Suspense, Mystery, Horror and Thriller Fiction SEPTEMBER 2014 Simply Irresistible GREGG HURWITZ BRUCE DESILVA MEG GARDINER D.P. LYLE DENNIS LEHANE SciFi with a Mysterious Twist: Anthony J. Franze KIMBERLY (K.S.) DANIELS Talks Writing With 8 Lessons Learned From Law LEE CHILD & Enforcement by JOSEPH FINDER L.J. SELLERS In this action-packed, multi-layered third book, Renegade Cajun Federal Judge Jock Boucher averts a nuclear apocalypse. 1 ST in the Jock Boucher Series!... Available in Hard Cover, Paperback, E-book and Audiobook 2ND in the Jock Boucher Series!... Available in Paperback and E-book NEW RELEASE! 3 Rd in the Series!... “Jock Boucher, Cajun federal judge turned - unlikely - action hero....a protagonist cut from a different cloth.” ~ KIRKUS REVIEWS Available at your Favorite E-book Retailer! Free! Win a Kindle! Information at DavidLyonsAuthor.com From the Editor The world is moving at light speed. Mobile phones, CREDITS social media, and tablets, have put us instantly into John Raab President & Chairman a new world. The iPhone that you are holding right now, because you are holding it or it is in range to Shannon Raab pick up, is more powerful than the computers that Creative Director we spent thousands on twenty years ago. People don’t know how to stop and unplug to Romaine Reeves really take a look around them and see the beauty CFO of the ocean, the snow-capped mountains, the fall Starr Gardinier Reina foliage, and the smell of the spring rain. Everything has to be at lighting speed. Executive Editor Remember when you made a phone call and got a busy signal? You left the house and had to find a pay phone to call back home and say you would be late or left the house so Amy Lignor you didn’t have to talk on the phone. Finding twenty cents wasn’t that easy either. And Editor you better be home before the streetlights came on or you were grounded, which meant staying in your room, because that was actually a punishment. Jim Thomsen Copy Editor Now it’s where kids live, so telling them to go to there is like telling me to just go home. Remember when you had to be careful to place the needle on the right part of the Contributors album to hear that song you wanted? How about fast-forwarding that cassette tape to Mark P. Sadler find song four, because that was the best song on the album. How many times did you Susan Santangelo place that cassette tape next to the radio and tape it so you had a play list, even with DJ Weaver commercials? Yeah, the quality sucked, but that wasn’t the point. CK Webb Remember when cars just drove you from A to B? If you wanted to navigate to a Kiki Howell Kaye George destination, you had to pull out that map, which was probably screwed up from the last Weldon Burge time you pulled it out because you couldn’t fold it right. Stopping for directions? Still hard Ashley Wintters for a man to do, even with his wife or girlfriend screaming in his ear, because no matter Scott Pearson how much screaming you heard, you still knew the correct turn was just up ahead. D.P. Lyle M.D. Kathleen Heady Remember when food was something you just ate? I still don’t understand gluten- Stephen Brayton free, fat-free ice cream, vegan chocolate, or kale. What the hell is MSG, really? It made my Brian Blocker Chinese food taste awesome, but I guess it’s bad for you. Remember when peanut butter Andrew MacRae and jelly was found in 80 percent of every kid’s lunch? When I was growing up I didn’t Val Conrad Melissa Dalton know one person allergic to peanut butter, but now we have peanut-free zones. Elliott Capon Remember when people talked face to face? I don’t think my kids know any language J.M. LeDuc but LOL, OMG, TMI, LMFAO, WTF, and IDK, what the hell did I just say? Think about Holly Price it: Is Facebook really accurate? All I see are pictures of food and read posts that make me Kari Wainwright David Ingram think half of the world’s population needs to be in a mental hospital. Jodi Hanson Remember when you only had four channels to watch on TV and at midnight when Susan May the news was over, the National Anthem played showing the flag, except for Friday and Jenny Hilborne Saturday, then it would come on at two a.m. Now we have so many TV channels—Netflix, Anthony J. Franze Kristin Centorcelli Amazon Prime, Hulu etc.—that when I hear someone say, “This sucks, there is nothing on Jerry Zavada TV to watch,” I really just want to hit them over the head with a tack hammer. When my S.L. Menear family first got cable I thought my head would explode. Not just because we had twelve Sherri Nemick channels, but we had the Playboy Channel and I could rig the box to get it for free, and for Leslie Borghini Mary Lignor a 13-year-old boy, that was the greatest day of my life. Julie Whiteley Yes, life was simpler. Our imagination was our friend. We had to think of new games to play outside. We had to grab our gloves and hit the sandlot. Girls would play house with Customer Service and their dolls, and boys wouldn’t be invited because we would take the dolls and put them in Subscriptions: For 24/7 service, please use our website, the positions we saw on the Playboy Channel. www.suspensemagazine.com or write to: But there is still one-way to walk away and unplug our lives from the rat race we call SUSPENSE MAGAZINE at life now. Inside the magazine we have more than ten pages of reviews. Simply pick up a 26500 Agoura Road, #102-474 book and read it—because no matter how fast life is moving, reading is done at your own Calabasas, CA 91302 Suspense Magazine does not share our pace. magazine subscriber list to third-party companies. John Raab CEO/Publisher Rates: $24.00 (Electronic Subscrip- Suspense Magazine ■ tion) per year. All foreign subscrip- tions must be payable in U.S. funds. “Reviews within this magazine are the opinions of the individual reviewers and are provided solely to provide readers assis- tance 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 reviewers who may appear in this magazine are also indi- vidual clients of Suspense Publishing, an imprint of Suspense Magazine: Mark P. Sadler, Starr Gardinier Reina, Ashley Dawn (Wintters), DJ Weaver, CK Webb, Elliott Capon, J.M. LeDuc, S.L. Menear, Leslie Borghini, Susan Santangelo, and Amy Lignor.” SuspenseMagazine.com 1 CONTENT SUSPENSE MAGAZINE September 2014 / Vol. 059 First Rites By D.B. Toth ............................................3 International Thriller Writers: Reader’s Corner By Janice Gable Bashman ������6 The Treacherous Ascent By Joseph Heithaus ............................7 From Across the Pond: Meet Amy Bird ........................... 11 Special Excerpt: “Deadly Bonds” By L.J. Sellers ...................... 13 8 Lessons From Law Enforcement Research By L.J. Sellers ............ 18 SciFi with a Mysterious Twist: Kimberly (K.S.) Daniels . 20 Copy Editor’s Corner: Don’t Press the Pause Button! By Jim Thomsen .. 22 Inside the Pages: Suspense Magazine Book Reviews ................. 24 Suspense Magazine Movie Reviews. 42 Featured Artist: Genesis Raz von Elder . 43 Forensic Files: Time of Death By D.P. Lyle .......................... 48 Ambush By Jason M. Garrett ...................................... 49 Special Excerpt: “Don’t Look Back” By Gregg Hurwitz ................ 55 America’s Favorite Suspense Authors: FaceOffBy Anthony J. Franze ..... 61 De Je Vous By James G. Piatt ...................................... 75 First Rites By D.B. Toth he young priest rounded the corner at 59th Street and hurried down Seventh Avenue. It was an unusually warm day in late October and he was without hat or overcoat. His long-sleeved black shirt and pants were starched and ironed Tand his white collar looked as if it had just been taken out of its wrapper. He walked quickly and his pristine Bible swung playfully with every step. All along the busy midtown street, shopkeepers abandoned their counters and held their faces to the sun. The young priest knew which ones were Catholics, because they greeted him with a “Good Afternoon, Father” or looked away as if he had caught them in a lie and he felt ashamed because it made him feel good. Passing St. John’s, the heavy doors of the cathedral were pushed open and an old woman made her careful way down the steps. She touched the young priest on the arm and gave him a toothless smile. The priest smiled back and when he noticed her black armband, he picked up his pace. On 42nd Street, the priest descended the steps to the subway and even though the station was busy with the holiday crowd, people stepped aside when they saw him coming. When he surfaced in Brooklyn, the sky was perfectly balanced between day and dusk and the golden light spilled evenly over the street and it turned fiery when it washed over the autumn leaves. The doors of the bars and cafes were propped open and the bartenders were smoking their last cigarettes in the doorway before starting their shifts. Some of the stools were already occupied and he supposed that in a few hours most of the bars and clubs would be crowded.