The Ripper Gene is the debut thriller by Michael Ransom about a neuroscientist-turned-FBI profiler who's discovered a genetic signature that produces psychopaths (available August 18, 2015). Dr. Lucas Madden is a neuroscientist-turned-FBI profiler who first gained global recognition for cloning the ripper gene and showing its dysfunction in the brains of psychopaths. Later, as an…
The Suspicion at Sanditon (Or, the Disappearance of Lady Denham) by Carrie Bebris is the 7th cozy addition to the Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mystery Series set in the location of Jane Austen's final work (available July 14, 2015). “Well, does Lady Denham intend to join us at all this evening?” Mr. Hollis's volume drew…
What Doesn't Kill Her by Carla Norton is the 2nd psychological thriller featuring U.C. Berkley student Reeve LeClaire, who is yanked back into her grim past when her old abductor escapes from a psychiatric hospital (available June 30, 2015). All you have to say is “mental hospital,”and you have my undivided attention. When I picked…
You may recall the case of the baby-faced “Cannibal Cop,” Gilberto Valle III, who expressed fetishistic fantasies of killing, cooking, and consuming the flesh of women, including his wife. (See the documentary's trailer below for Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop.) But Valle never actually did those things… well, he hasn't yet. Maybe…
I’ve been a fan of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 suspense film High and Low since I saw it years ago. I just watched it again after my first read of the 87th Precinct novel it’s based on: Ed McBain’s 1959 procedural King’s Ransom – the 10th installment of the highly-celebrated series penned by Evan Hunter under…
The Russian Bride by Ed Kovacs is a military thriller about Major Kit Bennings, an intelligence agent working at the Moscow embassy who's caught up in a Russian mob's terrorist scheme (available April 14, 2015). Major Kit Bennings is an elite military intelligence agent working undercover in Moscow. When he is blackmailed and compromised by…
Scent of Murder by James O. Born is a police procedural about Tim Hallett, a detective recently reassigned to a special K-9 unit (available April 7, 2015). Two years after being tossed from the detective bureau for using questionable tactics while catching a child molester, deputy Tim Hallett's life is finally on track. Assigned to…
Black Scorpion: The Tyrant Reborn by Jon Land picks up five years after Michael Tiranno saved Las Vegas, and now he's tasked with bringing down a international human trafficking organization (available April 7, 2015). Five years have passed since Michael Tiranno saved the city of Las Vegas from a terrorist attack. And now a new…
It's the story of a Columbian colonel, a Miami ad man, long-time hostages and the music of freedom. Colonel Espejo was running out of opportunities to rescue hostages held by the rural FARC, sometimes for more than a decade, so he turned to an ad man with a long-standing grudge against the guerillas to design…
Perfect Sins by Jo Bannister is the 2nd book to feature Gabriel Ash, a British government investigator whose wife and sons were believed killed by Somalian pirates until new information comes to light (available December 9, 2014). Four years ago, Gabriel Ash was working with the British government investigating hijackings in Somalia. But when his…
