When I heard the news that Thomas Perry was publishing a new book in the Butcher’s Boy series, I was thrilled. By the way, the book is called The Informant, and yes, I’ve pre-ordered. As a reader, Mr. Perry’s two Butcher’s Boy novels simply blew me away. At the time, I was reading all kinds of books. Everything from Stephen King to James Clavell to Robert Ludlum.
In talking with other fans of Mr. Perry’s, I believe I actually read the books out of order. Because the first book, The Butcher’s Boy, may have only been released in hardcover. The sequel, Sleeping Dogs, was released in mass market paperback. So I’m almost positive I read Sleeping Dogs first.
Fast forward many years later. I had already set out on the course of being a writer. At the time, I was writing short stories, poetry, non fiction, literary fiction, historical fiction, Westerns, pretty much any story that came into my head, I wrote.
The only “success” if you want to call it that – was that I was learning. Most of it was quite dreadful, but even though deeply pessimistic about my writing, I was able to admit that each story seemed to be just a smidgen better than the last.
But I vividly remember finishing a project, a short story, and feeling the itch to write another novel. However, instead of rushing headlong into the idea, I sat back and thought about it. Really, really thought about it. And I remembered the piece of writing advice that I had always considered sound: Write the kind of book you want to read.
Originally released in April of 2010, The Third Rail is the third book in author Michael Harvey’s series featuring Chicago Private Investigator Michael Kelly, and there is all kinds of trouble afoot in Chi-town.
I’m Fred Venturini, author of The Samaritan, and I’m going to talk about horror, and tell you about the time I handled a dead body.
The year is nearly a quarter over (where’d the time go?!), so that means it’s time to start thinking about the 
To age is to embrace a slow hurt inside and out, to collect scars like rings on a tree, dark and weathered and sometimes only visible if someone cuts deep enough. 
Bobby had been right — in official lingo, this case was a clusterfuck. – D.D. Warren
Even after all my years as a cop, the darkness inherent in human nature still shocks me. – Kari Vaara
The other day, someone asked me how much like Kari Vaara I really am. It hadn’t occurred to me that I was much like Vaara at all, so I asked what prompted him to ask the question. He said, “You look like Vaara, you speak like Vaara, you act like Vaara, and I have a pretty good idea that you think like him, too.”
You’re in the middle of it now. And the only way out is through. – Crissa Stone
