Every year,the International Thriller Writers organization has a gala readers/writers event called THRILLERFEST. This year, it is again taking place at the Grand Hyatt hotel in New York City. Featured guests include David Baldacci, Sandra Brown, Robin Cook, Brad Meltzer, and Katherine Neville. Lee Child, Steve Barry, James Rollins, Gayle Lynds, and a host of other thriller luminaries will be there for the entire four days and very accessible. At this year’s THRILLERFEST the ITW will present David Morrell with its prestigious THRILLERMASTER award for his long career in which he devoted himself to extending the idea of what a thriller can be. Previous recipients include Clive Cussler, James Patterson, and Sandra Brown. For details, please go to http://thrillerwriters.org and click on “ThrillerFest.”

John and Virginia from VJ Books are planning on being there!

The July pub date of THE SHIMMER coincides with the International Thriller Writers organization’s annual gala readers/writers conference, THRILLERFEST (July 8-11).  This year, it again takes place in New York City, where ITW will present David Morrell with its prestigious THRILLERMASTER award for a lifetime of devoting his career to expanding the idea of what a thriller can be.

Some of the featured special guests include David Baldacci, Sandra Brown, Robin Cook, Brad Meltzer, and Katherine Neville.  Lee Child, Steve Berry, James Rollins, Gayle Lynds, and a host of other thriller luminaries will be there for the entire 4 days and very accessible.  For details, please go to ttp://www.thrillerwriters.org.

See all David Morrell titles at www.vjbooks.com

(januarymazaine.com, Nov. 17, Monica Stark)

While a few reviewers have been somewhat cool about Katherine Neville’s long-awaited sequel to 1988’s The Eight, we predict that The Fire (Ballantine) will still manage to find its way under a lot of trees this holiday season.

The Fire features Alexandra Solarin, the sole daughter of the heroic couple we first met in The Eight. The Fire covers a lot of fictional ground between 1822 and 2003 while Solarin searches for a piece of a legendary chess set that — in its own context — has the capability of transforming the shape of the world.

The best news for fans could come at the very end: it seems possible that the game might continue at some future point. The possible bad news: will we have to wait another 20 years?

See Katherine Neville‘s signed books at www.vjbooks.com

(The Independent, Nov. 20, Barry Forshaw)

Just like The Da Vinci Code – but much better

Dan Brown‘s The Da Vinci Code has become instant shorthand for those who consider it the last word in dumbed-down, crassly written fiction. But there is no denying the appeal of the globe-spanning, puzzle-based narrative, with strands reaching from ancient history to the modern world. Before The Code, Katherine Neville offered some ingenious sleight-of-hand in this style. Now she has followed up her debut novel, The Eight, with a blockbuster thriller that again pushes all the Brown buttons.

The premise of The Fire is refreshingly original. A father is escorting his chess-prodigy daughter, Xie, to a remote Russian monastery to take part in a prestigious game. But before it can begin, Xie watches in horror as her father’s brains are blown out. Xie (now Alexandra) survives. But, 30 years (more…)

(Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Nov. 19, 2008, Regis Behe)

There are a few reasons why Katherine Neville waited 20 years to write the sequel to her wildly successful novel “The Eight.”

There were notions the book didn’t need a second act or the heightened expectations that would naturally be part of a sequel. As Neville says, “the scariest part was that people loved ‘The Eight’ so much.’”

But another factor was at play, a factor beyond Neville’s ability to control. For “The Fire” (Ballantine, 451 pages) to make sense, time had to pass. And because “The Eight” was set in the early 1970s amid concerns about the Middle East and oil embargoes, Neville felt a shock of recognition when 9/11 occurred.

“When the plane hit the Pentagon across the river from my apartment in Georgetown (in Washington, D.C.), I realized the book that I was writing wasn’t the book that I thought I was writing,” says Neville, who visits Mystery Lovers (more…)

(Publisher’s Weekly, Oct 27)

The Fire is Neville’s long-awaited sequel to The Eight, published 20 years ago and boasting sales of more than 1.5 million copies (500,000 in the past eight years alone).  Both books are about the quest for a mystical chess set that once belonged to Charlemagne and could change the course of the world.  PW’s starred review for The Fire noted: “Despite the staggering amount and quality of the research, nothing feels shoehorned or extraneous.”  Ballantine reports more than 188,000 copies in print, and Neville is doing a 15-city tour.

Order your copy today! www.vjbooks.com