Suspense, Mystery, Horror and Thriller Fiction WINTER 2020 CELEBRATE the “BEST OF” 2020 Writing Thriller Welcome 2021 with Protagonists JOEL SHULKIN, MD a Trio of Suspense Inspired by Actual Events VANESSA LILLIE with Jon Land VICTORIA THOMPSON JOSEPH BADAL LISA GARDNER When Your Only Get a Sneak Peek with Weapon is Inaction TIM WAGGONER DENNIS PALUMBO & BRETT RILEY “A fast-moving tale filled with nonstop action. No chance to catch your breath with this one!” —IRENE HANNON, bestselling author, the Triple Threat series You will be hooked from the beginning, finding that once you are in Lynette Eason’s Women of Justice world, you’re trapped until you turn the very last page. “I ENJOYED EVERY MINUTE.” —DEE HENDERSON, bestselling author, the O’Malley series LYNETTEEASON.COM P Available Wherever Books Are Sold From the Editor 2020…the year we all want to forget. As we turn the page on this chapter of history, we are very pleased to give you the best news of the year—the names of who made Suspense Magazine’s “Best of” list, penning the most memorable, enjoyable, and CREDITS highest nominated books in all genres. John Raab President & Chairman We talked about it before, but for those of you who are new to Suspense Magazine, Shannon Raab first: Shame on you! Where have you Creative Director been?? Oh…it’s okay, we understand that Abigail Peralta there are other sites and places to visit, but we are glad you are with us now. We had a ton Vice President, Editorial Dept. of votes this year and, as always, it was extremely difficult to pick the winners. There are Amy Lignor so many great authors writing some truly wonderful stories out there that it goes without Editor saying, every year there are bound to be some left off the list. Last year, L.A. Chandler was the Crimson Scribe Award winner with, “The Pearl Contributors Susan Santangelo Dagger.” This year, we have a surprise when it comes to this award: For the first time ever Kaye George a horror book was voted as “Best Book of the Year,” and it is…. Oh, come on, you don’t Weldon Burge Ashley Wintters expect me to just reveal it here, do you? Heck no. You are going to actually have to do D.P. Lyle M.D. some work and flip through the pages of the magazine. Besides, you don’t want to miss all J.M. LeDuc the other categories, the great interviews, the special articles, reviews, and so much more! David Ingram Anthony J. Franze This is also the time of year when we at Suspense need to thank all of YOU! We are Barry Lancet so happy and honored that you guys have stuck with us through almost one hundred Leslie Borghini Mary Lignor issues, over five hundred podcasts and, of course, all the great books we have published, Jeff Ayers including our first ever anthology that appeared this year: “Nothing Good Happens After Joseph Badal Dennis Palumbo Midnight.” This title is a fantastic conglomeration of tales written by some of the masters Lauren Brabrook of the literary world, including Jeffery Deaver, Rhys Bowen, Linwood Barclay, Hank Robert Allen Papinchak John Valeri Phillippi Ryan, Jon Land, Heather Graham, D.P. Lyle, Shannon Kirk, Paul Kemprecos, Patrick Whitehurst Alan Jacobson, Kevin O’Brien and Joseph Badal. It was such a great experience that we Kirsche Romo Bailey Day are going to do it again in 2021, this time with #1 NY Times bestselling author Catherine Jaime Lynn Hendricks Coulter, so be sure to look for it when the end of 2021 rolls around. Patricia Wilson Let’s all hope that 2021 is not the nightmare that 2020 was. We’re excited about the Customer Service and future and happy that you’ll all come Subscriptions: For 24/7 service, please use our website, along with us for the ride to enjoy this www.suspensemagazine.com or write to: new chapter in history. In the end, I SUSPENSE MAGAZINE at 26500 Agoura Road, #102-474 say: Thank you, thank you, thank Calabasas, CA 91302 you all so much. We at Suspense love Suspense Magazine does not share our magazine subscriber list with third-party you all. Please EVERYONE, stay safe, companies. stay healthy, and have a wonderful holiday season. Rates: $24.00 (Electronic Subscrip- tion) per year. All foreign subscrip- Now…enough of my yapping. tions must be payable in U.S. funds. Enjoy the rest of this “Best of 2020” issue! John Raab CEO/Publisher Suspense Magazine ■ Model/Photographer Credit: Flamingo Tongue Creations “Reviews within this magazine are the opinions of the individual reviewers and are provided solely for the purpose of assisting readers in determining another's thoughts on the book under discussion and shall not be interpreted as professional advice or the opinion of any other than the individual reviewer. The following contributors who may appear in this magazine are also individual clients of Suspense Publishing, an imprint of Suspense Magazine: J.M. LeDuc, Leslie Borghini, Susan Santangelo, Jeff Ayers, Bailey Day, Joseph Badal, and Amy Lignor.” SuspenseMagazine.com 1 CONTENT SUSPENSE MAGAZINE Winter 2020 / Vol. 090 Shot Reverse Shot By J.B. Toner .......................................3 A New Man By Nicole de Morton ......................................9 When Your Only Weapon is Inaction By Dennis Palumbo ...............11 Triple Identity By Jeffrey A. Lockwood .................................14 The Big 4 By Will Schifrin ...........................................19 Inside the Pages: Suspense Magazine Book Reviews ...................23 Featured Artist: Yoana Bonbonka . 34 Special Excerpt: “Writing in the Dark” By Tim Waggoner .................39 Suspense Magazine: 2020 “Best of” ................................43 Suspense Magazine: Crimson Scribe Winner ........................75 Writing Thriller Protagonists By Joel Shulkin, MD ......................77 Inspired by Actual Events with Jon Land By Joseph Badal ...............83 Rules of Fiction By Ken Brosky ......................................96 Special Excerpt: “Comanche: A Novel” By Brett Riley ....................98 SHOT REVERSE SHOT By J.B. Toner ook, man.” I sighed out a gust of smoke. “I don’t really do torture, and my guy’s outta town for the week. Why don’t you just give me the code, and we’ll go get a drink? You know McDermott’s gonna assume you talked anyway, so “Lyou’re already out of a job.” The guy in the chair bared his teeth in a sneer, and snarled. “The legendary Domingo Jack. You think I ain’t hearda you? Everybody’s hearda you in this town. And when word gets around that you tried to crack me and couldn’t, I’m gonna have more job offers than I know what to do with.” “No offense, friend, but I’m not sure you’ve thought this through. Even if you survive the experience, you’re not gonna be employable.” “Yeah, what’re you gonna do? Yank out a few fingernails? Go ahead. You just said it yourself, you ain’t a torture guy. You’re gonna lose stomach for this before I do.” I finished my cigarette. Flicked it into the dank pool of standing water where the sewer-pipes dripped forever. Lit another. “Well, friend, you’ve gotta do what you feel is right. But I hope you’ll reconsider while you still have enough strength to get to the hospital.” Unfolding my X-Acto knife, I leaned down and calmly slashed him open from the inner elbows to the zip ties biting into his wrists. Then, while he screamed and cursed and pumped his lifeblood into his lap, I took a pull from one of my bourbon flasks and booted up my laptop. It wasn’t easy getting a signal down here, but I knew where to stand. “You bastard! You crazy son of a bitch!” “Hang on, I’m logging in. Be right with you.” “You go to Hell, Jack! I ain’t tellin’ you shit!” “Well, you say that now, but a lotta guys change their minds after the second gallon. ’Course, by then it’s a bit late.” He stared at me. Stared down at his spurting forearms. Struggled ineffectually. Then: “How do I know you won’t just let me bleed out?” “’Cause you’re a big guy and this is my favorite spot. It’s way less work to let you tomato-can your way to the ER than it would be to haul your dead ass outta here.” He hesitated. I frowned clinically at the gushing wounds. “Say, that’s kind of a high resting heart rate you got there, friend. You might want to look into getting some aerobic exercise. I mean, you know, unless—” “Okay, all right, I’ll give you the damn code! What the hell do you want it for, anyhow?” “Oh, you wanna talk about me? It’s your dime, I guess. I was born on a winter’s day in the snowy glen of Donegal—” “12EM84! The code’s 12EM84, now lemme out!” “Hold, please.” I typed it in. “Hey, look at that, it works. I hope you weren’t counting on all those job offers.” “Fuck you! Come on, lemme out!” “Yeah, yeah, keep your shirt on.” I cut his right hand loose from the arm of the chair and slapped the X-Acto knife into his palm. “Sinai Medical’s twelve blocks east. You should probably hurry.” SuspenseMagazine.com 3 Once I got back to my car, I took another bourbon- stained-glass windows, and both men were now out of ammo. slug and started perusing files. I’d picked Morbidly Obese In the sequence we were doing next, they would duel across McDermott as the target of my espionage because of his the shattered glass, wielding their 12-gauges like bo-staffs.