Exclusive with Shawn Nocher, author of A Hand to Hold in Deep Water By Emily S. Martin TSM: What provided the inspiration for your book? Shawn Nocher (SN): The first chapter was originally a short story written years ago in a workshop. Over the next decade, I spent a lot of time imagining an entire backstory […]
Category Archives: Authors
Interview with Sandra Brown
Interview with Sandra Brown By Anna Shura Sandra Brown is the woman behind over 70 New York Times bestsellers and her recent 83rd publication: Blind Tiger. Her novels range from romance to historical fiction to suspense/thriller. In her exclusive interview with The Strand, Sandra Brown discusses finding the inspiration behind her Western Prohibition setting for Blind […]
Interview with S.L. McInnis
Interview with S.L. McInnis by Anna Shura S.L. McInnis has a degree in broadcasting and has worked in public radio and television. Like the two main characters in the book, she studied music for years. She lives in Rotterdam with her husband. Framed is her debut thriller. AS: Could you please tell us […]
Punching Up Your Action Thriller By Glen Erik Hamilton, June 2021
Punching Up Your Action Thriller By Glen Erik Hamilton, June 2021 Labeling your novel an “action thriller” may seem limiting, or even redundant. Doesn’t every thriller novel have at least one fight or chase scene these days? And isn’t the action genre more suited to movies, where character development often takes a back seat to spectacle? While […]
The Strange True Stories Behind The Girl in the Mirror
Why do we read novels? We all know they aren’t true, but we allow ourselves to believe, to get caught up as though in a dream. Readers’ willingness to suspend disbelief is perhaps one of the strangest things about fiction. However, there are limits. Some readers will happily swallow stories with fanciful creatures, sci-fi […]
The Writer Inside Me
Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me (1952) established him as one of the preeminent practitioners of hardboiled crime fiction. A first-person confession of a small town deputy sheriff going on a murder spree, it is a frightening and gripping novel that earned Thompson the sobriquet “Dimestore Dostoevsky.” Stanley Kubrick, who directed two Jim […]
Leon Turrou: The Greatest Detective of them All?
by Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones Look at the FBI’s official website, and you’ll find a reference to one of America’s greatest detectives, Leon Turrou. The website explains that in 1938 Turrou was the Bureau’s lead investigator into a German spy ring. However, this official FBI narrative observes that his “background simply did not prepare him for […]
An Exclusive with Colleen Coble
Strand Magazine Interview – Colleen Coble Best-selling romantic suspense author Colleen Coble’s novels have won or finaled in awards ranging from the Best Books of Indiana, the ACFW Carol Award, the Romance Writers of America RITA, the Holt Medallion, the Daphne du Maurier, National Readers’ Choice, and the Booksellers Best. She has nearly 4 million books […]
An Exclusive with Siri Mitchell
Strand Magazine Interview – Siri Mitchell Siri Mitchell graduated from the University of Washington with a business degree and worked in various levels of government. As a military spouse, she has lived all over the world, including Paris and Tokyo. Siri enjoys observing and learning from different cultures. She is fluent in French and […]
The Mystery Author So Prodigious He Had No Idea How Many Books He’d Written
The mystery author so prodigious he had no idea how many books he’d written Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle regularly come top of lists of mystery authors with the most titles sold. But in a contest to win Most Consistently Prolific Crime Writer of All Time, there’s one man who is in […]
Story of the Month: Optimize Us by Maria Kelson
The Strand’s Story of the Month for April is Optimize Us by Maria Kelson, featured in Down to the River, a new anthology of crime fiction from Down and Out Books. With classic elements of suspense and a twist of android fiction, Kelson will have you guessing until the end. Optimize Us by Maria Kelson I […]
Crafting Parallel Narratives: An Interview With Harlan Coben
For the past 28 years, Harlan Coben has been providing readers with a welcome mix of suspense, humor, and razor-sharp storytelling. His newest novel, Run Away, revolves around Simon Greene, a Wall Street financial advisor who hasn’t seen his drug-addicted daughter, Paige, in six months. When he finally finds her again, she’s nearly unrecognizable, […]