VIETS Gives Us a Little off the Top, MYERS Tickles the Ivory. SOKOLOFF Reveals Whats Hiding in the Dark.

Elaine Viets reveals the shear terror of working for a high profile hairstylist with KILLER CUTS, book #6 in her Dead End Job mystery series. Helen Hayward has been running from her past and a dicey dilmena successfully. She is about to come to the end of the line, with dangerous consequences for everyone. This time it might not be just her job that gets terminated. Elaine likes to work the job before she writes the story. Hmm..I wonder if I could get a novel about being the Easter Bunny…

POISON IVORY,out May 26th, is # 15 in the Den of Antiquity novels by Tamar Myers. Abigail Timberlake Washburn is on the hunt for fabulous antiques, this time a special knick knack for her mama Mozella. She winds up on the wrong side of the law as a illegal ivory smuggler. It's enough to rile up any self-respecting woman and Abigail is no different. Too bad she has to turn to her slimy ex to get out of the jam instead of her hunk of a new hubby. No woman should ever have to sink so low, but that’s only the beginning of trouble for Abigail and her mama as they hunt down the real smugglers.

Life is different when viewed through the eyes of someone who’s been down to the bottom of the bottle and back again. Liz Zelvin’s second novel, DEATH WILL HELP YOU LEAVE HIM, has Bruce, who barely survived DEATH WILL GET YOU SOBER, finding life is not only more interesting when you’re sober but a whole lot more dangerous. Especially, when his friend finds her abusive lover dead in her apartment. Then there’s that pesky but appealing ex-wife who is about to crash into her own bad destiny and bring him with her. Liz is an addictions counselor in her dayjob and she brings all the authenticity of her own experiences to the forefront crafting this tale.

What is it about Maine that inspires writers to rain down death and doom on small hapless towns? I don’t know but remind me to keep that state off my travel plans for a while. Sarah Langan followed up her fear drenched first novel, THE KEEPER, with the equally unnerving THE MISSING, the 2008 Winner of Bram Stoker award of Outstanding Achievement in a Novel. What happened to the town of Bedford, Maine was a horrific apocalypse but it was only the beginning. Those in the neighboring town of Corpus Cristi are unaware that the supposed natural disaster that devoured Bedford is about to corrupt its citizens into flesh eating beasts. Worst yet, these undead can think. There is nothing worse than a thinking zombie, unless you consider the possibility that they might want to share their feelings.

Alexandra Sokoloff, in her latest fearfest THE UNSEEN, takes us to places where what we can’t see could be the death of us. When two psychologists decide to research previously unknown files from the infamous Duke University parapsychology experiments, they have no idea what dark abyss they are about to fall into. Unlucky for them is not knowing the horrible fate of the first group of researchers. A haunted mansion, a determined band of ghost hunters, and the only thing missing is the truth.

Deborah LeBlanc takes us on a murky trip into the Bayou swamps as Dunny, the heroine of her latest novel WATER WITCH, discovers that the special talent which has kept her an outsider all of her life might well be the only hope of saving two young lives. Up till now whatever lay in wait in the mysterous depths of the swamp was nothing more than will-o-wisps and lost souls. This time something far more sinister and deadly holds the lives of these children ransom and only Dunny can save them. If she can accept her fate.


LOOK WHO'S SQUAWKING-Christopher Fowler, author of the immensely popular Bryant & May mystery series said this when questioned about his decison to make his famous duo elderly.” I stuck by my character outlines, even though a radio interviewer told me I should have made everyone younger, which would allow for more sex and violence - the very thing I did not wish to do. It wasn’t a matter of prudery; rather the fact that a sexual bout or a fist fight is too lazy an exit from an awkward scene.”

If you have some tidings you'd like to share or the latest news on your upcoming or current book, please email me at theravencroaks@yahoo.com. Give me something to crow about!