Suspense, Mystery, Horror and Thriller Fiction FALL 2018 The Fall of Frightening Fiction LISA GABRIELE Get a Sneak Peek with JOE CLIFFORD BRENDAN DENEEN DAVID CORBETT When Your Writing P.J. TRACY Doesn’t Love You Back HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN DENNIS PALUMBO ERIC BEETNER In Memoriam: LAWRENCE OSBORNE Anthony Bourdain, Friendships LUCY BURDETTE & the Final Project with STEVE HAMILTON JOEL ROSE FREDERICK FORSYTH “A rocket-paced, “Rick Cahill ascends to the “A masterful mix of murder, propulsive, and utterly top ranks of the classic mystery, and mayhem.” addictive thrill ride. private eyes.” —JON LAND USA TODAY BEST-SELLING AUTHOR —LISA UNGER —MICHAEL CONNELLY NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR ON SALE OCTOBER 2 ON SALE NOVEMBER 6 ON SALE DECEMBER 4 A young, wealthy, experienced swim- Love on the internet gone wrong. Jack A sexy radio host with a dark past. A mer—who lives like a beach bum—is Harper’s struggling life collapses when demented stalker. Vicious thugs eager found dead in shallow water in the he falls for “Fugitive Red” on an extra- to settle the score. A missing woman. intracoastal waterway off Siesta Key. marital website. Can Rick Cahill escape his own past long Between visiting microbreweries and enough to intercede? chasing suspects on Siesta Beach, Dexter Vega has to keep himself alive while investigating the suspicious death. “A rocket-paced, “Rick Cahill ascends to the From the Editor “A masterful mix of murder, propulsive, and utterly top ranks of the classic If you have followed Suspense Magazine for all these years, you know that I love to do mystery, and mayhem.” a couple of lists on an annual basis. I decided addictive thrill ride. private eyes.” CREDITS —JON LAND John Raab that this issue would be a good one for, yes, USA TODAY BEST-SELLING AUTHOR —LISA UNGER —MICHAEL CONNELLY President & Chairman one of those lists. I love to go to the movies NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR but was pretty disappointed with the line- Shannon Raab Creative Director up this year. Hollywood is rehashing way too many of the older movies and bringing Romaine Reeves CFO them back out in a way that, unfortunately, does not live up to the original. Amy Lignor Hopefully, like me, all book readers Editor are outraged that the characters and stories that would make great movies keep getting Jim Thomsen overlooked. I could list those fantastic books out there, but I think that limits the character Copy Editor to just that storyline. Instead, I’m going to list characters that I think would be great to Contributors see on the big screen. Mark P. Sadler I’m not going to put them in any particular order, however; that just gets me into Susan Santangelo Kaye George trouble! Weldon Burge 1. Scot Harvath – Brad Thor, author Ashley Wintters D.P. Lyle M.D. 2. Gabriel Allon – Daniel Silva, author Andrew MacRae 3. Lucas Davenport – John Sandford, author J.M. LeDuc Holly Price 4. Cotton Malone – Steve Berry, author Kari Wainwright 5. DD Warren – Lisa Gardner, author David Ingram Susan May 6. Kay Scarpetta – Patricia Cornwell, author Anthony J. Franze 7. John Wells – Alex Berenson, author Barry Lancet Leslie Borghini 8. Lucy Kincaid – Allison Brennan, author Mary Lignor 9. Lady Emily – Tasha Alexander, author ON SALE OCTOBER 2 ON SALE NOVEMBER 6 ON SALE DECEMBER 4 Julie Whiteley Sara Guisti 10. Jane Whitefield – Thomas Perry, author Jeff Ayers Elise Cooper A young, wealthy, experienced swim- Love on the internet gone wrong. Jack A sexy radio host with a dark past. A Joseph Badal Now, again, this is my D.P. Lyle list, I’m sure you have some Dennis Palumbo mer—who lives like a beach bum—is Harper’s struggling life collapses when demented stalker. Vicious thugs eager Lauren Brabrook of these great characters (and Robert Allen Papinchak others) on your list. If you found dead in shallow water in the he falls for “Fugitive Red” on an extra- to settle the score. A missing woman. John Valeri would like to let me know who you would like to see, intracoastal waterway off Siesta Key. marital website. Can Rick Cahill escape his own past long Customer Service and Subscriptions: drop me an email at editor@ For 24/7 service, please use our website, suspensemagazine.com. I Between visiting microbreweries and enough to intercede? www.suspensemagazine.com or write to: SUSPENSE MAGAZINE at think it’s highly important chasing suspects on Siesta Beach, 26500 Agoura Road, #102-474 to continue to support all Calabasas, CA 91302 Suspense Magazine does not share our authors, in order to keep Dexter Vega has to keep himself alive magazine subscriber list with third-party their awesome characters and companies. while investigating the suspicious death. stories alive. Rates: $24.00 (Electronic Subscrip- John Raab tion) per year. All foreign subscrip- tions must be payable in U.S. funds. CEO/Publisher Suspense Magazine ■ “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, Joseph Badal, and Amy Lignor.” SuspenseMagazine.com 1 CONTENT SUSPENSE MAGAZINE August / September / October 2018 / Vol. 083 When Your Writing Doesn’t Love You Back By Dennis Palumbo . 3 Crime & Science: An Interview with Allison Leotta By D .P . Lyle, MD & Jan Burke . .5 The Bible Belt Buckle Killer By Kaye George . 11 With the Haunting Tale of “The Winters”: Meet Lisa Gabriele . 17 The Fight Corps By J .B . Toner . 20 Inside the Pages: Suspense Magazine Book Reviews . 25 Featured Artist: Meet Digital Artistic Magician, Gaetano Pezzillo � � � � � � � � 47 Movies with Jeff Ayers and John Raab . 52 Joe Clifford: Offers a Candid Interview About Life . 53 David Corbett: Blends Mystery, History & Action . 57 PJ Tracy: Talks About the Next Step in the Monkeewrench Series . .62 Excerpt: “The Chrysalis” By Brendan Deneen . 65 Hank Phillippi Ryan on “Trust Me” . 70 Mr� Bones By Phillip Frey . 77 Get to Know: Dru Ann Love of Dru’s Book Musings . 86 Saying Goodbye: Joel Rose Offers Insight on Anthony Bourdain ��������� 96 The Knight of Manor Crawford By John Sims-Jones . 101 WHEN YOUR WRITING DOESN'T LOVE YOU BACK By Dennis Palumbo Press Photo Credit: Provided by Author Years ago, I worked with a novelist patient who regularly claimed to have two great loves: her teenage daughter Susie, and writing. I remember vividly her struggles during a particularly turbulent period in her life. Her last two books hadn’t done that well, and a current manuscript had been returned by her editor, demanding a significant re-write. On the home front, there were daily battles with her increasingly rebellious daughter. Finally, during one of our sessions, my patient came to a painful realization. “Lately,” she said haltingly, as though baffled by the idea, “I don’t think I like the things I love.” On the evidence, it was easy to see her dilemma. A single mother in her 40’s, she’d worked hard to carve out a writing career. There’d been considerable success at first, with the accompanying money. One of her early novels had even been optioned by a major film studio. Her agent always returned her phone calls. But more important than any of these, she’d always loved to write… But in recent years, things had slowly unraveled. Whether due to shifting trends or a changing publishing industry, her career had stalled. Maybe her own creative energies had flagged: divorce and a new life as a single parent can do that to you. For whatever reason, her writing pace slowed and her work was received with less and less enthusiasm. Until she sank into that state so tellingly phrased by Sartre: that of incomprehension and rage. Her daughter Susie, now sixteen, was an equally infuriating challenge. Her rebellion—what therapists often refer to as “age-appropriate differentiation”—was taking the usual form: sex, drugs, and an almost pathological inability to agree with her mother about literally anything. As my patient and I worked together during this period, I kept her words in my mind. Lately, I don’t think I like the things I love. On the surface, the meaning was clear: she loved her daughter, and she loved writing, but at the moment both seemed to offer nothing but grief, rejection, and humiliation. But beyond the obvious, what was my patient saying to me? That she could only love something as long as she liked it, in the sense of receiving appropriate personal and professional rewards from it? Hardly. Raising her daughter had always been a struggle, as it is for most parents, yet her love for Susie only grew with the years. Likewise, her writing career—marked by the same triumphs and failures as most writers experience. Yet she’d always approached every new novel with the breathless excitement of an astronaut setting foot on a new planet. So what was I missing? I found out soon enough, during a session, when I reminded her of what she’d said about not liking the things she loved. Apparently, she’d forgotten she’d even said it. She was even embarrassed by it now. “I said I didn’t like Susie? Or writing?” “Not that anyone would blame you.