by Alex Kava
1995 RED (re-released 2008)
What They’re Saying About Erica Spindler
"Filled with more twisted, dark paths than an ancient cemetery, WATCH ME DIE is a thriller guaranteed to chill your blood and set your teeth on edge." ~Lisa Jackson, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author on WATCH ME DIE
"Get ready to stay up all night...The latest Erica Spindler has arrived and it's time for another pulse-pounding, page-turning, absolutely can't-put-it-down, roller-coaster ride of a read!" ~Lisa Gardner, New York Times Bestselling Author of LIVE TO TELL, on BLOOD VINES
"Filled with well-developed, multidimensional characters, Spindler's latest boasts fast-paced action and emotional tension...the intricately woven plot makes this novel a sure winner for readers who like to keep guessing all the way to the end." ~Romantic Times on BREAKNECK
J.T. ELLISON – Blood Sugar Baby
(Metro Nashville Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson)
An "Occupy Nashville" protester is found dead on the sidewalk, but this isn't an ordinary victim, and Taylor Jackson must contain the story and identify the killer before he strikes again.
J.T. Ellison is the international award-winning author of seven critically acclaimed novels, multiple short stories and has been published in over twenty countries.
Ellison grew up in Colorado and moved to Northern Virginia during high school. She is a graduate of Randolph-Macon Woman's College and received her master's degree from George Washington University. She was a presidential appointee and worked in The White House and the Department of Commerce before moving into the private sector. As a financial analyst and marketing director, she worked for several defense and aerospace contractors.
After moving to Nashville, Ellison began research on a passion: forensics and crime. She has worked with the Metro Nashville Police Department, the FBI, and various other law enforcement organizations to research her books.
Her short stories have been widely published, including her award winning story "Prodigal Me" in the anthology Killer Year: Stories to Die For, edited by Lee Child, "Gray Lady, Lady Gray" in the anthology Surreal South '11, edited by Pinckney Benedict and Laura Benedict, "Killing Carol Ann" in First Thrills, edited by Lee Child, and "The Number of Man" in the forthcoming anthology Thriller 3, edited by Sandra Brown. Her novel The Cold Room won the Thriller award for Best Paperback Original of 2010 from the International Thriller Writers (ITW).
Ellison is a member of several professional writing organizations, including International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America and Romance Writers of America. She has an active following on Twitter under the name @Thrillerchick, and a robust Facebook community.
She lives in Nashville with her husband and a poorly trained cat, and is hard at work on her next novel. To learn more about her please visit http://www.jtellison.com or follow her on Facebook at Facebook/JTEllison.
Questions for J.T. Ellison
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
The first female firefighter in Denver. Someone else beat me to it. I was crushed. Crushed. When that dream was taken away, I learned to never, ever plan for the future. I made my first five-year plan last year.
Do you ever scare yourself?
I totally scare myself. All the time. But I figure if it scares me, it will scare the reader. I’m very, very careful to make sure there isn’t anything gratuitous in my work. But when I look at what people are capable of, how they hurt one another, I can’t help myself. I want to find out why. I want to dig into their minds. And doing that leads me to some very frightening places. The funny thing is, I hate to be scared. Hate it. I won’t watch scary movies or read scary books. The last horror novel I read was Peter Straub’s GHOST STORY, and that was when I was 10. I knew then and there I could never read another book like that again.
What is your favorite indulgence, treat or reward?
People who know me know I’m not much of a girly girl. But without a doubt, the reward I enjoy the most are facials. It is a wonderful place to meditate on story. If I could, I’d do it every day. Instead, I save them to celebrate milestones - books finished, on sale, contracts signed, etc. Going to the symphony is another, I adore classical music. The great masters most of all - Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Beethoven, Liszt, Bach, Berlioz. Mahler is growing on me.
Do you watch TV and if so, what do you watch?
I do - I love shows that relate to my work. Criminal Minds, The Mentalist, Prime Suspect, Justified, Dexter, Castle, Mad Men and Californication all rank high on my list. I also love Weeds, Game of Thrones, the new show Once Upon a Time, and (cough) Gossip Girl. My editor got me hooked back in season one and now it’s just my dirty little indulgence. Perfect for folding laundry.
Is there something you can share that readers might not already know about you?
I learned to golf and to ski the same year, when I was five. I did both voraciously until we moved from Colorado to Virginia, where I was the only girl on my high school’s all male golf team. I was pretty good, actually, my father offered to let me skip my first year of college if I wanted to try out for the LPGA Q School. I sadly chose to go to college instead - what a dummy I was. I could have played golf for a living! I also threw shot put and discus, and had scholarship opportunities in both. But that kind of pressure wasn’t for me. So I played on my college golf team, and focused on school instead. I do enjoy an afternoon out on the links, though. That’s another indulgence reward.
When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve always been a writer. I think it chooses you. I wrote stories and poems when I was a kid - I have a bound book that I wrote when I was ten, “The Samaritan, Part II” about a spaceman whose ship is destroyed during landing, and he’s stuck on this lonely planet all by himself. It’s hysterically bad, but there is a distinct voice to the piece, one I “hear” even now. No idea why it was part two - I don’t recall ever writing part one. I was a poet and short fiction writer through college, and that’s when my professor told me I wouldn’t ever be good enough to actually publish, and I went into politics instead, and stopped all my creative writing. But story always lived at the edges of my mind, and I read everything I could get my hands on - Tami Hoag, Patricia Cornwell, Catherine Coulter, Lisa Gardner, J.D. Robb, Erica Spindler, Alex Kava, James Patterson, Diana Gabaldon. Ten years after that fateful indictment, I found John Sandford and suddenly, the world I’d been mentally lounging in opened before me, a massive fissure, and my muse crawled back out and demanded to be put to work immediately.
What inspires your muse?
First and foremost, reading other fabulous writers. I can be reading something completely unrelated to crime fiction and the words, the meter, the concept will strike me and one of my own plot or character issues will suddenly come clear. But music plays a large role too, as do nightmares I have. I try to avoid them, but sometimes, a horrifying act leaks into my subconscious and manifests itself in a bad dream, and I wake with a story on my mind. I do try to treat my Muse delicately, nurturing her (plying?) with a multi-fold approach of intellectual nourishment, travel, adequate sleep and dedicated playtimes, and of course, a nice bottle of red wine rarely goes amiss.
Who is J.T. Ellison’s Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson
Taylor is an offshoot of my own hero complex. She is uncompromising in her moral code, never hesitates if there is a person in trouble, and works hard to keep the people around her, strangers and friends alike, safe. I admire her tenacity and her ability to see the world in black and white. There’s good, and there’s evil. She knows which side of the fence she’s on. She’s a female Lucas Davenport, half cop, half rock star. Personally, I see her as Athena, the warrior goddess of Nashville.
More Titles from J.T. Ellison
Taylor Jackson novels:
2007 All the Pretty Girls
2008 14
2009 Judas Kiss
2010 The Cold Room
2010 The Immortals
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br /> 2011 So Close the Hand of Death
2011 Where All the Dead Lie
Sam Owens novels
2012 A Deeper Darkness (April)
2012 Edge of Black (November)
What They're Saying about J.T. Ellison
"Shocking suspense, compelling characters and fascinating forensic details. When it comes to fast-paced thrillers, J.T. Ellison always has her game on." ~Lisa Gardner, #1 NYT bestselling author of CATCH ME
"A DEEPER DARKNESS has everything I love in a thriller: stunning twists and shocks, fascinating forensics, and heroines I deeply cared about. JT Ellison is one of the best writers in the game."~Tess Gerritsen, NYT bestselling author of THE SILENT GIRL
"Ellison is a genius and should be mandatory reading for any thriller aficionado".~Romantic Times
ALEX KAVA – Cold Metal Night
(FBI Profiler Maggie O’Dell)
A homeless man is found dead in a bloody snowdrift outside a downtown Omaha office building. Maggie O'Dell believes he's just one victim of a killer who crisscrosses the country. She knows she has less than twenty-four hours to catch him in Omaha before he moves on to another city and another victim.
Alex Kava grew up in the country outside Silver Creek, Nebraska. She earned a bachelor’s degree in art and English from College of Saint Mary in Omaha, Nebraska. She has done a variety of jobs, from working as a hospital tech, cleaning and sterilizing utensils from surgery, pathology and the morgue, to running her own graphic design firm, designing national food labels and directing television and radio commercials.
In 1996 she quit her job as a public relations director to dedicate herself to writing a novel and getting published. To pay the bills, she refinanced her home, maxed out her credit cards and even took on a newspaper delivery route.
Today, Alex is a New York Times bestselling author of psychological suspense novels. Her Maggie O’Dell series, comprised of A Perfect Evil, Split Second, The Soul Catcher, At the Stroke of Madness, A Necessary Evil, Exposed, Black Friday, Damaged and Hotwire along with her stand-alone novels, One False Move and Whitewash, have been widely praised by critics and fans. They have appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. Her books have been published in twenty-six countries and have hit the bestseller lists in Australia, Germany, Poland, Italy and the UK.
One False Move was selected as Nebraska’s 2006 One Book One Nebraska. In 2007 Alex was awarded the Mari Sandoz Award by the Nebraska Library Association. Whitewash made January Magazine’s list of best thrillers for 2007. Exposed, Black Friday and Hotwire received starred reviews by Publishers Weekly.
She also has co-authored two short stories in the anthologies: First Thrills, edited by Lee Child (After Dark, co-authored with Deb Carlin) and Florida Heat Wave, edited by Michael Lister. A Breath of Hot Air, co-authored with Patricia Bremmer is now on KINDLE and NOOK.
Alex writes full-time and lives in Omaha, Nebraska and Pensacola, Florida. She is a member of International Thrillers Writers. Become a V.I.R. Member (Very Important Reader) at Alex's website: http://www.alexkava.com to win prizes or follow her on Facebook at Facebook/AlexKava.books
Questions for Alex Kava
What is your favorite indulgence, treat, reward?
Reading thrillers. I know that might sound odd, but for a long time I didn’t allow myself to read fiction, especially other thrillers, while I was writing.
I read constantly for research: on-line articles, magazines, newspapers, instruction manuals, loads of non-fiction books and even food labels. (Yes, for HOTWIRE I became obsessed with reading food packages). But I didn’t always allow myself to read fiction, only because I was more interested in finding out what happened in the book I’m reading instead of the one I was writing. Now, I allow myself a chapter or two or three before bedtime each night.
Do you watch TV and if so, what do you watch?
People always seem surprised that I don’t watch CSI, Law & Order, or Criminal Minds. After spending the day with killers and the evidence to catch them, I’m usually looking for something to make me laugh. I watch THE OFFICE, MODERN FAMILY, PARKS & RECREATION, and THE MIDDLE. Those are my favorites.
I also watch HELL’S KITCHEN, MASTER CHEF, PROPERTY VIRGINS with Sandra Rinomato, re-runs of THE X-FILES and of course, I love watching college football. When I’m looking for something a bit more thought provoking I go to cable news. I confess I’m a bit of a news junkie.
Is there something you can share that readers might not already know about you?
Both my parents were children of Polish immigrants. I grew up surrounded by all sorts of Polish traditions like having borscht on Easter morning and dancing the polka at weddings.
My dad played violin in the Kava Orchestra. He was a farmer and a welder by trade, but what a musical talent he was. He could pick up almost any instrument, listen to a song once--maybe twice on rare occasion and play it beautifully without being able to read a single note. I don’t have anywhere near his musical talent but back in my younger days I did win a few singing contests and actually sang at several of my friends’ weddings.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
In six grade. Mrs. Powers read to us after lunch every day. Wonderful stories like HARRIET THE SPY and CHARLIE THE LONESOME COUGAR. Listening to how Harriet wrote all sorts of things in her notebook was probably when I first realized I wanted to be a writer.
What inspires your muse?
Silence. A clear mind and a clear schedule with no appointments, errands or business that needs to be attended to. However, the best inspiration still appears to be that magical thing called “a deadline.”
As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
Up until eighth grade I really wanted to be a veterinarian. Then someone told me I’d also have to put animals to sleep. Being a vet quickly dropped off my list.
Do you ever scare yourself?
Always. I like to tell my readers that I don’t need to know what their individual fears are, I just need to know how to trigger them . . . over and over again.
Who is FBI Special Agent Maggie O'Dell?
I never intended to write a series, so I feel like I’ve been getting to know Maggie O’Dell right along side my readers. I confess it’s been challenging and sometimes a bit annoying, but mostly it’s been a fun journey.
Maggie O’Dell is an expert FBI profiler. Recently I realized that Maggie’s biggest flaw is probably one of the things I admire most about her. She does what she believes is the right thing, despite the consequences and despite the risks including her own physical harm. Sometimes she bends – even breaks – the rules. I suppose you could say she’s stubbornly independent, but I prefer to call her brave.
I think what readers find endearing about Maggie is that even though she’s very capable of going up against killers she still has vulnerabilities and personal challenges. She hates flying and is claustrophobic. She’s divorced, has a suicidal alcoholic mother, and a half-brother she’s only now getting to know. She’s slow to trust, not good at relationships and has very few people she counts on.
One of the best things about writing the series is that every time I think I really know Maggie, I find yet another side of her to explore. She continues to surprise me and I hope that’s true for my readers as well.
More Titles from Alex Kava
Maggie O'Dell series:
2000 A Perfect Evil
2001 Split Second
2002 The Soul Catcher
2003 At The Stroke of Madness
2006 A Necessary Evil
2008 Exposed
2009 Black Friday
2010 Damaged
2011 Hotwire
2012 FireProof (July)
2013 Stranded (July)
Stand Alone novels:
2004 One False Move
2007 Whitewash
What They’re Saying About Alex Kava
"Kava seems to get better with every book."~The Omaha World Herald
"Maggie O'Dell could be Jack Reacher's long-lost twin" ~Lee Child, NYT Bestselling author of 61 HOURS
"The question of how such widely disparite outrages might be connected is ingenius." ~Kirkus Reviews
"A sizzling plot, achingly real characters, and government officials working their backsides off to save their backsides, all strike as lethally as lightning." ~Starred Publisher's Weekly on HOTWIRE
"Kava spins a plot with significant political ramifications, combining nonstop action and lethal danger...plausible enough to leave readers wondering about the line between truth and fiction." ~Booklist
CHAPTER EXCERPTS
Excerpts reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
WHERE ALL THE DEAD LIE by J.T. Ellison
WATCH ME DIE By Erica Spindler
HOTWIRE by Alex Kava
All books available where ever ebooks are sold.
WHERE ALL THE DEAD LIE by J.T. Ellison
CHAPTER ONE
Dear Sam,
There is a moment in every life that defines, shapes, transcends your previous spirit, molding you as if from newborn clay. It’s come for me. I have changed, and that change is irreversible.
Sam, there’s no doubt anymore. I’m losing my mind. The shooting is haunting me. The horror of your loss, of who I’ve become, all of it is too much. I’m not sure how much longer I can stand to go on like this, trapped under glass, trapped away from everyone. I’m lost.