In prolific suspense novelist and USA-Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author Debra Webb's latest novel, THE SECRETS WE BURY, is the first in a new romantic suspense series whose protagonist, Dr. Rowan Dupont—formally Nashville, Tennessee Police Department’s forensic psychologist—also happens to be an undertaker’s daughter.

Rowan, who comes from the small town of Winchester, Tennessee, is haunted by the mysterious drowning death of her twin sister. Between her mother’s subsequent suicide and the recent murder of her father, returning to Winchester to run the funeral home feels fitting—even if it leaves her vulnerable to an obsessive serial killer

Debra and I not only discussed her plotting and how her past affects her writing, she also has sage advice to authors just starting out: "If what you write is what readers want to read, don't deviate from what works best for them—and for you."

In USA Today best-selling author Kaira Rouda's latest domestic suspense novel, SOMEBODY'S HOME, the sale of house isn't a fresh start, but the beginning of a nightmare.


Julie Jones has left her suffocating marriage. Although it’s on the wrong side of the tracks in Oceanside, California, she's hoping that her new house is the first step toward a new life with her teenage daughter, Jess.

However, the previous owners have left something—or rather someone—behind…

Tom Dean has a seething hatred for the father who considers him a lost cause. He’s now extended his malice to the woman who has purchased the only home he’s ever known. She thinks he’ll be gone in three days, but Tom has the perfect plan for this single mother and her daughter.

Before the weekend is over, somebody is going to get exactly what they deserve.

Kaira and I discuss where she gets her novel premises, her process for bringing her everyday characters to life, how young adults become disenfranchised from the rest of the world and cajoled into domestic terrorism, and why it’s important to lift the curtain on the dark side of our everyday lives.

According to internationally bestselling author David Baldacci, when you’ve written as many books as he has—ten series, or a total of thirty books, and counting; and another twelve stand-alone novels—there is one way to keep his writing razor-sharp: “Start from Square One: create a new character, a new series—a new world.”

With his latest novel, LONG ROAD TO MERCY, Baldacci has done just that. His new protagonist, female FBI agent Atlee Pine, must cover a desolate Far West outpost on her own. And although its size is intimidating—it includes Grand Canyon National Park—Atlee is strongly motivated to succeed. She sees it as a way to avenge the tragic death of her twin sister, Mercy, who was abducted by a serial killer when the girls were only six years old.

David and I talked about his process in creating new, complex characters and weaving real-time geopolitical incidents into a heart-pounding plot.

Click here to read the accompanying feature interview with David in TheBigThrill.org

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