Suspense, Mystery, Horror and Thriller Fiction January 2014 Meet Up & Coming Authors Jonathan Ryan D. B. CoRey Jill amaDio CaRla noRton INSIDE HBO’S John Lescroart & True DeTecTive T. Jefferson Parker Will Write for Cheese “FACEOFF” Daryl WooD Gerber From the Editor C r e di t s John Raab President & Chairman A new year has started and the question Shannon Raab that always comes up at this time is: How will Creative Director publishing change this year? I really wish I had a crystal ball and could Romaine Reeves CFO tell the future, but hey, if I did, I wouldn’t be doing this, would I? What I can say is that the Starr Gardinier Reina Executive Editor trends that have been going on for the past couple of years will continue this year. There Jim Thomsen is no reason not to think that e-books will Copy Editor again continue to grow, pushing paperbacks Contributors and hardcovers further behind. Amazon, Donald Allen Kirch Apple, and Google are putting more money into technology that will make it easier Mark P. Sadler Susan Santangelo to read e-books, and buy them. If you didn’t know this holiday season, mobile Xmas DJ Weaver buying jumped and Apple’s iPhone led the way. The trend shows that more people are CK Webb Kiki Howell buying products online and that means more e-books. Kaye George But who suffers? Well, certainly not the reader or the author, unless you are not Weldon Burge Ashley Wintters willing to change. Barnes & Noble is in real trouble and it will be interesting to see if Scott Pearson it can stay afloat. Amazon is saying that, aside from having a drone deliver products to D.P. Lyle M.D. Kathleen Heady your house, it is also looking into brick and mortar stores. Stephen Brayton Brian Blocker Marketing for authors will still be a front-and-center issue. We have spoken with Andrew MacRae several authors in recent years and they all say the same thing: You better learn quickly Val Conrad Laura Alden how to connect with readers or you Melissa Dalton simply won’t sell many copies of Elliott Capon J.M. LeDuc your books. The supply of books Holly Price will only increase, allowing readers Kari Wainwright David Ingram to have more and more choices Jodi Hanson on what to read, putting them in Amy Lignor Susan May control of the market. Jenny Hilborne As for the magazine, we are Sharon Salonen Anthony J. Franze cutting the amount of issues this year Jeanine Elizalde to eight, so check out the website for Kristin Centorcelli Jerry Zavada the release dates. This doesn’t mean Ray Palen we will have less content, just fewer S.L. Menear Sherri Nemick issues. Leslie Borghini So yes, 2014 is a year of Customer Service and transition and change. Just how Subscriptions: much nobody really knows, but one For 24/7 service, please use our website, www.suspensemagazine.com or write to: thing is for sure, it will be fun to SUSPENSE MAGAZINE at watch. 26500 Agoura Road, #102-474 Calabasas, CA 91302 Suspense Magazine does not share our John Raab magazine subscriber list to third-party companies. CEO/Publisher Suspense Magazine ■ Rates: $24.00 (Electronic Subscrip- 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 assistance in determining another's thoughts on the book under discussion and shall not be interpreted as professional advice or the opin- ion of any other than the individual reviewer. The following reviewers who may appear in this magazine are also individual cli- ents 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, and Amy Lignor.” SuspenseMagazine.com 1 CONTENT Su Sp E n se M ag a z i n E January 2014 / Vol. 054 Hit and Run By Bill Surdenik . 3 Will Write for Cheese By Daryl Wood Gerber . .7 Special Excerpt: “Rosarito Beach” By M . A . Lawson . 11 The Illusionist By Christy Sloat . 14 Haunting Queen Mary By Ryan Sturm . 22 Inside the Pages: Suspense Magazine Book Reviews . 24 Suspense Magazine Movie Reviews . 38 Best in Film: 2013 By Susan May . 39 Featured Artist: Ljilja Romanovic . 41 Stranger Than Fiction: Conspiracy! By Donald Allen Kirch . 45 Special Excerpt: “Northern Soul” By Steven Savile and Steve Lockley . 52 America’s Favorite Suspense Authors: FaceOffBy Anthony J . Franze . 62 Behind the Scenes Look: HBO’s True Detective with Nic Pizzolatto . 68 Science & the Supernatural By Stephen Tremp . 72 HarperCollins Flies the Friendly Sky's . 73 Ghost Train to Babylon By Big Jim Williams . 74 Hit and Run By Bill Surdenik DonalD DiDn’t believe in luck. It he felt himself weightless and free falling. He had no doubt had sentimentality, and he was no sentimentalist. He wasn’t been thrown into the air. Donald sat up and Carlo held onto the guy who wore a lucky jersey to games or knocked on his shoulders, helping him. wood. His belief system went Donald first, the dollar second. “A car hit me,” he said absently, unsure of his own words. Simple. Preparation, plans, timetables, and tools were rigid, He looked around. There was no car on the road now. dependable. His work was the sum of its parts. When a Mailer Street had retaken the ghostly charm of the industrial mission was complete, it always turned out just as he knew wasteland it split into equal halves. There was never traffic on it would. But luck was infamous for asserting itself. Even Mailer. The only cars were driven by the forty or so employees people who didn’t believe in it managed to pick the winning at the paper mill on the opposite side of the street, and it had lottery numbers or get struck by lightning every now and been closed for the holiday weekend. He imagined he’d been then. This stream of consciousness swirled through his mind hit by the only car to lay rubber on Mailer Street all day long. as he realized he was convulsing. How novel. His closed eyes throbbed. He felt tiny remnants of “They just drove off.” fresh asphalt digging into his shoulders and buttocks like “You okay?” bits of glass and realized he was on his back. His head and Carlo’s hat made his seriousness almost laughable. shoulders were rocking like he was in a boat in choppy waves “Just help me up.” and something like his name repeated in a distant garbled Donald got to his feet slowly, Carlo holding his arms. His voice. Carlo’s face was hovering above his, the Manny’s Hot knee, calf, and shin were all discolored and sore. He would Dogs hat like a child’s paper boat perched on his head, his definitely have a limp, but nothing felt broken. Small favors. hands shaking Donald by the shoulders as he repeated his He jerked suddenly as he realized the sun had set. It had only name with pained urgency. A huge sigh blew through his lips been on its way down when he left Manny’s, the sky a dark as Donald’s eyes came to focus on him. orange instead of purplish blue. The face of his watch had “You okay, Donny?” he said. been smashed, the hands frozen between five forty and five “I think so.” Donald raised a slow hand to his head. forty five. “What happened to you?” The Fitzgerald Center. No later than six fifty. Donald considered the question. He was in the westbound “What time is it?” he said. Carlo’s lips parted. His lane on Mailer Street. His brain went into rewind and cued shoulders slowly hitched up. up the last events it could summon up. Carlo had handed “I don’t know, Donny,” he said. “It’s got to be past six, him his dinner to-go in the white paper bag, polish sausage though.” with mustard, French fries, and a Sunkist. He reached into At this, Carlo stood like a well-meaning statue quizzically the bag as he stepped onto the sidewalk and pulled out a watching his patron, one of the few he considered a friend, greasy handful of fries. As he stepped off the curb his head struggle up the road on a leg that had no business trying to snapped to the right as his eye caught something—a sunny, run. It didn’t even occur to him to unhitch his shoulders and red blur. Then there was a tremendous blow against his right lower his hands. knee. What happened afterward took some harder thinking. “You don’t want me to call an ambulance, Donny?” he There was a screeching of brakes around the same time called. SuspenseMagazine.com 3 Donald didn’t answer. space. The place reminded Donald of a train station. # The Fitzgerald had been a landmark practically since it His plan HaD been to catcH the subway opened in nineteen ninety three and hosted an assortment of at forty seventh, take it to the Keeler stop, and walk the two events all year long. Everything from car shows to political and a half blocks to the Fitzgerald Center. No time for that debates. There were huge stone pillars on either side of the now. His knee stabbed him with each step, but he needed to crowded escalators to and from the second floor.