Mark Rubinstein Blog

Just another WordPress site

  • Home
  • Books
    • Mad Dog House
    • Love Gone Mad
    • The Foot Soldier
    • Mad Dog Justice
    • Return to Sandara
    • The Lovers’ Tango
  • Meet Mark
  • FAQS
  • News & Reviews
  • Media Room
  • Blog
  • Book Clubs
    • Mad Dog House Reading Group Guide
    • Love Gone Mad Reading Group Guide
    • The Foot Soldier Reading Group Guide
    • Mad Dog Justice Reading Group Guide
    • The Lovers’ Tango Reading Group Guide
  • Contact

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.

Read more on the Huffington Post >>

Please share...Share on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInPin on Pinterest

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.

Read more on the Huffington Post >>

Please share...Share on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInPin on Pinterest

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

March 19, 2015 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Dennis Lehane is known to millions of readers. His novels Mystic River, Gone, Baby, Dennis Lehane c Gaby Gerstner Diogenes, ZurichGone, 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.

Read more on the Huffington Post >>

 

Please share...Share on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInPin on Pinterest

Filed Under: About Books, creativity, crime, Huffington Post Column, Interviews, thriller Tagged With: crime-fiction, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, genre fiction, literary fiction

“Twelve Days” A Talk with Alex Berenson

February 18, 2015 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

AlexBerenson ©Sigrid EstradaAlex Berenson, a former New York Times reporter, covered topics ranging from the occupation of Iraq; the flooding of New Orleans; to the financial crimes of Bernard Madoff. He’s written eight previous John Wells novels, all geopolitical thrillers, with his first, The Faithful Spy, having won the 2007 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.

His ninth John Wells thriller, Twelve Days, has ex-CIA agent Wells and his associates uncovering a huge plot: a secret plan to convince the President to attack Iran and ignite a war. They have no hard evidence, and no one at Langley or the White House will listen. The President has set a deadline for Iran to give up its nuclear program, and the mullahs in Iran have responded with a deadly terrorist attack. Wells and his associates have twelve days to find the proof they need to expose the plot, as the United States moves troops and military assets to Iran’s border.

Read more on the Huffington Post >>

 

Please share...Share on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInPin on Pinterest

Filed Under: About Books, crime, Huffington Post Column, thriller, war Tagged With: conspiracy, thrillers, war

Don’t Knock Thrillers

October 29, 2014 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Thrillers are often viewed as “lesser” literature than other genres. But is this a fair assessment?

Have you considered that Homer, Virgil, and Shakespeare were thriller writers? Let’s step back for a moment and define a thriller.

A thriller is a novel involving a threat to the life or well-being of the protagonist, the community, or even the world. Catastrophe will occur if the protagonist doesn’t act decisively, and if necessary, with violence. There’s a crushing urgency in a thriller—the clock is ticking—and the stakes are high. Reading a thriller may be described as a “heart-pounding” experience.

Read more on the Huffington Post >>

Please share...Share on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInPin on Pinterest

Filed Under: About Books, crime, novel, thriller

Why I Write Crime Thriller Fiction

October 20, 2014 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

2013-09-12-gunmoneyI’m occasionally asked why I write crime-thriller novels.

They say write what you know, but I prefer to write what I love. And they always say, write the kind of book you would love to read. So, I write crime-thriller fiction.

But as a psychiatrist and novelist, I think there’s more than that when it comes to crime thriller fiction.

Read more on the Huffington Post >>

Please share...Share on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInPin on Pinterest

Filed Under: About Books, crime, On Writing, thriller Tagged With: fiction, thrillers, writing

Coming Soon: a new novella, “Return to Sandara”

October 12, 2014 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Return to SandaraComing November 3rd, “Return to Sandara” When two brothers, Luke, two years out of college, and Gabe, entering his last year of college, go to Spain’s Costa Brava  for the summer, they anticipate sun, surf and women. They have no idea of what awaits them. The world is a dangerous and unpredictable place.

 

Please share...Share on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInPin on Pinterest

Filed Under: psychological thriller, thriller

Murder 101: A Talk with Faye Kellerman

September 24, 2014 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

2014-09-23-FayeKellermancredittoKarenMiller-thumbFaye Kellerman is the bestselling author of twenty-six novels, twenty-two of which feature the husband and wife team of Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. Faye and her husband, Jonathan Kellerman, are the only married couple ever to appear on the New York Times bestseller list simultaneously for two different novels.

 Murder101 is the twenty-second Decker-Lazarus novel. Peter is now retired from the LAPD. He and Rina have moved to a small town in upstate New York, to be closer to their four adult children and foster son. Peter works for the Greenbury Police Department, which usually involves little more than dealing with college-town problems. A possible break-in at the local cemetery where a mausoleum’s Tiffany panels have been stolen and replaced by forgeries, leads to drastic consequences, including two brutal murders. As a former LAPD detective, Decker is called on to investigate a case that has far-reaching implications.

Read more on the Huffington Post >>

Please share...Share on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInPin on Pinterest

Filed Under: About Books, creativity, crime, Interviews, On Writing, thriller Tagged With: collaboration, novels, research, writing

“Haunted” A Talk with Randy Wayne White

August 18, 2014 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

2015-03-22-1427022692-6548133-RandyWayneWhitecrWendyWebb-thumbRandy Wayne White is a New York Times best-selling novelist of crime fiction and non-fiction; and the writer of a television documentary. He’s perhaps best known for his 21 “Doc Ford” novels, and his most recent “Hannah Smith” series. In Haunted, the third novel in the series, Hannah (who inherited her late uncle’s private investigation business, and also charters fishing expeditions) is hired to help stop a condo development. While working on this case, Hannah is confronted with dangers lurking in the Florida swamps and rivers, among them, human obsession.

Read more on the Huffington Post >>

Please share...Share on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInPin on Pinterest

Filed Under: About Books, crime, thriller Tagged With: Doc Ford series, Florida Gulf coast, Haunted, John Steinbeck, Joseph Conrad, Mariel boatlift, Sanibel Island, Teddy Roosevelt

“The 6th Extinction” A Talk with James Rollins

August 12, 2014 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

James RollinsJames Rollins is more than a thriller author. He’s a veterinarian, a man of science, and writes best-selling novels evocative of Michael Crichton and Isaac Asimov, but with a uniquely imaginative flavor of their own. His novels combine elements of history, scientific fact and speculation with military suspense and threats of global destruction. His books transcend all genres.

He’s well known for his Sigma Force novels. The 6th Extinction is the tenth in this imagi
native series and finds Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma in its greatest challenge: a frantic race to save every living thing on earth from extinction by a spreading blight.

Read more on the Huffington Post >>

Please share...Share on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInPin on Pinterest

Filed Under: About Books, Dog Tales, medial thriller, thriller Tagged With: DNA, extinction, fantasy versus biology, genetic modification, genetics, GMOs, hackers, Terrorism

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Connect:

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on LinkedInFollow Us on GoodreadsFollow Us on Scribd

Recent Posts

  • Adrian McKinty Had Given Up On Writing: A Late Night Phone Call Changed Everything
  • David Morrell: Finding Inspiration, Transcending Genres, and Going the Distance
  • Don Winslow and the Making of a Drug War Epic
  • My talk with Lee Child about his “contract” with readers
  • C.J. Box on the Modern Western & Crime Thrillers

Archives

  • August 2019
  • June 2019
  • February 2019
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012

Categories

  • About Books
  • Aging
  • Awards
  • book launch
  • bookstores
  • courtroom drama
  • creativity
  • crime
  • doctor
  • Dog Tales
  • health
  • Huffington Post Column
  • Interviews
  • library
  • Love Gone Mad
  • Mark Rubinstein
  • medial thriller
  • novel
  • On Writing
  • Podcast
  • psychological thriller
  • Psychology Today Columns
  • Reviews
  • The Foot Soldier
  • thriller
  • Uncategorized
  • war

Copyright © 2015 Mark Rubinstein