John Burdett’s Bangkok Thrillers: Bronze Age Mysticism with Silicon Chips

John Burdett’s Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep made his first appearance in the 2003 novel, Bangkok 8. Since that time there have been three more novels featuring the Thai detective, with the most recent, The Godfather of Kathmandu, out this past spring. Many reviewers have noted that in this critically acclaimed series Western materialism confronts the spiritual [...]

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Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone Novels: The Perfect Mix of Thriller and History

Steve Berry is the best-selling author of the Cotton Malone series, a blend of history and suspense that have catapulted Berry to the top of the thriller game. With over 11 million books in print translated into 37 languages and sold in 50 countries, Berry has come a long way from the 85 rejections he [...]

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Leigh Russell’s D.I. Geraldine Steel: “Psychologically Acute”

Leigh Russell arrived with a bang on the crime scene with her 2009 novel, Cut Short, shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger. She introduces D.I. Geraldine Steel in “a stylish, top-of-the-line crime tale, a seamless blending of psychological sophistication and gritty police procedure,” according to fellow novelist Jeffrey Deaver. “You’re just plain [...]

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Sam Millar’s Belfast Crime Novels: Art Reflects Life

Sam Millar is one of those authors whose experiences in his private life rival those of his fictional protagonists. An IRA volunteer imprisoned in Long Kesh for his political beliefs and actions, he was the mastermind behind the 1993 Brinks robbery in New York, one of the biggest heists is U.S. history. He served more [...]

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The Texas You Don’t Know: Jon Land and His Caitlin Strong Series

Thriller writer Jon Land started in the profession young. He was twenty-three when his first novel, The Doomsday Spiral, was published. Since then he has penned ten more stand-alone titles, and another thirty or so books in series such as the “Ben Kamal” books, featuring that Palestinian-American detective, and the “Blaine McCracken” series, about the [...]

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I Left My Youth at the Statler Hilton

Another installment of memoirs: I didn’t know it at the time, but the New York Statler Hilton (that’s what it was called in 1968 when I was a guest/victim there) has the dubious distinction of having the New York phone number in longest continuous use. The number, PEnnsylvania 6-5000, has been around so long, in [...]

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