Suspense, Mystery, Horror and Thriller Fiction NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER 2018 THE “BEST OF” 2018 Close the Book on 2018 With BRIAN ANDREWS & JEFFREY WILSON Everyday Hero MARC CAMERON JOSEPH BADAL G.A. MCKEVETT Current Publishing Trends ALAN JACOBSON & JON LAND PETER HILDICK-SMITH KAY HOOPER Perfect Timing & How to Get it In Memoriam: DENNIS PALUMBO BILLIE SUE MOSIMAN “Batista’s characters “The Breaking Bad of “Dazzles with authenticity, jump off the page. They the book world.” sharply-drawn characters, are as real as they are —NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS crackling dialogue, and fascinating. A great read.” insider details.” —ALAN DERSHOWITZ —LEE GOLDBERG NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR ON SALE DECEMBER 18 ON SALE JANUARY 8 ON SALE FEBRUARY 5 Legendary defense attorney Raquel A haunted young woman runs away from Bruno Johnson, a young and Rematti represents a presidential home. She lives on the streets, making inexperienced LA County Deputy Sheriff, candidate—and former First Lady of an one bad decision after another, and part of the Violent Crimes Unit, is put ISIS-assassinated President—Senator drowning her guilt in alcohol — until on loan to the FBI to help out with a Angelina Baldesteri in the most watched everything changes when she stumbles “special problem” — a group of teenage and explosive trial of thet century. upon dead drug dealer and a duffel bag criminals. full of cash. From the Editor Goodbye 2018, and hello 2019! What can I say? It’s been quite a year here at Suspense Magazine, and we are excited to close it out CREDITS John Raab with our annual “Best Of” issue—presenting President & Chairman you with our list of annual awards for the best books of 2018. Shannon Raab Creative Director Every year it gets tougher to pick the winners, since the writing and the Romaine Reeves storytelling has gotten so much better over CFO the years. The explosion of eBooks in the Amy Lignor past few years has also given fans so many Editor more options to read, and provided us with so many more outstanding authors, that it’s Jim Thomsen become a very exciting time to be a book lover. Copy Editor Our list was compiled from our editors’ choices, our review team, and fan votes. It’s a very agonizing process, as we have a lot of fighting and compromises to handle. We Contributors Mark P. Sadler would love to give everyone an award, but then it wouldn’t be special for those authors Susan Santangelo who really took the time to write a memorable book. Kaye George Weldon Burge The book that won this year’s Crimson Scribe Award, the highest achievement our Ashley Wintters magazine gives out to only one book per year, is maybe one that you wouldn’t expect. It’s D.P. Lyle M.D. Andrew MacRae a very emotional, suspenseful book, taking the reader to the edge and back again. Many J.M. LeDuc of us felt that this was the best book this author has ever written. Holly Price Now…I’m not going to give anything away here, so if you want to skip ahead and Kari Wainwright David Ingram start getting into the magazine, I completely understand. Heck, if I didn’t have to write Susan May this letter, I would already be reading and compiling my own personal list of the next Anthony J. Franze Barry Lancet books I want to buy. (If you decided to stay and keep reading, however, thanks so much.) Leslie Borghini Looking ahead to 2019, we will be giving you five issues, one for each of the seasons Mary Lignor Julie Whiteley and then ending with our traditional “Best Of” issue. We encourage all of you to keep Sara Guisti sending in your short stories and article ideas. We love to hear from fans and are constantly Jeff Ayers Elise Cooper excited to see what you come up with in the way Joseph Badal of contributions to the magazine. So…keep D.P. Lyle Dennis Palumbo them coming. Lauren Brabrook It’s time for Suspense Magazine to ‘close Robert Allen Papinchak John Valeri the book’ on yet another great year. We want to thank all of you for the support you have given Customer Service and us over the years. Without the help of hundreds Subscriptions: of people, Suspense Magazine would never have For 24/7 service, please use our website, www.suspensemagazine.com or write to: made it this long. Remember to subscribe to SUSPENSE MAGAZINE at Suspense Radio through iTunes and catch all the 26500 Agoura Road, #102-474 Calabasas, CA 91302 action ‘outside’ of the pages. Suspense Magazine does not share our Again, here’s to a happy and safe 2019 magazine subscriber list with third-party for everyone. See you all very soon and keep companies. reading! 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 November / December 2018 / Vol. 084 Crime & Science: D. P. Lyle, MD Discusses Famous Cases. 3 Everyday Hero By Joseph Badal .........................................6 Perfect Timing & How to Get it By Dennis Palumbo .......................7 Current Trends in Publishing By Alan Jacobson and Peter Hildick-Smith ������������������9 Excerpt: “Violet Tendencies” By Kate Dyer-Seeley .........................12 The Light Went Out By Stephen Maitland-Lewis ............................16 Pipe Tobacco By Marlin Bressi .........................................23 Inside the Pages: Suspense Magazine Book Reviews .....................25 Excerpt: “Storm Rising” By Sara Driscoll ................................32 Featured Artist: Meet Leana Delport . 36 Excerpt: “The Hangman’s Secret” By Laura Joh Rowland ...................44 Suspense Magazine “Best of 2018”. .48 Suspense Magazine’s Crimson Scribe Winner ..........................77 Andrews & Wilson: Show They’re “Tier One”. .78 Unearth By Jody Gerbig ...............................................97 D. P. LYLE, MD DISCUSSES FAMOUS CASES: DRUGS, POISONS, TOXINS & DEATH Interview by D.P. Lyle, MD Press Photo Credit: Provided by Author onight we’re focusing on a subject that seems to be a favorite among writers; one subject that I get the most letters on in regards to how someone can be T“done in” with drugs, poisons, etc. We are going to dive into the world of toxicology, and explore some famous cases that give a better understanding of how forensic toxicology works. Let us begin with the famous case in San Diego that was given the name: “The American Beauty Murder.” Kristin Rossum, a toxicologist by trade, was a beautiful blonde girl, very smart, very personable, came from a wealthy family, and grew up in Claremont, California. She was on a trajectory for a successful life, although she developed some drug problems along the way and got side-tracked for just a bit. She got back on course when she met and married Greg de Villers in 1995. She enrolled and graduated with honors from San Diego State, kicked her drug habit, and ended up taking a job as a toxicologist in the San Diego Medical Examiner’s Office. As life would have it, however, she ended up having an affair with a man by the name of Dr. Michael Robertson who was the chief toxicologist and her boss at the lab. Turns out she and her husband were not getting along so well. On November 6, 2000, at around 9:00 p.m., Rossum called 911. The paramedics arrived and found Kristin on the phone and her husband, Greg, on the bed: unresponsive. The oddity was that the bed was sprinkled with rose petals (i.e., this is where the “American Beauty” case title came into play because those rose petals were reminiscent of the movie with the same name). Kristin told the police that she believed Greg had committed suicide. They accepted this explanation because, at the time, they didn’t have anything else to believe. But Greg’s family said that there was no way their son would do drugs or commit suicide. He had a new job that he was excited about, and basically, was happy with life. Paramedics, to their credit, continued their investigation and found out about Kristin’s affair and that Greg had threatened to expose her relapse into crystal meth, which she actually stole from the lab. Both she and her lover, Dr. Robertson, were fired. Him for having the affair with an employee, and she for her drug issues. At first she thought she’d get away with this crime, being that she was in the toxicology department and if the ME did the autopsy on Greg, well…they were SuspenseMagazine.com 3 family in a way, so the ME should believe her story. The ME, activity. An easy example of this is testing a person’s blood in his wisdom, decided to outsource this case; he thought it alcohol level. Such as, if a person has an accident and crashes was too incestuous and too “close to home,” so he outsourced into a telephone pole and their blood alcohol level is far over it to the L.A. crime lab. the legal limit, it’s fairly easy to make an assumption as to In L.A., during the autopsy, the ME discovered that how they lost control of the vehicle and died.