Recently I had the opportunity to speak with Bobby Mathews, an exciting up-and-coming author. His new novel Living the Gimmick ($14.95 paperback and $4.99 eBook) was released last spring and is getting rave reviews. His follow-up, Magic City Blues, is due later in the year—both from Shotgun Honey. J.B.: Bobby, thanks for speaking with me, it’s…
More than 30 years ago, unhappy with my job as a lawyer, I read four books that changed my life. No, they weren’t self-help books. They didn’t advise me to take up meditation or yoga or psychedelic drugs. They were novels with flawed protagonists. I’ll tell you about them in a moment, but first, let…
Read Steph Broadribb's exclusive guest blog about her favorite action heroes and follow the link at the bottom to claim several free stories from internationally bestselling authors! I’ve always loved Westerns. You know, the lone cowboy rides into town, sorts out the bad guys, and moves on. I guess that’s partly what inspired my short…
Read this exclusive guest post from John Keyse-Walker about the second novels of six of the greatest crime writers ever, then make sure to sign in and comment below for a chance to win a copy of Keyse-Walker's second novel, Beach, Breeze, Bloodshed! I am in the happy position of having my second novel,…
Renowned gamesman Barclay Cooke (1912-1981) called backgammon “the cruelest game.” Memorable hyperbole? Perhaps. But vital skills are needed to play: intense concentration, clever strategy, and an ability to see ahead to possible traps—and still the probability of the roll can level the steel nerves of even the finest. That brutal unpredictability translates well to the…
I can’t read a book of any kind—thriller, literary fiction, memoir, biography, even history—unless the setting speaks to me. I need to feel, with all my senses, the physical world in which the writer is trying to involve me. Often, that’s what I’m left with years later when I think of the work: not the…
Although reading is a largely visual task (albeit in practice and not in the sense of a picture), what makes it so enjoyable is the imaginative task of creating a world with all of your senses from what is being described through words. And, as often is the case, music is the perfect accompaniment to reading—the…
Summer is right around the corner, and how better to pass the time than with some reads set in exotic locales or, just as fun, on the beach? Whether you’re looking for something light and breezy or a walk on the darker side of summer, no worries, we’ve got you covered! If it’s a light,…
Wikipedia lists John D. MacDonald as a prolific writer. Ya think? Seventy-eight books with more than 75 million copies in print, plus nearly 500 short stories? That’s not prolific, that’s Brobdingnagian. Compare that to Raymond Chandler, whose career output was six novels and about two dozen stories. But there is more than just tonnage to…
First, I need to tell you that John D. MacDonald has left us a huge legacy of pulp, hardboiled fiction, and thrillers written in both novel and short story form. The scope of his work is nothing short of amazing. (You did know that Cape Fear was based on his novel The Executioners, right?) But…
