Suspense, Mystery, Horror and Thriller Fiction SPRING 2020 Inspired by Actual Events with Douglas Preston A Wealth of Writers! JOSEPH BADAL ANG POMPANO Stellar Rays: DV BERKOM The Fashion for Chandler BETTY WEBB JANET ROGERS STEVEN F. HAVILL Get a Sneak Peek with JONATHAN MABERRY ARLENE McFARLANE JOSEPH FINDER L.J. SELLERS BRAD TAYLOR JEANNE McWILLIAMS BLASBERG RHYS BOWEN A bizarre murder, a missing woman, and a pack of online predators. Can they be stopped? “Flawless pacing, fascinating characters, and a plot woven together with seamless complexity: The Black Pill is one of LJ Sellers’ most masterful works.” —Andrew Kaufman bestselling thriller author From the author of 25 bestselling mysteries & thrillers SUSPENSE-blackpill-v2.indd 1 1/30/2020 7:17:40 PM From the Editor Welcome to 2020! I know we are through the first quarter already and, man…did time fly by! I would like to start by saying we are deeply saddened to hear of the sudden CREDITS passing of thriller master Clive Cussler John Raab at age 88. Clive will be missed by all of President & Chairman us in the book world. His first book was Shannon Raab published in 1973, with the emergence of Creative Director his main character, Dirk Pitt. In total, Clive published twenty-five Dirk Pitt novels, Abigail Peralta who became one of the most popular Vice President, Editorial Dept. characters in the publishing world. Clive also had other series that featured co-authors. Amy Lignor It started in 1999, when The NUMA Files was born with author Paul Kemprecos. From Editor there, incredible series came about with The Oregon Files, Isaac Bell Adventures and The Fargo Adventures. Contributors This leads me to the subject of my letter…. When Lee Child announced that he would Susan Santangelo Kaye George no longer write the Jack Reacher series, and turned the reins over to his brother, Andrew, Weldon Burge that got me thinking: At what point does the character overtake the author in popularity? Ashley Wintters I think that when a series is made into a successful movie, like Jack Reacher (2012), the D.P. Lyle M.D. Andrew MacRae character enters households that might not read books at all, but now they know Reacher. J.M. LeDuc Of course, in our world, Lee Child is still the brain behind the character, but for many, David Ingram Anthony J. Franze Jack Reacher is now known and Lee Child isn’t. Another is Harry Potter. I believe it’s Barry Lancet reasonable to assume that Harry Potter is much bigger than JK Rowling. During our Leslie Borghini exclusive interview with Andrew Grant, who’ll pen the next Jack Reacher book with Lee Mary Lignor Jeff Ayers Child, we spoke about our favorite co-authors and the series they created. The first one Joseph Badal I remember is “The Talisman” by Stephen King and Peter Straub; they continued their Dennis Palumbo “team” effort with the sequel, “Black House.” I also mentioned “Final Option”—the latest Lauren Brabrook Robert Allen Papinchak Clive Cussler book (with author Boyd Morrison) that I feel is the best in the series. And, John Valeri of course, James Patterson who helped launch the career of Andrew Gross when they co- Patrick Whitehurst authored the Women’s Murder Club series, among others. Kirsche Romo Bailey Day I think that Cussler’s series will Jaime Lynn Hendricks continue, like Clancy and Vince Patricia Wilson Flynn, because they’re too popular Customer Service and and the publisher won’t want to Subscriptions: stop them. I wouldn’t be shocked to For 24/7 service, please use our website, www.suspensemagazine.com or write to: see more and more authors make SUSPENSE MAGAZINE at their character more of a “brand” 26500 Agoura Road, #102-474 and spin off different series as they Calabasas, CA 91302 Suspense Magazine does not share our slow down in their writing. magazine subscriber list with third-party Email us some of your favorites, companies. or some of the series that have Rates: $24.00 (Electronic Subscrip- stopped that you would like to tion) per year. All foreign subscrip- see come back. While you do that, tions must be payable in U.S. funds. enjoy the issue and we will see you again in the summertime. John Raab 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, Bailey Day, Joseph Badal, and Amy Lignor.” SuspenseMagazine.com 1 CONTENT SUSPENSE MAGAZINE Spring 2020 / Vol. 088 The Most By G. Wayne Ashbee. .3 A Plume Novel By Scoff McGregor ......................................5 HALF-TIME By Susan Hammerman .....................................9 Special Excerpt: “Murder, Curlers & Kegs” By Arlene McFarlane .............14 Ang Pompano on “When It’s Time For Leaving” .......................17 For Action-Oriented Characters, You Can’t Beat DV Berkom ...........21 Lizzie Borden Versus Belle Gunness By Robert Kostanczuk .................24 Inside the Pages: Suspense Magazine Book Reviews ....................31 Featured Artist: Jonathan McFerran . 44 Special Excerpt: “The Nine” By Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg .................50 Betty Webb: Take a Walk on the Wild Side ...........................53 Special Excerpt: “Panda of Death” By Betty Webb ........................55 A Conversation with Steven F . Havill: Author of “Less Than a Moment” ���������59 Special Excerpt: “Less Than a Moment”By Steven F. Havill .................61 Eye Witness By Larry Allen Tyler .......................................65 The Neighbour From Hell By Mark Towse ...............................87 Inspired by Actual Events with Douglas Preston By Joseph Badal ..........90 Special Excerpt: “The Black Pill” By L.J. Sellers ...........................94 Stellar Rays: The Fashion for ChandlerBy Janet Rogers ................100 The Name’s Maier: Welcome to the Far East By Tom Vater .............102 THE MOST By G. Wayne Ashbee did it just like she asked, after she paid me, cash; total upfront. The twenty large bought her a body to look at—her husband’s. I guess you could call him the “ex-husband” now. “Where is he…it?” I“In the trunk of my car. Are you sure you want to see…it?” I was mocking her. She deserved it. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. You came highly recommended, so I know you did the job. Like your agency said, ‘whoever pays you first.’ ” “It’s not my agency. I’m strictly solo—the agency is just for referrals.” I had parked my car in the alley at the back of her townhouse—a three-story Georgian, red brick, set in a row of other expensive houses. Kinda’ reminded me of that famous street in Boston. What was the name of that…? Doesn’t matter. I had already checked the alley for CCTV cameras, so I had no hesitation about popping the trunk. She was a looker, all right. In her 40s, mid-40s maybe. Never can tell with these society babes. Their money—their husband’s money—buys them several years from the best plastic docs. “Let’s get this over with,” she said. “Don’t want to grab a quick pick-me-up before we do the looksee?” I was flirtin’ with her—thought she might want a little sexual release of that post-homicide tension. But she didn’t want anything to do with me that she hadn’t already paid for. I was not in her class; probably bangin’ her skin stretcher while angling for a free boob lift. Anyway, that wouldn’t be right of me. I do have ethics; you have to in my line of work. # n hour earlier I had met her husband in the kitchen of a restaurant he owned—one of four, she said—a tony kind of place where the entrée is three forkfuls of some green and yellow stuff with a red liquid drizzled along the edge of a square white plate; food you never heard of and wouldn’t try to pronounce. AThe restaurant was closed, and all the staff had left hours before I arrived. I didn’t like the guy the minute I laid eyes on him, which was not such a bad thing considering the matter at hand. It wasn’t the expensive bespoke wool and silk blend suit or the gelled hair, lookin’ like he was a wannabe gangster or a casino table dealer—no, it was something else. I couldn’t put my finger exactly on it, but I could see why she wanted him gone. He thought he was better than her. You know, like he had more class. But even if he did have more class, he didn’t have to remind her of it all the time. He was the type of jerk that would do that. I can always tell. People like them rubbed me raw. Neither of them had real class; you know, like when you’ve got so much money you could afford expensive champagne but drink Budweiser instead, from a martini glass. SuspenseMagazine.com 3 He took the rubber-banded thirty thou from the pocket of his trousers, looked at it, and then looked at me. He had a smirk that told me I could have asked for more—and got it. “Just like you asked. Thirty thousand in Benjamins— three hundred of them, no sequential serial numbers. Go ahead and count it; won’t hurt my feelings.” “Naw, I trust you.