Suspense, Mystery, Horror and Thriller Fiction APRIL 2016 Meet Debut Author LESLIE KARST Breaking News! An All-Star Issue On Writing BEATRIZ WILLIAMS DENNIS PALUMBO S.G. REDLING STAR TREK WARS KATHERINE NEVILLE JEFF AYERS JOHN GILSTRAP Craft Corner With BARRY LANCET & JOE HART KENDRA ELLIOT ALEX BERENSON YOUR PAST Can haunt you... hree New York Times Tbestselling authors join group of friends have nightmare years in forces for a thrilling novel been hiding a terrible A vicious drug cartel Athe making is about about love, revenge, and the secret since high school, to come to a bloody, wants their stolen dark secrets three women and now someone wants A terrifying end for forensic $200,000,000 back from hold about a terrifying murder. them to pay for their a prep school computer technician Georgia Morgan mistakes...with their lives. and homicide detective hacking club—but they Jake Bishop. “The powerhouse didn’t plan on survivalist trio combine their “If Alfred Hitchcock Jake Dent’s mission to “Riveting. Mary impressive talents were alive today save his only son getting Burton delivers for a spine-tingling and writing novels, in their way. his name would be a page-turner.” tale.”—RT Book Reviews “One of today’s Kevin O’Brien.” —Carla Neggers best thriller writers.” on I'm Watching You —The Press & Guide on Unspeakable —Publishers Weekly ON SALE NOW ENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.—America’s Independent Publisher B E G I N R E A D I N G : K E N S I N G T O N B O O K S . C O M From the Editor For a long time I’ve looked around the CREDITS entertainment industry—not just books, but John Raab movies, music, etc., and I’ve thought to myself: President & Chairman “When is enough really enough?” Well, with the Shannon Raab announcement of a fifth “Indiana Jones” movie, I Creative Director feel I need to talk about this topic. Now, Jeff Ayers and I will be talking in-depth Romaine Reeves CFO about this on our radio show “Beyond The Cover,” on the Suspense Radio Network, which you can Amy Lignor subscribe to via iTunes (shameless plug), because Editor both of us feel that too many times things in the entertainment realm are taken too far. Jim Thomsen Copy Editor I’m a huge “Indiana Jones” fan and think all the movies are very good, some better than others of course, but very good nevertheless. But Contributors when I heard that they were doing yet another one, I was very upset and my thoughts went to the Mark P. Sadler fact that this is nothing more than a money grab. The story has been told over and over. There Susan Santangelo DJ Weaver is nothing more to say and it will only hurt the product we have grown to love. With books, this CK Webb happens a lot. In my opinion, for whatever that’s worth, I think that eighty percent of the series Kiki Howell written today have gone past their prime. Kaye George Weldon Burge For decades, Hollywood has continued to remake movies that were classics and ended up Ashley Wintters destroying their legacy. The first movie that comes to mind because it recently re-released is Point Scott Pearson Break. Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze made a great movie, but the remake was not only bad, D.P. Lyle M.D. Kathleen Heady it should have been eaten by a Great White roaming in one of those huge waves, never to return. Stephen Brayton The creative process seems to be lost today. I see more and more books focusing on the same Brian Blocker thing over and over again. Now this is again, just my opinion, but the military/political thrillers Andrew MacRae Val Conrad today are saturating the market with the exact same ideas. How many times can you kill a group Melissa Dalton of terrorists trying to blow up the world? Can we move past this onto something else? Something Elliott Capon fresh and new? J.M. LeDuc Holly Price Two authors, who sadly passed on, left us with some wonderful books. Yet, they continue to Kari Wainwright write books within their “brand” (another word/idea I hate). These incredible minds were Vince David Ingram Flynn and Tom Clancy. I’m a great fan of both Grant Blackwood and Mark Greaney who have Jodi Hanson Susan May written under the “Clancy” name after his death, but I feel that if the main author has died, his Jenny Hilborne characters and stories should die with him/her. I don’t blame Grant or Mark for getting that kind Anthony J. Franze of exposure or collecting that check, I just think it’s in Kristin Centorcelli Jerry Zavada bad taste that the estate of the dearly departed kept the Leslie Borghini “money train” rolling. Mary Lignor I could go on and on, and will be more vocal on the Julie Whiteley Sara Guisti radio show with Jeff, but this is something I had to get Jeff Ayers off my chest. Again, this is simply my opinion. But I still Elise Cooper think that we have come to a point where money and a Customer Service and “brand” have become far more important than the actual Subscriptions: product being produced. I think that while we are getting For 24/7 service, please use our website, some great products, they are being lost in the flood of www.suspensemagazine.com or write to: SUSPENSE MAGAZINE at mediocrity because money is too important. Art in its 26500 Agoura Road, #102-474 purest form was never about the almighty dollar, it was Calabasas, CA 91302 about the beauty of the final portrait. In other words, we Suspense Magazine does not share our magazine subscriber list with third-party are sorely missing the Michelangelo’s of the written word. companies. John Raab CEO/Publisher Rates: $24.00 (Electronic Subscrip- tion) per year. All foreign subscrip- Suspense Magazine ■ tions must be payable in U.S. funds. “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 reviewers who may appear in this magazine are also individual clients of Suspense Publishing, an imprint of Suspense Magazine: Mark P. Sadler, Ashley Dawn (Wintters), DJ Weaver, CK Webb, Elliott Capon, J.M. LeDuc, Leslie Borghini, Susan Santangelo, and Amy Lignor.” SuspenseMagazine.com 1 CONTENTSUSPENSE MAGAZINE April 2016 / Vol. 070 Forensic Files: Transfusion RX By D.P. Lyle, MD .........................3 What Ifs By Carter Wilson. .5 Capturing the Exotic By Barry Lancet ...............................10 The Experience By Kendra Elliot ....................................12 Wealth, Love, Power & Vietnam? Beatriz Williams Answers it All ......14 7 Deadly Sins on Twitter By Lynne Constantine ........................16 Inside the Pages: Suspense Magazine Book Reviews ..................18 Movies with Jeff Ayers ...........................................40 Featured Artist: Sara Abdel-Latif . 41 Excerpt: “Takedown” By Jeff Buck With Jon Land and Lindsay Preston ........45 Are You Hungry for More? Meet Leslie Karst ........................50 S .G . Redling Sings Her Anthem ...................................52 Breaking News: Writing is Hard! By Dennis Palumbo ..................55 Star Trek Wars By Jeff Ayers ........................................64 Congratulations to the Nominees: The Edgar Awards .................71 The Role of Fear By Adam Dunn ....................................76 Excerpt: “Right-Hand Man” By Weldon Burge .........................78 Forensic Files By D.P. Lyle, MD Q&A: IS IT POSSIBLE FOR MY CHARACTER TO COMMIT A MURDER BY CAUSING A TRANSFUSION REACTION? Q: In my story, an elderly and seriously ill man is murdered by a nurse who switches the blood he is to receive, causing a reaction which kills him. How does this reaction occur and what symptoms would the victim have? A: Transfusion reactions come in many varieties. They may be as mild as a rash or perhaps chills and fever or may be so severe as to cause death. First let’s look at why these reactions occur. The red blood cells (RBCs) are the carriers of Oxygen (O2) from the lungs to the tissues and of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from the tissues to the lungs. This is accomplished by using the hemoglobin inside the RBCs. The RBCs also have Antigens on their surface. It is these antigens that cause the problem. These antigens are designated either A or B. From these, our blood typing system (ABO System) has been derived. Type A blood has only A antigens, Type B only B antigens, Type AB both, and Type O neither. Simple so far. But, the serum of the blood (the liquid part) also carries antibodies. It is the reaction of these antibodies with the antigens of the transfused blood that causes problems. Type A serum (that is the serum of people with Type A blood) has Anti-B antibodies. Type B has Anti-A antibodies. Type AB has neither. Type O has both Anti-A and Anti-B antibodies. TYPE ANTIGENS ON RBCS ANTIBODIES IN SERUM A A ANTI-B B B ANTI-A AB AB NONE O NEITHER ANTI-A AND ANTI-B Reactions occur when blood with the right Antigen is given to a person with its corresponding antibody. For example, if a Type A person (who has Anti-B antibodies in the serum) receives Type B blood (which has the B antigen on its RBCs) or Type AB blood (which has both A and B antigens) an adverse reaction will occur because the Anti-B antibodies in the SuspenseMagazine.com 3 recipient’s serum will react with the B antigens on the transfused RBCs.