We are very pleased to bring back bestselling author Alan Jacobson, as he talks his latest book "Red Death," the eighth book in the Karen Vail series. My debut novel, False Accusations, was a product of what I'd learned in that blood spatter class. It was a national bestseller and was ultimately published in several foreign countries. My follow-up novel, The Hunted, likewise a bestseller and published in several foreign countries, met with rave reviews from critics, booksellers, and readers. It introduced the characters of FBI Director Douglas Knox and covert government operative Hector DeSantos, who would return in a future novel "Red Death": In Hawaii, FBI agent Karen Vail pursues a killer without a profile, in this thriller by the USA Today-bestselling author of The Darkness of Evil. When Det. Adam Russell of the Honolulu PD encounters the body of a woman in her sixties-the second in recent days to inexplicably die of what seem like natural causes-he reaches out to Karen Vail, the renowned FBI profiler, who hops on the next plane. But even for someone as fluent in the language of murder as Vail, this case is hard to read. How were these women asphyxiated with no signs of trauma? How can she gather clues or collect evidence when the killer seems to strike during the briefest casual encounters? Is this the behavior of a male or a female perpetrator? And perhaps most terrifying of all, if the deaths appear so natural at first glance, how many victims have already been overlooked? Now, as something cold and dark lurks under the sunny warmth of this island paradise, Vail must stop a serial killer as elusive as the breeze . . .
We are very happy to bring David Ricciardi to the show to talk about his latest book "Shadow Target."
A keen outdoorsman, David Ricciardi incorporated many personal experiences into Warning Light. He's backpacked through the mountains of the western United States and Alaska, received extensive training from law-enforcement and US special operations personnel, and once woke up for a 2 AM watch aboard a sailboat only to discover that it was headed the wrong way through the Atlantic sea lanes in heavy weather, with one of the crew suffering from hypothermia. In addition to being an avid sailor, David is also a certified scuba rescue diver and a former ski instructor. Warning Light is his first novel.
"SHADOW TARGET": Someone is assassinating CIA field officers and Jake Keller's name is next on the list in the latest thrilling novel from the author Publishers Weekly calls "a fresh voice in the crowded spy thriller field."
Jake doesn't know who is trying to kill him and he doesn't know why. Still, it's a threat he can't ignore.
When his small plane crashes in the Alps, Jake is the only survivor. A rescue helicopter soon arrives, but the men inside are not there to save anyone. They are determined to complete the murderous job they started.
Jake escapes from the mountainside deathtrap, but it won't be the only attempt on his life. If he's to have any chance at surviving, he'll have to find out who's behind the killings. But the circle of people Jake can trust is distressingly small as he suspects that someone inside the Agency is feeding his every move to the very people who are trying to end his life.
Jake's quest takes him to the candle-lit cathedrals of Paris and the rain-slicked streets of London. He makes contact with old friends and new enemies along the way-but his true nemesis may be closer than he imagines.
We are very pleased to have Bestselling Author Josh Malerman on the show for the first time. You will know Josh from his breakthrough book "BirdBox", which was a hit on Netflix, that starred Sandra Bullock.
Josh Malerman is an American author of novels and short stories. Before publishing his debut novel Bird Box with ECCO/HarperCollins, he wrote fourteen novels, never having shopped one of them.
Being the singer/songwriter of the Detroit rock band The High Strung, Malerman toured the country for six years, as the band played an average of 250 shows a year, and Malerman wrote many of the rough drafts for these novels in the passenger seat between cities on tour. He says this about those days: "I never saw the books with dollar signs in my eyes. It was no hobby, that's for sure, it was the real thing and always has been, but I was happy, then, simply writing, and while I blindly assumed they'd be published one day, I had no idea how something like that occurred."
As the pile of rough drafts grew, so did the questions as to what he was planning on doing with them. Malerman often says that he lived long in a "glorious delusion" in which he took part in phantom interviews, pretended to have an agent, debated with fictitious editors, and placed invisible hardcover books upon his shelves.
It wasn't until a friend from high school, Dave Simmer, contacted him that those delusions became reality. Simmer, having worked with authors and properties in Hollywood, asked Malerman's permission to send one of his books to some people he knew in the book business. Malerman heartily agreed and the pair sent out Goblin, a collection of novellas that all take place in the titular city of Goblin. From there, a team was assembled and Malerman suddenly found himself speaking with a real agent and debating with actual editors. He says this of the part Simmer played in his career: "There were two things at play at that point in time; one, Dave was a ghostly benefactor, golden hearted and smart, descending from the sky to help me. And two, what may sound like some luck couldn't have become fortunate if I wasn't armed with a dozen novels to talk shop with."
A limited edition of Goblin is set for publication on Halloween of 2017, through Earthling Publications.
"Goblin": Goblin seems like any other ordinary small town. But with the master storyteller Josh Malerman as your tour guide, you'll discover the secrets that hide behind its closed doors. These six novellas tell the story of a place where the rain is always falling, nighttime is always near, and your darkest fears and desires await. Welcome to Goblin. . . .
A Man in Slices: A man proves his "legendary love" to his girlfriend with a sacrifice even more daring than Vincent van Gogh's-and sends her more than his heart.
Kamp: Walter Kamp is afraid of everything, but most afraid of being scared to death. As he sets traps around his home to catch the ghosts that haunt him, he learns that nothing is more terrifying than fear itself.
Happy Birthday, Hunter!: A famed big-game hunter is determined to capture-and kill-the ultimate prey: the mythic Great Owl who lives in Goblin's dark forests. But this mysterious creature is not the only secret the woods are keeping.
Presto: All Peter wants is to be like his hero, Roman Emperor, the greatest magician in the world. When the famous magician comes to Goblin, Peter discovers that not all magic is just an illusion.
A Mix-Up at the Zoo: The new zookeeper feels a mysterious kinship with the animals in his care . . . and finds that his work is freeing dark forces inside him.
The Hedges: When his wife dies, a man builds a hedge maze so elaborate no one ever solves it-until a little girl resolves to be the first to find the mysteries that wait at its heart.
#1 Bestselling Author Andy Weir joins us to talk his latest book "Project Hail Mary." Andy took the publishing world by storm with his book "The Martian." Then Matt Damon decided to star in the movie and pushed Andy into stardom.
Andy Weir built a two-decade career as a software engineer until the success of his first published novel, The Martian, allowed him to live out his dream of writing full-time. He is a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of such subjects as relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. He also mixes a mean cocktail. He lives in California.
"Project Hail Mary": Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission-and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it's up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery-and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he's got to do it all alone.
Or does he?
An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian-while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.