What is it about someone showing up at your house carrying a suitcase? Do you hear the Jaws music? There’s nothing quite as illustrative of what “point of view” means as when you view your home through the eyes of a guest. Why did you not see the spider webs on the chandelier? Why did…
Once I read a review in the New York Times about a book called Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin, a book that turned out to be one of my favorite books ever. And the reviewer, I don’t remember who, was clearly apprehensive about writing it. The reviewer said something like: I’m worried, writing this, that…
What’s the worst thing that could possibly happen to a reporter? Professionally at least, that’s easy to answer. The worst thing is to make a mistake. And that is what Mary Willis Walker has captured so beautifully in The Red Scream: the anguish of a reporter—possibly—having made a devastating and career-ending error. At first, this…
I wish I could have eavesdropped on the Edgar committee for 1987. “Are you kidding me?” someone might have said. “A Dark-Adapted Eye? Barbara Vine, whoever that is, tells who did it on page one! What kind of a mystery is that?” Someone else may have chimed in. “Listen, Barbara Vine is a pseudonym for Ruth…
Why was writing The Murder List like doing math? Because it’s all about understanding the properties of a triangle. One of the basic shapes of in geometry, right? And one of the basic shapes of conflict. Three points on a triangle. Or three points of view. And in a twisty triangle thriller, it all depends…
When I was a little girl, there was one thing we were not allowed to do in our house: talk during The Perry Mason Show. Seriously. When Perry Mason was on TV, my sister and I were required, if we wanted to watch it and of course we did, not to say a word. During…
Journalists writing in spiral notebooks and making phone calls and knocking on doors—that simply doesn’t have the slam-bang movie-trailer appeal of explosions or car chases or monsters from the deep. But hey. Forget about boy gets girl or girl gets boy. I’m hooked on girl (or boy) gets story. A midnight secret source. A hunch.…
Trust Me by Hank Phillippi Ryan is a chilling standalone novel of psychological suspense and manipulation. Prefer audiobooks? Click here to listen to an audio excerpt from Trust Me! An accused killer insists she’s innocent of a heinous murder. A grieving journalist surfaces from the wreckage of her shattered life. Their unlikely alliance leads to a dangerous…
Say No More by Hank Phillippi Ryan is book #5 in the Jane Ryland series (Available November 1, 2016). When Boston reporter Jane Ryland reports a hit and run, she soon learns she saw more than a car crash—she witnessed the collapse of an alibi. Working on an expose of sexual assaults on college campuses…
Prime Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan is the first book in the Charlotte McNally series following reporter Charlotte McNally as she investigates a story about email, murder, mayhem, and a multimillion-dollar fraud ring (Available February 9, 2016). In the cutthroat world of television journalism, seasoned reporter Charlotte McNally knows that she'd better pull out all…
