March 16, 2007

Historical Fiction Promotion

Erin Go Brau and Books

Bookreporter.com Talks to Michele Martinez, Author of COVER-UP

Michele Martinez, who was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York for eight years, is the author of MOST WANTED, THE FINISHING SCHOOL and the newly published COVER-UP, which feature Melanie Vargas and her exploits as a New York City prosecutor. In this interview with Bookreporter.com's Joe Hartlaub, Martinez talks about the struggles of trying to portray the events in her books as accurately as possible, based on her own experiences, and discusses the aspects of her former law career that have helped to shape her writing. She also ruminates on the possibility of spin-offs and stand-alone novels, and shares what readers can expect from Melanie in the future.

COVER-UP by Michele Martinez (Thriller)
Television reporter Suzanne Shepard was a ruthless celebrity scandalmonger with a roster of high-profile enemies. But which one left her mutilated, lifeless body in the dark recesses of New York's Central Park? Federal prosecutor Melanie Vargas needs to find out. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

Bookreporter.com Talks To Brenda Rickman Vantrease, Author of THE MERCY SELLER

Click here to read our interview with Brenda Rickman Vantrease and our review of THE MERCY SELLER.

New Featured Romantic Suspense Author: Wendy Corsi Staub, Author of DON'T SCREAM

The critically acclaimed, award-winning author of over sixty books, Wendy Corsi Staub is a New York Times bestseller who has perfected the art of delivering sexy, scary thrills. Her newest, DON'T SCREAM, hits shelves on April 24th and is sure to satisfy old fans and garner her new ones as well.

We have 20 advance reading copies of DON'T SCREAM to give to readers who would like to preview and comment on the book. Interested? Send your name and mailing address to [email protected] by March 30th.

More about DON'T SCREAM:
Don’t Tell A Soul…
In a remote, heavily wooded area near the Berkshires of Massachusetts, Rachel Lorant died on her birthday. But she didn’t die alone. That night, her four sorority sisters make a solemn, trembling pledge. They will never reveal what has just happened in those woods --- ever. Instead, they will take their terrible secret to their graves…

Don’t Think About The Past…
Now, ten years later, their secret is coming back to haunt them as each receives a card in the mail from Rachel: “Happy Birthday to Me. xoxo R.” It’s clear that someone knows what happened that night. Someone is stalking them and sending mysterious, chilling gifts that only they can understand --- deadly warnings of what is to come. For the sins of the past have come back with a vengeance, and a killer will see that they all pay in blood…

And Whatever You Do—Don’t Scream…
Brynn Costello has never felt such pure fear. She didn’t want any part in what happened so long ago, but now, the mother of two will do anything to stay alive and protect her family --- even if it means matching wits with a killer she can’t see…a twisted psychopath who is closer than she thinks and who is saving her death for last…

Click here to read more about Wendi Corsi Staub and DON'T SCREAM.

Announcing Our Southern Writers Author Spotlight --- Our First Featured Author is Paula Wall, Author of THE WILDE WOMEN

Click here to read more about Paula Wall and THE WILDE WOMEN.

Featured Suspense/Thriller Author: David Morrell, Author of SCAVENGER --- Now in Stores!!!

More about SCAVENGER:
David Morrell's CREEPERS was a publishing event in 2005, a powerful, edgy, dark thriller by a master of the genre. A New York Times bestseller, it won the prestigious Bram Stoker Award and earned numerous critical raves. SCAVENGER, Morrell's latest novel, takes us in a harrowing new direction: a desperate high-tech scavenger hunt for a 100-year-old time capsule. Frank Balenger, the resolute but damaged hero of CREEPERS, now finds himself trapped in a nightmarish game of fear and death. To save himself and the woman he loves, he must play by the rules of a god-like Game Master with an obsession for unearthing the past. But sometimes the past is buried for a reason.

SCAVENGER is a brilliant, frightening hunter-hunted tale that layers modern technology over the dusty artifacts of earlier times. The result is a surreal palimpsest, one that contains the secret of survival for Balenger and a handful of unwilling players who race against the game's clock to solve the puzzle of the time capsule, only to discover that time is the true scavenger. Morrell's trademark action sequences are embedded with fascinating historical clues that make SCAVENGER a thrill-a-minute page-turner as well as a mesmerizing literary experience.

Featured Suspense/Thriller Author: Stephen White, Author of DRY ICE

Click here to read more about Stephen White and DRY ICE.

Featured One to Watch Author: Masha Hamilton, Author of THE CAMEL BOOKMOBILE

One of our featured One to Watch authors is Masha Hamilton, the author of THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US and STAIRCASE OF A THOUSAND STEPS. Her newest is the evocative and compelling tale THE CAMEL BOOKMOBILE, which comes out April 3rd.

-Click here to see our advance copy winners.
-Click here to read an excerpt from THE CAMEL BOOKMOBILE.
-Click here to read Masha Hamilton's bio.
-Click here to donate to The Camel Bookmobile Book Drive.

More about THE CAMEL BOOKMOBILE:
When Fiona Sweeney tells her family she wants to do something that matters, they do not expect her to go to Africa to help start a traveling library. But that is where Fiona chooses to make her mark: in the arid bush of northeastern Kenya, among tiny, far-flung communities, nearly unknown and lacking roads and schools, where people live daily with drought, hunger, and disease. In THE CAMEL BOOKMOBILE Fi travels to settlements where people have never held a book in their hands. Her goal is to help bring Dr. Seuss, Homer, Tom Sawyer, and Hemingway to a largely illiterate and semi-nomadic populace. However, because the donated books are limited in number and the settlements are many, the library initiates a tough fine: if anyone fails to return a book, the bookmobile will stop coming.

Click here to read more about Masha Hamilton and THE CAMEL BOOKMOBILE.

Featured One to Watch Author: Sandra Dallas, Author of TALLGRASS

Award-winning author Sandra Dallas was dubbed "a quintessential American voice" by Jane Smiley in Vogue magazine, and her novels with their themes of loyalty, friendship and human dignity are acclaimed by readers and critics alike. Her new book, TALLGRASS, will be in stores April 3rd.

-Click here to see our advance copy winners.
-Click here to read an excerpt from TALLGRASS.
-Click here to read critical praise for TALLGRASS.
-Click here to read Sandra Dallas's bio.

More about TALLGRASS:
During World War II, a family finds life turned upside down when the government opens a Japanese internment camp in their small Colorado town. After a young girl is murdered, all eyes (and suspicions) turn to the newcomers, the interlopers, the strangers.

This is Tallgrass as Rennie Stroud has never seen it before. She has just turned thirteen and, until this time, life has pretty much been what her father told her it should be: predictable and fair. But now the winds of change are coming and, with them, a shift in her perspective. And Rennie will discover secrets that can destroy even the most sacred things.

Part thriller, part historical novel, TALLGRASS is a riveting exploration of the darkest --- and best --- parts of the human heart.

Click here to read more about Sandra Dallas and TALLGRASS.

Featured Romantic Suspense Author: Karen Robards, Author of OBSESSION

Karen Robards is the author of thirty-three books and a regular on the New York Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. Her newest is OBSESSION --- a taut and sexy psychological thriller that hits stores on April 10th.

-Click here to see our book winners.
-Click here to read Karen Robards's backlist.
-Click here to read fast facts about Karen Robards.
-Click here to visit Karen Robards's website, KarenRobards.com.


More about OBSESSION:
Katharine Lawrence has no idea what hit her. The attack came out of nowhere. Only hours earlier she had been enjoying a girls-only weekend with an old college friend. Now she finds herself lying bound and gagged on her kitchen floor, staring with terrified eyes at her friend Lisa while two masked gunmen search her house for –-- what? She doesn’t know. She only knows that, unless they can escape, whatever it is could end up getting both her and Lisa killed.

But Katharine’s nightmare is only just beginning. When she awakens in a Washington hospital, her nose crushed, her body battered, her brain tells her things aren’t right –-- and it’s not the attack that’s disorienting her. She doesn’t recognize herself when she looks in the mirror: her slim body, her manicured hands, her blond bob. And the smiling, handsome doctor at her bedside –-- Dr. Dan Howard –-- is familiar, but in a totally unfamiliar way. Perhaps the trauma of the attempt on her life has given her some kind of weird amnesia. She’s twenty-nine, the special assistant to the head of the CIA, and she’s lucky to be alive. She also knows she can trust no one.

Click here to read more about Karen Robards and OBSESSION.

Featured Romantic Suspense Author: Lisa Jackson, Author of ABSOLUTE FEAR

More about ABSOLUTE FEAR:
For the past three months, Eve Renner has struggled to remember the night she was nearly killed and her lover was tried for murder. She remembers getting the anxious call from a friend from her past: "Meet me at the cabin. I've got evidence." She remembers seeing that friend lying in a pool of blood. And she remembers a horrifying glimpse of her lover Cole Dennis's face as a gunshot plunged her into darkness. Now, her memory and emotions scarred, Eve has returned to New Orleans to forget the past. But the past will not be forgotten. Eve's shattered memory has helped Cole walk on murder charges just as a new series of killings begins.

As forgotten memories begin to surface, bodies are found and each twist leads to another terrifying piece of the puzzle. Someone is watching, planning, luring her back to the ruins of Our Lady and the shocking truths hidden there --- someone who has been waiting for this moment to strike. He is deadlier than she could ever have imagined and closer than she knows. For the sins of the past must be revealed, the crimes brought to justice, and the price paid --- in blood.

Click here to read more about Lisa Jackson and ABSOLUTE FEAR.

Featured Romantic Suspense Author: Beverly Barton, Author of THE DYING GAME

Our fourth featured Romantic Suspense author is Beverly Barton, the New York Times bestselling author of over thirty contemporary romance novels and two-time National Reader’s Choice Award winner. Her newest red-hot thriller, THE DYING GAME, hits stores March 27th and promises to be a steamy and seductive thriller.

-Click here to see our advance copy winners.
-Click here to read fast facts about Beverly Barton.
-Click here to see Beverly Barton's backlist.
-Click here to visit Beverly Barton's website, BeverlyBarton.com.

More about THE DYING GAME:
If he's chosen you to play, he's chosen you to die.....

It's the ultimate game --- the adrenaline surge of the hunt, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. For in this game, the rules are simple: To win, you only have to kill. To lose, you will have to die...

The victims are former beauty queens found with a single rose beside their bodies. Lindsay McAllister has seen this signature before, when she was a rookie detective with the Chattanooga PD investigating the death of Judd Walker's wife, a murder that sent the handsome lawyer off the deep end. Now, Lindsay has the brutal task of telling Judd that his wife's killer has struck again, and she's going to need his help to outplay their opponent --- because the killer is getting bolder, faster, and more ruthless. The game is escalating, and no one is safe.Now as the body count rises, the rules are changing. A killer will do anything to win. And the only way for Lindsay to stop a madman's twisted game is to play it herself...

Click here to read more about Beverly Barton and THE DYING GAME.

Featured Mystery Mayhem Author: Joanne Fluke, Author of KEY LIME PIE MURDER

More about KEY LIME PIE MURDER:
It's Tri-County fair time and Lake Eden, Minnesota, is buzzing with more than mosquitoes. Hannah Swensen, owner of The Cookie Jar, is hot on the trail of a killer whose perfect carnival prize would be getting away with murder...

It promises to be a busy week for Hannah Swensen. Not only is she whipping up treats for the chamber of commerce booth at the fair; she's also judging the baking contest; acting as a magician's assistant for her business partner's husband; trying to coax Moishe, her previously rapacious feline, to end his hunger strike, and performing her own private carnival act by juggling the demands of her mother and sisters.

Includes 12 original dessert recipes!

Click here to read more about Joanne Fluke and KEY LIME PIE MURDER.

This Week's Reviews and Features

DADDY'S GIRL by Lisa Scottoline (Legal Thriller)
Law professor Natalie Greco loves her family, but the one person she feels most connected to is her good-looking colleague, Angus Holt --- who also has a brilliant mind, a great sense of humor and a penchant for helping those less fortunate. When he talks Nat into teaching a class at a local prison, her imperfect but settled world turns upside down. Reviewed by Maggie Harding.

-Click here to read an excerpt from DADDY'S GIRL.

WHEN THE LIGHT GOES by Larry McMurtry (Fiction)
In this sequel to the acclaimed DUANE'S DEPRESSED, Pulitzer Prize- and Oscar-winning author Larry McMurtry has written a haunting, elegiac and occasionally erotic novel about an eccentric, aging oilman struggling to come to terms with the death of his wife. Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman.

LORDS OF THE NORTH by Bernard Cornwell (Historical Fiction)
Bernard Cornwell has penned the third volume in his exhilarating Saxon Chronicles, which began with THE LAST KINGDOM and continued with THE PALE HORSEMAN. A breathtaking adventure, LORDS OF THE NORTH is also the story of the creation of England, as the English and Danes fight against each other. Reviewed by Curtis Edmonds.

WHITE LIES by Jayne Ann Krentz (Paranormal Romance)
Finding love amidst a strange society of paranormals, human lie detectors and hunters is an elemental factor even in the fictitious Arcane Society. When two psychic investigators meet on a professional and very personal level, the chemistry of passion leads to love and a perfect match sans white lies. Reviewed by Hillary Wagy.

THE THIEF OF TIME by John Boyne (Fiction)
In this carefully crafted novel, John Boyne juxtaposes history and the buzz of the modern world, weaving together portraits of 1920s Hollywood, the Great Exhibition of 1851, the French Revolution, the Wall Street Crash and other landmark events into one man's story of murder, love and redemption. Reviewed by Colleen Quinn.

THE BEAUTIFUL THINGS THAT HEAVEN BEARS by Dinaw Mengestu (Fiction)
Dinaw Mengestu's debut novel is about an Ethiopian immigrant named Sepha who runs a convenience store in Washington, D.C. A new neighbor moves in next door to his house, signifying the first of many changes in the dynamic of his part of town. Sepha must subsequently plant both feet in America --- moving on from the painful memory of his murdered father --- or be forced to lose his store as well as his house. Reviewed by Shannon Luders-Manuel.

THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB by Kate Jacobs (Fiction)
In her debut novel, veteran magazine publisher Kate Jacobs explores women's complex relationships by dropping in on a knitting group whose members gather once a week to work on their latest projects and to chat (and occasionally clash) over their stories of love, life and everything in between. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.

BLACK MONDAY by R. Scott Reiss (Thriller)
As the world's economy grinds to a crashing halt --- due to a microbe that has infected the world's petroleum supply --- Dr. Gregory Gillette, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control, races against the clock before more havoc, devastation and terror are wreaked. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

MAGIC CITY by James W. Hall (Thriller)
A simple black and white photograph taken during the 1964 Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston boxing match on Miami Beach sets off a modern-day murder spree that reaches from the quiet neighborhoods of Miami to the back corridors of the White House. Reviewed by Marge Fletcher.

BECAUSE SHE CAN by Bridie Clark (Fiction)
While working for the most successful and ruthless publisher in the business, Claire Truman gets what she wants --- a job that thrusts her into the publishing stratosphere as well as the man of her dreams. But is either one what she really needs? Reviewed by Jana Siciliano.

ASK AGAIN LATER by Jill A. Davis (Fiction)
Emily Rhode's hectic life as a corporate attorney in New York City comes to a standstill after her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer and she quits her high-pressured job. At the same time, she finds that her lifelong habit of avoiding risks or making any serious decisions has finally caught up with her. Reviewed by Bronwyn Miller.

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