Although I have read some great books written by young authors, I believe "seasoned" authors use their life experiences to produce novels that delve deeply into their characters' beings.  Scott Pratt  began working on his first novel at age fifty.  In the preceding years he was a reporter for two newspapers in Tennessee and then earned his law degree from the University of Tennessee. In his college years  at East Tennessee State University, Scott won the McClellan Award for outstanding writing while earning a bachelor of arts degree in English, so writing was the next natural step.

His first book, An Innocent Client, introduces us to Joe Dillard. Joe is a criminal defense attorney who is somewhat jaded and ready to quit.  He would like to find one innocent client to represent though, and Pratt helps him do that in a well written legal thriller. Joe was such a popular character that it was natural to bring him back again...and again...and again.  I am looking forward to the seventh Joe Dillard novel, A Crime of Passion, due out later this month.

To those of you who haven't had the pleasure of reading a Scott Pratt book, start with Innocent Client, and I am fairly certain you will be hooked.

Click on the following links to order these Scott Pratt books:

Several years ago, while hunting for a book to read on my Kindle, I happened upon Frame-Up by John Dobbyn.  I had never heard of the book or author before, but I decided to give it a chance.  I was introduced to Michael Knight, a Harvard Law graduate, who takes a job with his mentor, legendary trial attorney Lex Devlin.  The relationship between these two really stole the show for me, and I became a fan.  Dobbyn has written four Knight and Devlin books, and I recommend them all.

John Dobbyn is a Boston College Law School graduate who then earned his LLM degree from Harvard Law. He spent a few years with trial practice, and decided to follow his dream and teach.  He moved to Valley Forge and began his teaching career at Villanova Law School.

About thirty years ago, the teacher became the student again, in a creative writing class.  He wrote a short story for the class and was lucky (and talented) enough to sell it to a mystery magazine. He spent the next seven years writing stories and collecting rejection slips. This is a definite rite of passage for most writers...the successful ones are the ones who don't give up. John Dobbyn stuck with it, and eventually began selling stories to "Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine" and  "Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine".

Finally, eight years ago, he wrote his first novel, Neon Dragon. I can attest to the fact that it is a very well done novel and does not read like an author's first attempt. Oceanview Publications was as impressed as I was, and they published that book and the rest of the series. That novel is in the process of being made into a movie. That started the Michael
Knight/Lex Devlin mystery/legal thriller series that has also included Frame Up (international art theft and forgery), Black Diamond (horse racing), and Deadly Diamonds (Blood Diamonds).

I am looking forward to the next book in the series and suggest that you get started with Neon Dragon today. May I also suggest to John Dobbyn...please hurry up.  I miss Knight and Devlin.

Click on the following links to order these John Dobbyn books:

I am a fan of the Rachel Scott series and by extension a fan of Traci Hohenstein. Traci, who is a full time writer, lives in Florida with her firefighter husband and three children.  I came upon her series by chance and couldn't wait to finish one and get to the next. Rachel Scott runs a search and rescue agency, Florida OmniSearch. It is personal for Rachel, as her daughter disappeared from her yard one day while playing. Hohenstein does a great job developing her characters and story lines in settings that seem to add to the drama while she searches for her daughter and other missing persons.

Several years ago the disappearance of Natalee Holloway dominated the headlines. Natalee disappeared during a trip to Aruba taken to celebrate her high school graduation. After a night of drinking with her friends she left with a man she met and was never seen again.  This sad story started Hohenstein thinking about the possibility of an agency that tracks down those who seem to be unable to be tracked.

They say that there are really only several story lines to be told when writing fiction, and in MADDERLY REVIEW, I like to highlight authors who bring a fresh feel to those basic plots.  I believe Ms. Hohenstein falls in that category and invite you to see for yourselves.

She has had three books and a prequel published in her series; Look For Me (series prequel), Asylum Harbor, Burn Out, and Cut & Run.  The fourth and final book about Rachel is due out early in 2015. She also writes a romance series, The Hollywood Hills series, which I have not tried yet.

Click on the following links to order these Traci Hohenstein books:

In my review of Patterson's Unlucky Thirteen this week, I mentioned that Andrew Gross is one of my favorite authors.  I first enjoyed his writing when he teamed with James Patterson and realized I enjoyed his books even more when he began writing alone.

Andy writes from the heart while incorporating life experiences into his plots.  He is never formulaic and makes the reader feel like he/she is almost part of the story. His ability to have his protagonists show great strength mixed with vulnerability make his female characters jump off the page.  That is a talent that is missing in most male authors.

Many years ago James Patterson recognized that talent and invited Gross to join him in writing his series about four very strong women who form a "murder club" to catch criminals.  They wrote the first three books of the series together,  as well as several stand alone thrillers.  Gross credits Patterson with an education equal to a joint MFA/MBA degree.
 
When he branched off on his own, Andy introduced us to Ty Hauck, a Greenwich detective who can cook a gourmet meal (lamb burgers on the grill, with caramelized onions in balsamic, topped with Danish bleu), solve a major case, break a few hearts and still have time to watch a game on T.V. with his girlfriend.  As my friend Madeline so accurately put it,   "Women want to date Ty Haulk and men want to be Ty Haulk."  After three novels Andy retired Ty, but I am happy to say that he will be back very soon. His stand alone thrillers are excellent as well.

I reviewed his last book, Everything to Lose, on May 1st and am looking forward to reviewing his next one as soon as it is available.  I suggest that Andrew Gross would go perfectly with a cold glass of lemonade, a hammock and an afternoon of indulgence.

Click on the following links to order these Andrew Gross  books:

Sometime in 2010 a friend suggested I read the book Six Seconds by Rick Mofina.  I remember picking it up after breakfast, I remember closing it at midnight, but I honestly remember nothing in between.  That was when I knew that I had found an author to follow.

Rick began writing in grade school and sold his first short story at age 15.  From Toronto, Rick studied Journalism, English Literature and American Detective Fiction at Carleton University.

His later experiences as a reporter helped him build a wealth of knowledge that is so evident in his books. He has been face to face with murderers, and covered serial killings, an armored car heist, and the murder of police officers. He has reported from the U.S., Africa, Canada, the Caribbean and Kuwait's border with Iraq.  When this man features a reporter as a protagonist, the reader can feel the realism.

He has written several series of books, and while they are all good, my favorite features a blue collar reporter named Jack Gannon.  As in most fiction, Jack is only part reporter...the other part is super hero of course.  He follows his leads and solves the cases ahead of those paid to do so, and he takes the reader along for the ride.

Mofina's books are now published in seventeen countries, and he is a featured panelist at mystery conferences across the United States and Canada. If you have not read one of his books yet, I envy you...you have many good reading days ahead of you.

Click on the following links to order these Rick Mofina  books:

James Grippando began his legal career as a law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals in Atlanta. He also worked on a number of appeals while in private practice, and used all of his experience to write his first published novel, The Pardon. He was a trial lawyer in Miami from 1984 through 1996, and a near arrest due to mistaken identity planted the seeds of this exciting legal thriller about a man accused of a murder he may not have committed. That very successful first novel introduced us to Jack Swyteck, a criminal defense attorney in Miami, Florida.  Although Grippando has written quite a few stand alone thrillers, it is always his Swyteck novels that excite me the most. His latest one, Black Horizon, is a perfect mix of politics and courtroom drama.  I keep wondering how much of Swyteck is actually Grippando's alter ego.

 He has published nonfiction and even a novel for young adults, but it seems that his real love is in his fiction writing. Most of his novels are set in South Florida where he and his wife reside, and he has been published in 26 languages.  I picture him, sitting on his patio, iced tea in hand, writing books that just keep getting better.

Click on the following links to order these James Grippando books:

I am happy to be able to spotlight Keith Raffel as the first MADDERLY REVIEW featured author. I found him quite by accident several years ago (thank you Ebooks) and have enjoyed his writing in each book that I have read.

Keith's life is almost as interesting as the lives of his characters. He served as counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee overseeing the CIA, NSA and other clandestine agencies. He worked on legislation with Senators Kennedy, Goldwater, Bayh and then Senator Biden. He left the Senate and returned to California to run for Congress. He lost his election and instead began working for a high tech firm in Silicon Valley.

All of this led up to his first book, DOT DEAD. Of course the protagonist, Ian Michaels, has a high powered job in a hot new tech firm and a great future ahead of him. Things go off course when he comes home to discover a beautiful young woman stabbed to death in his bed. Ian is a character that you root for from day one, and I was thrilled to find him return in Raffel's second book, SMASHER. As good as the first one, SMASHER left me waiting for more.

His next book introduced a new character, Stanford professor Sam Rockman, who loses his wife in an airport bombing. Keith has his character seek revenge by accepting a job in the Senate Intelligence Committee and hunting down the terrorists. His familiarity with these surroundings makes this book as interesting as it is exciting.

A FINE AND DANGEROUS SEASON came next. All I will say here is though fictional, one of the main characters is President Kennedy who enlists the help of his old college friend, Nate Michaels to help open a back channel to defuse the threat posed by Soviet Missiles in Cuba. As always in his books, Raffel softens the story with a touch of romance and an easy to like protagonist. 

I highly recommend all four of these books and look forward to book five.  To find out more about Keith Raffel, go to his web site: www.keithraffel.com. 

Click on the following links to order these Keith Raffel books: