Posts Tagged: thriller

Writing Noir & Crime Fiction: It’s All In The Voice

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I write noir.  To me, noir is all about voice.  A lot of noir writers go to great lengths to imitate the voices of the greats.  I have neither the memory, the critical analysis skills, nor the patience to do that. So my voice is, by default, my own.  I consider my work neo-noir because it adds a certain psychological and emotional realism and depth that the classics lack but today's readers have come to expect. I wrote my first novel, Go Down Hard, and am writing my novel-in-progress in first-person present tense, which gives the work a feeling of urgency.  My novella and the short story that spawned it, Dead End (which was just nominated for an Anthony Award), are in third-person... more

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Creating Waverly: The Story Behind MICHIGAN ROLL

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The day after Labor Day, 1986, I sat down at my desk in the cramped room I called, without a pinch of irony, my “study,” and faced one more time the terror of the blank page. More accurately, one last time, for with three and a half rejection-dusty manuscripts on a shelf behind me, I had pledged to myself this would be my final attempt at fiction writing. Another failure and I would settle in my dwindling years for the genteel poverty of the academician’s life, complete with a variety of harmless hobbies and arcane interests. After all—a 56 year old first novelist? Seemed preposterous, a bad joke. Nevertheless, a promise is a promise, and so I set to work, and slowly, painfully,... more

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The Rap on “MAN EATER”

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J. Kingston Pierce,  the editor of The Rap Sheet and the senior editor of January Magazine, reviews Gar Anthony Haywood's thriller Man Eater.  Cutthroat film development executive Ronnie Deal ("smart, single, and beautiful -- 'heartbreak in a tall, dark hourglass,' somebody had once called her") is sitting in an L.A. bar one day, nursing her anger at a rival for fouling up her "breakout film," when a "physically intimidating" black guy suddenly commences to wail on a "young, frail blonde woman" nearby. Reacting viscerally, her adrenaline poisoned by rage at her own manifest misfortunes, Ronnie shocks even herself by battering the thug unconscious with a beer bottle. Only later, when... more

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Dunn’s Conundrum: A Real Find

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Jared Shurin reviews books for one of our favorite websites, Pornokitsch. Today he shares his admiration for Stan Lee's darkly funny espionage thriller Dunn's Conundrum. First, to clear away any misconceptions, this is not the Stan Lee that appears in all those awful Marvel movies, this is a completely different Stan Lee - an advertising man, in fact, who wrote a couple political thrillers in his spare time. In fact, if you had to compare this Stan Lee to someone in the comics industry, the best choice would be Warren Fucking Ellis, as Dunn's Conundrum is a tangled, blackly comedic thriller about espionage and the dangers of information. Certainly there's great power AND... more

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The Story Behind TREASURE COAST

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Treasure Coast by author Tom Kakonis

Many years ago my older sister was diagnosed with a virulent strain of cancer. Astonishingly, she survived that wicked malady almost twenty years before it eventually caught up to her. The final days of her life were spent in a Mayo Clinic hospital bed, and though we had never been close we shared many childhood memories, and so I spent many of those last days in a bumbling attempt to comfort her. During that deathwatch I must have absorbed some of the oppressive ambience of the hospital, its acrid odors, perpetual noisy bustle, occasional poignant sights, for many years after that, after my sister was long gone, when I sat down to write what would become Treasure Coast, those sensory... more

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Janet Evanovich Poised to Rule the Bestseller Lists Next Week

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Next week, New York Times bestselling author Janet Evanovich will release the next thriller in her bestselling Stephanie Plum series of mysteries, Top Secret Twenty One, and the newest title in the blockbuster series is poised to debut at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list – just like every other Stephanie Plum mystery in the last 15 years. Fans can’t get enough of the beloved bounty hunter, and those fans range from romance readers to mystery lovers to fans of crime fiction. With such a diverse audience, it’s no wonder Evanovich is one of the most successful female mystery writers in the business. One For the Money  Sparked the Plum Crazy Phenomenon Evanovich started out as... more

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