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‘Pretty Girls,” A Conversation with Karin Slaughter

October 22, 2015 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Karin Slaughter Credit Alison RosaKarin Slaughter’s first book, Blindsighted, became an international success published in 30 languages, and made the Crime Writer’s Association’s Dagger Award shortlist for “Best Thriller Debut” of 2001. More than 30 million copies of her books have been sold in 32 languages. Her Grant County series has been very popular, as has her Will Trent series of novels. She’s also written standalone novels.

Pretty Girls, a standalone novel, focuses on two sisters, Claire and Lydia, who haven’t spoken for more than twenty years. Claire is the glamorous wife of an Atlanta millionaire; Lydia is a single mother dating an ex-con and is struggling financially. Neither has recovered from the disappearance of their sister, Julia, two decades earlier. When Claire’s husband is murdered, the horror of the past invades both their lives. Is there a connection between these two events separated by more than twenty years? The sisters form a truce and struggle to unearth the secrets that destroyed their family years ago.

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Filed Under: About Books, Huffington Post Column, Interviews, Mark Rubinstein, On Writing Tagged With: column, Huffington Post, HuffPo, Mark Rubinstein, writing

‘The Searcher,’ A Conversation with Simon Toyne

October 6, 2015 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Simon ToyneSimon Toyne left a successful television career as a writer, director, and producer to take a gamble on novel-writing. The risk paid off, resulting in his penning the internationally bestselling Sanctus trilogy. Sanctus, The Key, and The Tower have been translated into dozens of languages.

 The Searcher is the first book in what will be his new series featuring Solomon Creed, a man with no memory of his past. In the novel, set in the small Arizona town of Redemption, Solomon must save a lost soul scheduled for burial that morning.  While the townspeople of Redemption are gathered at the cemetery, they are interrupted by a thunderous plane crash in the distant desert. A pillar of black smoke blankets the air.

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Filed Under: About Books, Huffington Post Column, Interviews, Mark Rubinstein, On Writing Tagged With: column, Huffington Post, HuffPo, Mark Rubinstein, writing

Acclaimed Authors Tell It Like It Is

September 1, 2015 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Over the years, I’ve had the good fortune to interview many acclaimed authors. They aOnce Upon A Timenswer questions with refreshing candor. Here are some of the most successful writers telling it like it is.

You left your day job to write full-time. What’s surprised you about the writing life?

It’s much easier to lie on the couch and eat potato chips or watch Better Call Saul than sit down and write another paragraph. I’ve had to relearn self-discipline in writing these books. Alex Grecian, talking about The Harvest Man

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Filed Under: About Books, Huffington Post Column, Interviews, Mark Rubinstein, On Writing Tagged With: column, Huffington Post, HuffPo, Mark Rubinstein, writing

“X,” A Conversation with Sue Grafton

August 27, 2015 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Sue Grafton (c) Laurie Roberts PorterSue Grafton is best known for her alphabet mystery series (A is for Alibi, etc.), with her feisty protagonist Kinsey Millhone. NPR’s Maureen Corrigan said the forthcoming conclusion of the alphabet series “makes me wish there were more than twenty-six letters at her disposal.”

Sue has won nearly every award in the crime-mystery lexicon, and her bestselling novels are published in 28 countries and in 26 languages.

Breaking with the tradition of summing up each novel’s storyline by use of a letter and accompanying word, in Sue’s latest release, X represents the “unknown.” Within its pages are three separate mysteries: an art theft; an elderly couple involved in graft; and a sociopathic serial killer on the loose who is zeroing in on Kinsey as she struggles to unravel and resolve these cases without becoming the next victim of this ruthless killer.

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Filed Under: About Books, Huffington Post Column, Interviews, Mark Rubinstein, On Writing Tagged With: advice to beginners, closed mystery, column, Hollywood, Huffington Post, HuffPo, Mark Rubinstein, open mystery, Writer's Block, writing, writing from the soul

‘The Cartel’ A Conversation with Don Winslow

June 22, 2015 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Don Winslow_5718Don Winslow is known to thriller lovers everywhere, especially after his extraordinary novel, Savages, which was made into a film directed by Oliver Stone. Don grew up in Rhode Island, and at age seventeen, left to study journalism at the University of Nebraska, where he earned a degree in African Studies. While in college, he traveled to southern Africa, sparking a lifelong involvement with that continent. Later, he obtained a master’s degree in Military History.

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Filed Under: novel, On Writing, war Tagged With: drug wars, Mexican cartels

Tom Clancy “Under Fire” A Conversation with Grant Blackwood

June 15, 2015 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Grant Blackwood co-authored Dead or Alive with Tom Clancy, The Kill Switch with JGrant Blackwood-jpegames Rollins, and The Fargo Adventure Series with Clive Cussler. He’s also the author of the Briggs Tanner series, among other novels. A U. S. Navy veteran, Grant spent three years aboard a guided missile frigate as an Operations Specialist and a Pilot Rescue Swimmer.

Under Fire is Grant’s first solo Tom Clancy book in the Jack Ryan, Jr. series. Working alone for the first time on assignment for The Campus in Tehran, Jack shares lunch with an old friend, Seth Gregory, during which he’s given the key to Seth’s apartment, along with a cryptic message. Soon thereafter, Seth goes missing and Jack, doing his best to locate his friend, finds himself entangled in a web of espionage; global politics involving the CIA, Great Britain’s MI 6, Russian and Iranian intelligence; and a popular uprising in neighboring Dagestan.

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“The Fixer” A Conversation with Joseph Finder

June 9, 2015 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Joseph Finder is known to any reader who loves thrillers. His first book was published wheJoe Finder cr Winterhouse Studion he was only 24, and he’s gone on to write critically acclaimed thrillers including Extraordinary Powers, The Zero Hour, and High Crimes, all of which became Hollywood films. In 2004, his novel, Paranoia, became a huge bestseller. His awards include The Barry, Gumshoe, and The International Thriller Writers Award for his novel, Killer Instinct. His new novel is The Fixer.

The Fixer focuses on Rick Hoffman, who has just lost his job as a reporter, has no income, and is forced to move back to—and renovate—the home in which he grew up. It has been empty and undergone decay since his father has been lying mute in a nursing home, paralyzed by a stroke nineteen years earlier.

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Filed Under: About Books, crime, Huffington Post Column, Interviews, On Writing Tagged With: character evolution, first person narrative, series, standalone novels, the writing life, third person narrative, thrillers

Robert B. Parker’s “Kickback” A Conversation with Ace Atkins

May 19, 2015 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Ace Atkins (c) Joe WorthemAce Atkins is well-known to thriller-lovers everywhere. He was a Pulitzer Prize nominated journalist, has written standalone novels, and is known for his Nick Travers and Quinn Colson series. Ace’s writing style has been compared to that of Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos. In 2011, Ace was chosen by the estate of Robert B. Parker to continue writing the Spenser series of novels. His latest, the 4th in the series, is Kickback.

Kickback begins with 17-year old Dillon Yates playing a prank by setting up a Twitter account in the name of his school’s vice principal. He’s charged with criminal activity and sentenced by Judge Joe Scali to a lockdown juvenile facility in Blackburn, Massachusetts, where there’s zero tolerance for even the most minor juvenile offenses. Dillon’s mother hires Spenser to learn the truth behind a rash of harsh sentences for kids who have committed minor transgressions. Spenser and his friend Hawk wend their way through the Boston underworld and other locales, uncovering a viper’s nest of corruption and greed.

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Filed Under: crime, novel, On Writing, thriller Tagged With: Boston noir, crime-fiction, Robert B. Parker, Southern literary, Spenser novels

“The Harvest Man” A Conversation with Alex Grecian

May 18, 2015 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Alex Grecian credit Emily ParkAlex Grecian is the author of the Scotland Yard Murder Squad novels which include the New York Times bestseller, The Yard, The Black Country, The Devil’s Workshop and his latest, The Harvest Man. After leaving a career in advertising, Alex began writing fiction. He wrote comic books and co-created the critically acclaimed graphic novel series Proof. He has been nominated for the Barry Award, Strand Magazine Critics Award, and has won others.

The Harvest Man is the fourth in the Murder Squad series. Set in 1890, Walter Day, a Scotland Yard Detective Investigator, has been sidelined with an injury inflicted by Jack the Ripper who is still terrorizing London.  But a new monster has surfaced, the Harvest Man—who carves victims’ faces off their skulls—so Day is recalled to investigate. His former associate, Nevil Hammersmith, who has been dropped from the force, launches his own investigation. With two serial killers—or perhaps three—on the loose, the investigation becomes urgent. But the Ripper has been playing a game with Walter Day, and a huge surprise awaits the reader.

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Filed Under: About Books, crime, Huffington Post Column, Interviews, On Writing, thriller Tagged With: Edgar Rice Burroughs, forensic science, sherlock-holmes, Victorian England

“World Gone By” A Conversation with Dennis Lehane

May 18, 2015 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Dennis Lehane c Gaby Gerstner Diogenes, ZurichDennis Lehane is known to millions of readers. His novels Mystic River, Gone, Baby, Gone, and Shutter Island became blockbuster movies, with the most recent film being The Drop, which is based on his short story, Animal Rescue.

A Drink Before the War won the Shamus Award. Mystic River won both the Anthony and the Barry Awards for Best Novel, and the Massachusetts Award in Fiction. Live by Night won the Edgar Award for Best Novel, and the Florida Book Award Gold Medal for Fiction.

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