SUSPENSE MAGAZINE Summer 2020 / Vol
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Suspense, Mystery, Horror and Thriller Fiction SUMMER 2020 Summertime Suspense! D.B. COREY Writing a Murderer JASPER BARK RONALD S. BARAK RILEY SAGER Making my Fictional Serial ANDREW MAYNE Killer Scarier JOEL ROSENBERG R. G. BELSKY Inspired by Actual Events HARLAN COBEN with Sheldon Siegel KAY HOOPER JOSEPH BADAL IRIS JOHANSEN Soldiers of Freedom: Get a Sneak Peek with 761st Tank Battalion & Writing MICHELLE DUNNE SAMUEL MARQUIS & JOE R. LANSDALE From the Editor Welcome to the summer of 2020… unlike any summer we have ever been a part of. To say that we are living in weird times is an understatement. CREDITS When my wife gave me the idea for John Raab President & Chairman this ‘Letter from the Editor,’ I struggled with the topic. You see, I wanted to Shannon Raab Creative Director make sure that my position was one of compassion and not judgment; after Abigail Peralta Vice President, Editorial Dept. all, we have enough of that today. We are living in a society that seems to have thrown out one of the most Amy Lignor Editor important parts of our justice system: innocent until proven guilty. We see a story and, depending on our political views, we either immediately believe it or think Contributors it’s a lie; we don’t wait to see the response from the other side. Compassion is Susan Santangelo Kaye George being able to look at both sides and understand that everyone wants the same Weldon Burge Ashley Wintters thing—to be happy and not to suffer. D.P. Lyle M.D. In our writing community we have to understand that we have a lot of Andrew MacRae J.M. LeDuc different views and opinions on basically every topic. Our goal is to make writers David Ingram better and make writers’ careers better. When we allow a culture to form that loses Anthony J. Franze Barry Lancet that compassion for all writers, we now have a divided community. When this Leslie Borghini division becomes louder Mary Lignor Jeff Ayers than the cause, the writing Joseph Badal Dennis Palumbo community is no longer Lauren Brabrook about writing; it’s about Robert Allen Papinchak John Valeri everything else. My plea to Patrick Whitehurst the writing community is Kirsche Romo Bailey Day this: Put politics aside. Let’s Jaime Lynn Hendricks Patricia Wilson all work together to push the cause forward—getting Customer Service and Subscriptions: writers to be better writers. For 24/7 service, please use our website, John Raab www.suspensemagazine.com or write to: SUSPENSE MAGAZINE at CEO/Publisher 26500 Agoura Road, #102-474 Suspense Magazine ■ Calabasas, CA 91302 Suspense Magazine does not share our magazine subscriber list with third-party companies. * * * Rates: $24.00 (Electronic Subscrip- Mary Lignor, a lifetime librarian and lover of books, was lost last tion) per year. All foreign subscrip- tions must be payable in U.S. funds. month after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. A beloved mom to one of us, a reviewer for many of you, and a true friend to all of us, she is greatly missed every day. * * * “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 Summer 2020 / Vol. 089 The Gordian Knot By Buck Buchanan . 3 Law and Disorder By Stephen M . Feldman . 5 Special Excerpt: “While Nobody is Missing” By Michelle Dunne . 7 Runaway By Joseph Manion . 10 Writing Intense Suspense: Meet D.B. Corey . 15 Stand-up and Comics and Horror, Oh My: Jasper Bark . 18 Mismatched Maggots By Jeffrey A . Lockwood . 23 Inside the Pages: Suspense Magazine Book Reviews . 29 Featured Artist: Helena Nikulina .................................. 45 Maniac at Elm Falls By Andrew Benzinger . 50 Best Laid Plans By James Aitchison writing as Mike Rader . 52 Riley Sager: Masters all the Bumps in the Night . 55 Delving Deep: Andrew Mayne . 59 Special Excerpt: “The Watering Shed” By Joe R . Lansdale . 62 Making my Serial Killer Scarier Than the Real Thing By R . G . Belsky . .69 A Spirited Conversation By Arthur Shattuck O’Keefe . .. 72 Writing a Murderer By Ronald S . Barak . 88 Inspired by Actual Events with Sheldon Siegel By Joseph Badal . 90 Soldiers of Freedom: 761st Tank Battalion & Writing By Samuel Marquis . .95 Blood Poisoning By Joe Giordano . 98 The GORDIAN Knot By Buck Buchanan My name’s Mickey Hanratty. I’m a cop. Well, actually, a by ‘trouble’? Tom is a lawyer in a very respectable firm. He private dick. My Old Man, and his Old Man, were real cops. wouldn’t be involved in anything shady. But in this city, who When the first Hanratty came over on the boat and landed in knows?” Her head drops, and the stare is now aimed at the Boston, he picked the one job an Irish immigrant could get. floor. “He could have been mugged, or hurt, or lying in a By now, third generation, it’s in the genes. When I couldn’t hospital somewhere…alone. I’m just so worried.” handle the politics down at the station, I gave them back my The show changes from “sexy” to “worried.” She bats her badge. But I couldn’t fight what’s in my blood, so now I work eyes, pulls out a handkerchief and dabs at her nose. I hear a behind a door that reads: “A-1 Detective Agency.” Yeah, I couple of dainty sniffs; she even manages to squeeze out a don’t eat real well. tear that starts to roll down her cheek. Anyone who calls me a dumb Mick has got me two “Have you called the police?” I ask her. “Reported him to ways—by name and by birth. And I figure, if someone wants Missing Persons?” to think I’m dumb, why disappoint him? So, I try to keep it “Yes, I did. But they weren’t interested. Said he had to be simple. missing more than forty-eight hours…. They said he might Take my latest case. have his own reasons for not letting me know where he had I’m doing what I’m best at—waiting, with my feet up on gone.” She smiles in a way that tells you she’s been there the desk and my eyes on the ceiling. Then she comes in the before, that the world picks on her type of woman, and what door. She’s right out of a Mickey Spillane paperback; great can she do? “I had the feeling that, as just his girlfriend, I legs, hips molded into a tight black skirt, breasts fighting for didn’t have any status to complain—you know?” release from a sheer silk blouse, and the whole throbbing She was right. The cops wouldn’t listen to her. They were mass of womanhood cinched together by a thick, black belt so overloaded, they wouldn’t listen to anybody, unless a body that surrounds her tiny waist. She has long blonde hair, cobalt was dropped right in the lobby of Precinct #8. blue eyes, and a wide pouting mouth perfectly lacquered “I’m two hundred bucks a day,” I tell her. “I’ll need a with dark red lip gloss. I prove I’m a gentleman by taking my thousand dollars up front. No returns if I find him sooner feet off the desk. than five days.” It sounds like a lot of money, but I figure her “Are you Mickey Hanratty the Private Detective?” she lost boyfriend is making two hundred bucks an hour. asks. She writes out a check. I tell her how to spell my name She pulls up a chair, crosses her legs, and lets her skirt and ask for hers, even though I can read it on the check— hike up over her knees. She’s going to give me a show. As she Sara Jane Jackson. leans over and displays her ample cleavage, I see it’s going to “Now, Miss Jackson, please give me all the information be a double feature—legs and breasts. I figure I’m there to you can on your boyfriend. Name, address, place of work, enjoy it. physical description. Just keep talking until I tell you to stop.” I remember to answer her question. “Yes, Ma’am,” I reply. She gives me all the details. His name is Thomas “I’m looking for my boyfriend. He missed our date two Mannheim. He works at Jones and Donner, the most nights ago; I haven’t seen him since. I need to find him.” prestigious law firm in Boston. He lives on Beacon Street, My mind does a quick checklist. She wants to find him the high priced part of town, drives a brand-new Mercedes because, a) she loves him; b) she’s got her hooks into him and and keeps a Lamborghini in the garage of his multimillion- doesn’t want to lose the bucks; or, c) none of the above. I’m a dollar townhouse. He was supposed to pick her up for dinner cynic. I go for b). I ask her, “Is there any chance he might be two nights ago. He never showed. The people he was close in money trouble?” to include his five law partners and his secretary.