens wailed in the distance and Lauren estimated that they had a good five minutes before the black-and-whites arrived.

“Let’s get on with it.”

Lauren didn’t have any arguments with that. But she discovered that she didn’t need any keys because the truck door was already open. The cab was empty, aside from a couple Circle K coffee cups on the passenger side floor.

Underneath a dim street light, yards away, they saw a slight man in an apron carrying a duffel bag make a run for an old Impala. The door slammed and the engine revved before the car tore out of the gravel lot onto the street.

“Fuckin’ Felipe,” the waitress said.

Around the corner on the other side three police cars came speeding in, their sirens and lights blazing.

Lauren's Run -- Part 4

2011-04-08T07:11:00.000-07:00

“Hey! Leave her alone!” It was the guy at the counter. He gave up on his meatloaf and slid off the stool, hands on his hips. “I said let her go or I’ll call the cops!”

The Man laughed and nodded at the black woman. Still squeezing Lauren’s neck, she reached inside her bomber jacket with her other hand, whipped out a six-inch carbon steel throwing knife and let it fly, catching the guy in the throat. His carotid artery erupted in a bloody geyser as he melted to the floor.

Bug-eyed, Lauren looked around the diner. There was no sign of the cook or the waitress. For their sakes, she hoped they’d hit the street running and weren’t looking back. The Man had the same question.

“The cook and the waitress – where the hell are they?”

The black woman shrugged. “Fuck if I know.”

“Well find out, you stupid bitch! Now! We can’t afford any witnesses.”

“What about her?”

The Man grabbed Lauren’s arm, twisting it behind her back until Lauren was certain he’d rip it out of her shoulder. “Her? I can handle her. Now lock the door, turn off the lights and find those two!”

The black woman picked up Lauren’s Glock, did as she was told and disappeared in the back of the diner.

The Man tightened his grip on Lauren’s arm until she grunted in pain.

“You really bite that farm boy’s cock off?”

“Yeah.”

He leaned in close, cupping her breast and rubbing his cock against her, whispering in her ear. “Guess I’ll just have to play it safe and give it to you up the ass.”
A woman’s scream echoed from the back of the diner. The Man grinned until the lights came on and he saw the waitress, holding the black woman’s head in one hand, blood dripping from her severed neck, and aiming Lauren’s Glock at him. She put a round in the center of his face before he could make a sound.

“I swear to God,” the waitress said, “one more ball-sack-for-brains man comes in here and there’s going to be some serious shit go down. Now what’s all this talk about money?”

Lauren's Run -- Part 3

2011-04-07T06:42:00.000-07:00

Lauren kept her gaze level and her face expressionless.

Never let them see your fear.

“So you work for that low-life Jimmy?” she said.

“More like he works for me, angel.”

“And the money...”

“Mine. Just like your white ass.”

“Bullshit. Jimmy runs all the crank between St. Louis and–”

The woman’s laugh could have scared a Doberman Pinscher. “He told me you liked double cheeseburgers and were smart as hell. As least he got it half right.”

Under the table, Lauren’s hand was beginning to cramp. A Glock with a full clip is a helluva lot heavier than a man’s cock, even Jimmy’s. “What’s there to keep me from shooting you and hitting the road before you bleed out?”

“Think about it. Jimmy works for me. I work for The Man. You fuck with Jimmy, I’m on your ass. You fuck with me, The Man unleashes a shit storm you cannot imagine.”

The waitress delivered the cheeseburger and fries, but Lauren had lost her appetite. The woman grabbed the burger, French kissed a glob of mayo oozing out of the bun, and took a bite. Grease coated her lower lip, and she flicked at it with her tongue.

After a moment, Lauren said, “I don’t have your money.”

“No shit.”

“I stashed it in a farmhouse in Kansas.”

“You stashed it in the trunk of that dumb-ass Camry.” Another laugh like a barking dog.

Shit. She followed me. Maybe all the way from Kansas.

“So you’ve got the money back...”

“Except for what’s stuffed in your bra. Or did you suddenly become a D-cup?"”

“I don't get it. What do you want with me?”

The woman picked up a fry. Her long nails were perfectly manicured and painted blood red. “You gotta pay for what you did.” She sucked the fry into her mouth, took one bite, and swallowed. “You gotta do a job for The Man.”

One quick fluid motion, and Lauren slid out of the booth and pointed the Glock at the woman’s chest. “Tell the bastard to make an appointment.”

The woman’s fist shot out so quickly Lauren didn’t realize she’d been hit until she heard the Glock hit the tile floor and felt the stinger deep in her shoulder joint. A split second later, the woman was on her feet, a strong hand clamped around Lauren’s neck.

“This is the one who killed all those guys in Kansas?”

It was a man’s voice coming from behind Lauren. Filled with disbelief.

“She’s better than this,” the black woman said.

“I hope so, for your sake.”

Lauren strained to turn her head but the woman’s grip was too tight. She knew it was The Man behind her. What she didn’t know was what the hell he wanted with her.

Lauren's Run -- Part 2

2011-04-06T06:28:00.000-07:00

A woman came in wearing tight, black leather pants and a faded bomber jacket over a Roots hoody. Her short-cropped hair was jet-black and so was her skin. She looked directly at Lauren with an intensity, and a smile of recognition, that made her stomach seize up.

She knows me.

But that wasn’t possible. There were thousands of miles, and several dead bodies, between her and any place she’d ever been before and anyone who’d ever known her.

It had to be a mistake.

“She’ll have a rare, double-cheese burger with mayonnaise, catsup, mustard, and raw onions, no tomato, crispy fries and a Coke, no ice,” the woman said as she strode over and slid into the booth across the table from Lauren.

Oh yes, she knows me.

It was exactly what Lauren was about to order, her favorite midnight snack.

But Lauren wasn’t hungry any more. She was scared and tired and pissed off.

The waitress scratched out the order on her pad then looked up at the black woman. “What’ll you have?”

“A slice of chocolate cake,” she said. “Black and sweet, like me.”

“I’m sure you are,” the waitress said and lumbered off.

Lauren stared into the woman’s eyes. Her Glock was already aimed at the woman’s crotch under the table.

“Who are you?”

The woman smiled. “That depends, Lauren. If you give me the money you took, I’m the seductive Nubian goddess you had an erotically-charged, late-night meal with one dark night on the road and always regretted not fucking. If you don’t give me the money, then I’m the bad-ass black bitch who killed you with that Glock you’re holding and then burned this hell-hole to the ground.”

Dead Man's Revenge (Rancho Diablo #3)

2011-04-06T05:15:00.001-07:00

Bill Crider, writing as Colby Jackson. Book #3 in the Rancho Diablo series. Western action as you like it! Kindle only for the moment. Nook to come later. Check it out!

Lauren's Run -- A New Round Robin Story from TSG

2011-04-05T06:28:00.000-07:00

As a way to celebrate the official release date of our Top Suspense Anthology (and wouldn't today be a perfect day to pick up our anthology for $2.99 for either the Kindle or Nook??), here's the first part of the sequel to The Chase, Lauren's Run. The same rules have been in effect for Lauren's Run--no planning, no safety nets, the only difference is we have a new set of players. While the original six members of Top Suspense (Max Allan Collins, Bill Crider, Ed Gorman, Vicki Hendricks, Harry Shannon and myself) wrote The Chase, the new six (Stephen Gallagher, Lee Goldberg, Joel Goldman, Libby Hellmann, Naomi Hirahara and Paul Levine) decided to strut their stuff and write the sequel. Over the next 12 days, I'll be posting a new part of the story with the author's name removed, so you can have fun trying to guess who wrote what (hint. buy our anthology! if you read it you'll be able to figure it out). And anyone who guesses all 12 story parts correctly will win free e-books from each of these six!

Lauren's Run (Part 1)

Lauren Blaine rolled down the window as she cruised up Lake Shore Drive in the stolen Camry. No one ever told her the Windy City was so pretty, even at two in the morning. On one side a silver moon spilled a veil of sparks on the lake; on the other a few insomniacs’ lights twinkled in the high-rises. Chicago might be nicer than LA. She smiled, looking forward to a fresh start. Why not? She had the money and the talent. And the Glock.

She turned off the Drive, looking for a twenty-four-hour restaurant. Danger always gave her an appetite, and there’d been plenty of that back in Kansas. She’d spent the last twelve hours racing north to Nebraska in Marlboro Man’s pickup, leaving the carnage – and the bodies -- behind. Then east into Iowa where she ditched the truck at a rest stop and hot-wired the Camry. She mentally thanked Hank for teaching her the necessary survival skills.

Now, she spotted the yellow sign above a Golden Nugget on a corner. She parked, slipped the Glock into her waistband, and stashed most of the cash in the trunk. Ducking her head to avoid the video camera tilting down on the sidewalk, she pushed through the door to the restaurant.

Inside, the staff outnumbered the customers. A waitress chatted up the short order cook behind the counter, and the sole customer, a man, crouched over a plate of what might have been meat loaf.

She slid into a booth in the back and picked up a greasy, laminated menu. She was ravenous. The waitress sauntered over and gave her the once-over.

“What ‘ll it be, honey?”

Lauren was about to answer when the door of the restaurant swung open.

Bill Crider Interview on Criminal-E

2011-04-04T06:48:00.000-07:00

Bill Crider interview: Dead On The Island

Top Suspense author Bill Crider is interviewed on the new e-book blog Criminal-E. Check it out.

TOP SUSPENSE on Kindle and in paperback!

2011-04-04T05:31:00.001-07:00

Don't forget the blistering anthology TOP SUSPENSE is now available for $2.99 on Kindle and a mere $11.99 in trade paperback. Our authors at the peak of their powers in thirteen unforgettable tales. This pulse-pounding anthology – packed full of cold-blooded killers, erotic tension, shady private eyes, craven drug dealers, vicious betrayals, crafty thieves, and shocking twists – is only a taste of the thrills you will find in the breathtakingly original ebooks by these authors at www.topsuspensegroup.com.

So sit back, bite down on a piece of strong leather, and prepare to get hit by some gale-force suspense and writing so sharp it will draw blood.

CLICK TO BUY YOUR COPY NOW!

http://www.amazon.com/Top-Suspense-Classic-Stories-ebook/dp/B004S7ACY0/ref=pd_cp_kinc_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Top Suspense includes:

Unreasonable Doubt by Max Allan Collins
Death’s Brother by Bill Crider
Poisoned by Stephen Gallagher
Remaindered by Lee Goldberg
Fire in the Sky by Joel Goldman
The Baby Store by Ed Gorman
The Jade Elephant by Libby Fischer Hellmann
The Big O by Vicki Hendricks
The Chirashi Covenant by Naomi Hirahara
El Valiente en el Infierno by Paul Levine
A Handful of Dust by Harry Shannon
The Canary by Dave Zeltserman
The Chase by Top Suspense Group

Writers on writing

2011-04-04T05:27:00.000-07:00

What makes a great suspense story work? Several members of Top Suspense paused to answer that question for Book Life Now.

http://booklifenow.com/2011/04/in-the-hands-of-a-master-the-top-suspense-group-on-creating-sustaining-suspense/

Bad Karma and evil yoga studios: another excerpt

2011-04-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

The cover of Bad Karma proclaims Evil Yoga Studios. Really? Evil yoga studios in a hardboiled PI novel, even one that takes place in Boulder, Colorado? I must be joking, right? Nope. Here's another excerpt.
____________________________________________________________

The signs in front of the yoga studio were innocuous enough in the way they advertised new approaches to achieving well-being and stress relief. Several blown-up photos showed classes filled with young women, all seemingly in a state of bliss as they stretched in the same manner and direction.

Shannon walked down half a dozen steps, opened the front door and entered a small vestibule where he was assaulted by a pungent overly-sweet odor. The smell seemed like a mix of musk and marijuana. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it was more powerful than any incense he had ever encountered and the air was thick with it.

From behind a set of curtains he heard people chanting in a low monotone. Something about Vishna being the one and true source. A woman stepped quickly through the curtains to meet Shannon. She was dark-haired, short, petite, in her early twenties and wearing yellow leotards. Her eyes were wide open and expressionless as she stared at Shannon in the same manner a morgue worker might look over an incoming body that needs to be catalogued. Then, nodding to herself as if she had finished sizing him up, she told him Vishna Yoga would not be for him.

“What?”

“What we do here would not be right for you. I am sorry, but it would be a waste of your money.”

“Why wouldn’t it be right for me?”

“Your energy is all wrong. Please leave.”

“Wait a minute.”

Shannon was taken aback by the woman’s reaction to him. To bide time, he picked up a brochure from the counter and started to thumb through it. Inside was a picture of their founder, Vishna the One True Source. He was a few years older than Shannon, maybe forty, with a shaved head, brownish skin and sharp features that were made even sharper by his piercing black eyes.

Shannon tried to act oblivious to the way the woman was staring at him and read aloud the marketing hype from the brochure. “Stress relief, improving my self-image, better sense of well-being.” Smiling, he added, “This sounds like what I’m looking for.”

“I am telling you this would be a waste of your money. There is nothing we can do for you.”

“It’s my money to waste.”

“No.”

Shannon gave her a hard look. “What if I stay to observe a class,” he said.

“Leave now or I will call the police.”

“I think I can stay for one class.”

“I said leave!”

An Asian woman, also very young, poked her head through the curtains and stared at Shannon with the same empty look in her eyes. With reinforcements now in place, the woman in the yellow leotard bent her knees, tensing, as if she were going to spring at him. A vein had started beating along her neck.

Shannon took a step back. “You know,” he said, “this isn’t doing much to help my stress. Or my well-being, for that matter.”

A Bad Karma excerpt

2011-04-02T07:57:00.000-07:00

When Bad Karma was released in hardcover in 2009, Booklist had this to say about it:

Detective Bill Shannon, introduced in Bad Thoughts (2007), is back, and a welcome return it is. Relocated from Boston to Boulder, Shannon has fled the Boston PD for a low-stress lifestyle, picking up a little work on the side as a private eye. But despite his efforts to find psychic and psychological peace of mind after his horrific encounter with Herbert Winters, the demonic serial killer from the earlier novel, Shannon discovers that putting distance between himself and the old evils doesn’t help him escape the new evils. Zeltserman weaves together elements of both mystery and horror genres, as Shannon again finds himself confronting the darkness that roams the boundary beyond one’s physical senses. It’s as though Zeltserman has aimed a 12-gauge sawed-off at smarmy New Age sensitivities and fired off both barrels. Irony abounds, as Shannon unmasks deviant gurus, evil yoga studios, Russian gangsters, and guys who use their baseball implements in socially unacceptable ways. If you liked the first novel in this series, you’ll love this one. — Elliott Swanson

Now Bad Karma is back in e-book form, and from time to time I'll be posting short excerpt's from my Boulder-based hardboiled PI novel.

________________________________________________________________

The house was barely a shack, probably no more than four rooms. A chain link fence surrounded the property, the yard mostly dirt mixed with a few weeds. Tires, a stove from the fifties, and a worn-out looking sofa were sitting in the front yard. As Shannon made his way up the walk to the door, a yellow and white pitbull mix charged out from under the sofa. When the dog got close to Shannon, it threw itself at him, but a chain around the neck snapped it back. The dog let out a yelp, then was back on its feet, frothing at the mouth and nearly airborne as it tried to get at Shannon’s throat.

Shannon eyed the dog cautiously and edged away from it. The front door opened and a kid, maybe eighteen, wearing a stained sleeveless muscle shirt and shorts that fell past his knees stepped out. He was thin and had a squirrelly look about him, with long greasy blond hair, bad skin and eyes that were too small and set too close together. His sleeveless shirt showed off greenish-colored tattoos on his pale and nearly skeleton-thin arms. Even though he had none of Taylor Carver’s good looks, Shannon could tell that they were brothers.

Randall Carver gave Shannon a quick look, then focused on the dog, yelling at it to shut up. “Buttercup, shut the fuck up!” he warned a second time. To Shannon’s surprise, especially given the frenzy the dog had worked herself into, she listened to him, cocking her head to one side as she paid full attention to the kid. Randall looked back at Shannon. “Who are you?” he asked.

“My name’s Bill Shannon. I’d like to talk to Eunice Carver. Is she home?”

“What do you want to talk to my ma about?”

Shannon walked towards the front door, stopping when he got a few feet from Randall. Up close, the younger Carver smelled like a mix of sweat and bad cheese. The kid’s eyes darted from left to right as if he were trying to make up his mind whether to stand his ground or flee.

“I’m investigating Taylor’s murder,” Shannon said. From behind he could hear Buttercup growl.

“Are you a cop?”

“I’m a private detective. You’re his brother, Randall, aren’t you?” Almost as if his head were attached to some invisible string, the kid nodded. “I’d like to talk to you also,” Shannon said. “Is your mom home?”

“Let me see.” Randall stuck his head into the house and yelled, “Ma, there’s a guy here wants to talk to you!”

A woman’s voice yelled back, “What about?”

“Taylor. He’s some sort of private eye.”

There was a silence within the house. Then, “Tell him I’m busy!”

Randall turned to Shannon and smiled, revealing teeth that were the color of chewing tobacco. “My ma’s too busy to talk with you,” he said. “And so am I.”

“That’s too bad. I would’ve thought the two of you would want to help find the person who murdered your brother. This won’t look good when your lawsuit goes to court.”

“How do you know about ma’s lawsuit?”

“I’d like to tell you, but you’re too busy to talk now.” Shannon turned and started towards his car, making sure to give Buttercup a wide berth. Randall stuck his head back in the door, yelled, “He says you not talking won’t look good with the lawsuit!”

“How does he know about that?”

“He won’t say!”

“Goddamn it!” There was a long silence that was broken only by Buttercup’s growling, then, “Tell him I’ll talk.”

Spinetingler Awards

2011-03-31T18:16:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to Dave Zeltserman (21 Tales) and Ed Gorman (Noir 13) on their nominations from Spinetingler Magazine for Best Collection, Dave again for Best Novel from a rising star (Killer), and to our own Bill Crider for his nomination for Best Anthology (Damn Near Dead 2).

Just four more reasons we're called "Top Suspense."

Be sure to visit http://www.spinetinglermag.com/ to root for the projects of your choice, the voting starts tomorrow.

The Chase Part II starting April 5th

2011-03-31T16:16:00.000-07:00

Well, the title is still undecided, but just as the original six members of Top Suspense got together to write The Chase in round robin fashion, the second six are doing the same and writing a new story under the same rules as the first one (no planning, no safety nets) and featuring our same heroine, who is either the luckiest or hardest luck character in fiction (I'll reserve judgment until I read the whole story). I've read the first five parts, and it's good. I mean, really good. So stay tuned. The story will be posted here starting April 5th, one part each day for 12 days. And like before, names won't be given until later, so you'll get a chance to guess which of the second six wrote which parts (while seamlessly done, I think I would've guessed the first 5 correctly).

Daily Cheap Reads

2011-03-30T06:42:00.001-07:00

The website Daily Cheap Reads has a new operation in the UK

http://dailycheapreads.co.uk/2011/03/30/top-suspense-13-classic-stories-by-12-masters-of-the-genre/

Here in the US they are at http://www.dailycheapreads.com/

A terrific source for inexpensive ebooks, Kindle or Nook.

Today they are featuring our collection Top Suspense.

Top Suspense Anthology

2011-03-29T19:48:00.001-07:00

Another terrific review, quite a week for our anthology

http://the-dirty-lowdown.blogspot.com/2011/03/top-suspense13-classic-stories-by-12.html?spref=fb

THE DEAD MAN and Multiple Bookgasms

2011-03-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

Bruce Grossman at Bookgasm praised THE DEAD MAN, by Top Suspense author Lee Goldberg & William Rabkin, saying that "I've not seen a writing tandem like this since the glory days of Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy."

It's a sentiment shared by The folks at Planet All-Star, who say, in part:

In all of the best ways, “The Dead Man: Face of Evil” by Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin is a good, refreshing beer, solid and unpretentious and enjoyable in every way, a call back to Pendleton and Murphy/Sapir but with a distinctly modern feel.[...]Goldberg and Rabkin’s treatment of Cahill is one of the book’s strongest suits, making him a far deeper and interesting individual than is typical in the genre. Not a trained killer, far from a superman, either blessed or cursed with a supernatural ability, Cahill feels like the guy who know who’s there to jump your dead battery and has your back in a bar fight, and he’s far the more interesting for it. By the end of the story, you’re rooting for Cahill and eager for more.

What are you waiting for? Check out THE DEAD MAN now...and watch for future books in the series by Top Suspense authors Harry Shannon, Joel Goldman and Bill Crider.

TOP SUSPENSE anthololgy now in paperback, too!

2011-03-28T12:26:00.000-07:00

Our anthology "Top Suspense: 13 Classic Stories by 12 Masters of the Genre " is now available in trade paperback as well, for just $11.99.

http://www.amazon.com/Top-Suspense-Classic-Stories-Masters/dp/1461032369/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1300222802&sr=1-1-catcorr

"Dead and Gone" reduced to $1.99

2011-03-28T09:46:00.000-07:00

Harry Shannon here. My loving tribute to 1980's cheese horror "Dead and Gone," the novel novel that became a Lionsgate movie, has been reduced to $1.99 on Kindle for the week.

http://www.amazon.com/Dead-And-Gone-ebook/dp/B004HD6A3W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1301330023&sr=1-1

Another great review for Top Suspense anthology

2011-03-28T09:15:00.001-07:00

Don't forget, only $2.99 on Kindle and now available in the UK as well

http://jamesreasoner.blogspot.com/2011/03/top-suspense-anthology.html

Now Available as an e-Book!

2011-03-27T15:05:00.000-07:00

After he failed to find his missing sister, whose remains finally turned up in a bag in an overgrown field, Texas PI Truman Smith retired to become a housepainter on Galveston Island. But when an alligator is killed and its carcass left on display on a family friend's property, Tru is persuaded to search for the culprit. Soon the brooding gumshoe is stumbling over the bodies of dead humans, is shot at and run down by a souped-up four-by-four as he's embroiled in a plot complete with crooked police, a possible land-grabbing sheme and assorted "bad guys". Buy it here now. Or here. Soon to be available on Amazon and B&N.

Another great review of our Top Suspense anthology

2011-03-27T12:04:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a nice review from Jimbo in the UK

http://thegingernutcase.blogspot.com/2011/03/top-suspense.html

New price for '21 Tales' by Dave Zeltserman

2011-03-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

The price for the e-book version of '21 Tales' has been dropped from $7.59 to $2.99 at Amazon, B&N and Smashwords. Here's what some folks have been saying about '21 Tales':

"Inventively depraved" New York Magazine

"Zeltserman's twisty-tailed gems drag you deep into pulpland, bitch slap you dizzy, and leave you begging for more." --Roger Smith, author of Mixed Blood

"Dave Zeltserman is one of the crime genre's most accomplished, radical, and innovative talents. His command of style and personal dark vision of the world are framed in the short form to reach out and shake the reader by the throat. I only wish that 21 Tales had been 51 Tales or 101 Tales. We need more of his edgy stories to rattle the field." --Tom Piccirilli, author of Shadow Season

"In a relatively short period of time Dave Zeltserman has established himself as the most relevant author of dark crime fiction working today. As usual, Dave doesn't pull any punches, and his 21 Tales is inventive, nasty, pulpy fun." --Paul Tremblay, author of The Little Sleep

"Deadpan and more ruthless than ever, Zeltserman pulls off one clever shocker after another in classic pulp style. Not for the faint-hearted!" --Vicki Hendricks, author of Cruel Poetry

"Dave Zeltserman's stories demonstrate that he's as masterful with the short story as he is with the novel--the same stunning level of craft and the same lacerating vision. This is an important collection." --Ed Gorman, author of Ticket to Ride

"21 Tales is a lethal Molotov cocktail that won’t give you a hangover but could give nightmares." Pulp Metal Magazine

If you'd like to sample an additional story of mine online that's been surprising just about every reader, here's Old Wives' Tales.

--Dave Zeltserman, Shamus Award winner for best PI story, Julius Katz and Ellery Queen's Readers Choice Award winner for Archie's Been Framed

The Pressure of Darkness on Kindle for $2.99

2011-03-26T17:22:00.001-07:00

http://www.amazon.com/The-Pressure-of-Darkness-ebook/dp/B003DKK1KS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1301184109&sr=1-1

"A dark, thrilling tale of murder and intrigue that will have you turning the pages as fast as you can."
--Crimespree Magazine

In October, of 1993 a small Special Ops team roped down in Somalia to assassinate a cult leader. The mission went horribly wrong. Their leader was killed, the medic shot in the spine. Only two of the D-Boys, Red Burke and Scotty Bowden, came away unscathed.

The aging soldiers now live in the LA area. Wheelchair bound 'Doc' is employed by the Coroner's office, Bowden is steadily a deteriorating cop on the take and Burke works both sides of the law to cover his wife’s medical bills. When famous horror novelist Peter Stryker is found dead, Burke is hired to investigate why a man would commit suicide by butchering his own body.

The trail rapidly leads Burke to embrace an old lover, confront a vicious drug lord, and finally recruit his friends to stage one last mission against a mysterious cult with plans to unleash a deadly virus.

"Master craftsmanship. The Pressure of Darkness is a dark and thrilling stroll along the knife edge. Highly recommended."
--Cemetery Dance

http://www.amazon.com/The-Pressure-of-Darkness-ebook/dp/B003DKK1KS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1301184109&sr=1-1

Blood Crimes and new e-books from Dave Zeltserman

2011-03-26T10:31:00.001-07:00

Sales have been climbing for Blood Crimes. Since Wednesday, Blood Crimes has been one of the 200 bestselling e-books at Barnes & Noble, with its ranking holding between 126 and 180. Now's your chance to find out what the excitement is about! Get your copy now for $2.99 from B&N or Amazon.

A new e-book original thriller with my own unique take on the genre. Available now for $2.99 from B&N or Amazon.

Bad Karma is back as an e-book. Originally published in 2009 as a hardcover by Five Star, Bad Karma is the sequel to my 2007 Five Star novel, Bad Thoughts. While Bad Thoughts is more of a grim, noirish horror/crime hybrid, Bad Karma takes the action from Boston, MA to Boulder, Colorado, and is more of a hardboiled PI story with a new age twist. Bad Karma also brings back one of the cast members of my first novel, Fast Lane.

It's available for $2.99 from B&N and Amazon.

A Bookgasm over TIED IN

2011-03-24T16:24:00.000-07:00

The reviewers at Bookgasm have given a rave review to TIED IN: THE BUSINESS, HISTORY, AND CRAFT OF MEDIA TIE-IN WRITING, which includes contributions by Top Suspense authors Max Allan Collins and Lee Goldberg. Here's an excerpt:

Max Allan Collins reveals two stories that were heartbreaking to him. The first deals with his novelization of Warren Beatty’s DICK TRACY movie, where Collins fleshed out the story and made the mystery just that: a mystery. He was told corrections had to be made, but things worked out in the end. The second deals with the novelization of the Tom Hanks film ROAD TO PERDITION. The movie was based on Collins’ own graphic novel, but his tie-in had to be cut down and have huge chunks taken out. It’s this piece that clearly shows if you are a tie-in writer,don’t get attached to your own material, since you will have to answer to higher-ups.
[...]These are just a few of the pieces that make up this fascinating look into books which most people just think of as guilty pleasures.

You've ever wondered how the tie-in business works, and how the books are written, TIED IN is the book for you.