Q.C. Davis Mysteries In Large Print

One thing I love about ereaders is that I can adjust the font size to make it bigger. (It's especially key now that I need reading glasses.) But sometimes I really prefer a paperback book. That's why I decided to create Large Print paperback editions of the first two Q.C. Davis mystery/suspense novels. The Worried Man (Q.C. Davis 1) The night before they plan to move in together, Chicago stage-actress-turned-lawyer Quille finds the man she loves dead in his apartment. Suspicious o...
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No Girls Here: Naming The Worried Man

There’s a reason I didn’t use "girl" in the title of The Worried Man, though I thought about it. (I imagine every author with a mystery, suspense, or thriller coming out these days at least considers using a Girl title.) Girls Are Popular The temptation to use Girl was strong. It’s a great shorthand way of saying if you liked The Girl On The Train or Gone Girl (or before that, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), you’ll like this book. And most of the time that would be true. All of those ...
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The Second Mr. de Winter: What If Genders Were Reversed In Rebecca?

My lawyer book group (read more about the lawyer book group here) recently read Daphne Du Maurier’s classic, Rebecca. The book is a suspense/thriller about a young woman who marries a widower whose first wife was lost at sea. After the narrator marries Max de Winter, she becomes mistress of Manderley, a mansion in an isolated area. Roughly twenty years younger than her husband and of a different social class, she feels constantly overshadowed by her predecessor, Rebecca, and nervous around his f...
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Stranger Danger, Comic Con and Girls Gone Gore

Last month I  presented a panel, Girls Gone Gore, at Comic Con Chicago with author Carrie Green. The first time we met, Carrie and I talked about how both of us have had people suggest that because we write horror/suspense/thrillers, we ought to consider using our initials or male pen names. The idea that readers believe male authors more likely to write good horror is nothing new. As I learned when I researched for the panel, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein originally was p...
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