Thriller (74 page)

their four children. Find him online at www.robertliparulo.com.

David Liss
is the author of two bestselling novels featuring Benjamin Weaver—
A Conspiracy of Paper
and
A Spectacle of Corruption
—

in addition to two stand-alone thrillers,
The Coffee Trader
and
The

Ethical Assassin
. His books have won numerous awards, including the

Edgar Award for Best First Novel
,
and they have been translated into

more than a dozen languages.
The Devil’s Company
will be the third

Benjamin Weaver novel. Liss lives in San Antonio, Texas.

Eric Van Lustbader
is the internationally bestselling author of

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The Ninja, Art Kills, The Bourne Legacy, The Bravo Testament
and

twenty-six other novels, both thrillers and fantasy, plus a host of

short stories. He graduated from Columbia College in 1968 and

spent fifteen years in the pop music industry. He has also been a

New York City schoolteacher. For more information, visit him at

www.ericvanlustbader.com.

Dennis Lynds
, aka Michael Collins, wrote the Dan Fortune series that began in 1967. There are now nineteen Dan Fortune

books, the most recent being
Fortune’s World
, a collection of short

stories spanning from 1963 to 2000. His most recent thriller,
The

Cadillac Cowboy,
featured a new protagonist whose name may or

may not be Ford Morgan. As Mark Sadler, John Crowe, William

Arden and Carl Dekker, he published another eighteen crime

novels and thirteen juvenile crime novels. As Dennis Lynds, he

564

published three novels and two collections of stories, the most recent being
Talking To the World
. A fourth Lynds novel,
Pictures On

a Bedroom Wall
, is forthcoming. Lynds won the Mystery Writers of

America Edgar and has been nominated for two more. Born in

St. Louis, he was raised in England. Later, his parents, both English actors, returned to the States and he grew up in Los Angeles, Denver and New York City. Sadly, Dennis died in August,

2005, leaving behind his wife, bestselling novelist Gayle Lynds.

New York Times
bestseller
Gayle Lynds
is the author of eight international espionage thrillers, including
The Last Spymaster
,
The

Coil
and
Masquerade
, which have been published in twenty countries. Lynds is generally considered the first woman to write successfully in the thriller field since Helen MacInnes. With Robert

Ludlum she created the
Covert-One
thriller series. She is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Operatives and is a

cofounder of International Thriller Writers, Inc. You can visit her

at www.GayleLynds.com.

Chris Mooney
was twenty-eight when he published his first

thriller,
Deviant Ways
. He is also the author of
The Missing, World

Without End
and
Remembering Sarah
, which was nominated for a

Barry Award and the Edgar Award for Best Novel. Visit him at

www.chrismooneybooks.com.

David Morrell
is the author of
First Blood
, the award-winning

novel in which Rambo was created. He holds a Ph.D. in American literature from the Pennsylvania State University and was a

professor in the English department at the University of Iowa, until

he gave up his tenure to devote himself to a full-time writing career. David has published twenty-eight books, which have been

translated into twenty-six languages. His numerous bestselling

thrillers include
Creepers, The Brotherhood of the Rose
and
Extreme

565

Denial
, which is set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives. His

Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing
is an analysis of what he has

learned during his thirty-seven years as a writer. He is a cofounder

of International Thriller Writers, Inc.

Katherine Neville
was for many years an international consultant and computer expert, numbering among her clients and

employers the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory

Commission, OPEC, IBM, the Algerian government and the Bank

of America. She has also been a professional model, portrait

painter and commercial photographer. Katherine’s first novel,
The

Eight
, has been translated into nearly thirty languages and was recently voted one of the top ten books of all time, in a national poll

in Spain. Her second book,
A Calculated Risk,
was a
New York

Times
Notable Book, and
The Magic Circle
was a
USA TODAY
and

an international bestseller. Katherine lives in Virginia, Washington D.C., and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Michael Palmer
is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Case

Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He started writing as a hobby in 1979 and has since published eleven novels of

medical suspense, all international bestsellers. His work has been

translated into thirty languages, and
Extreme Measures
was made

into a film starring Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman and Sarah Jessica Parker. He’s an avid tennis player and scuba diver, and holds

the rank of bronze life master in bridge. Palmer lives in Massachusetts with the youngest of his three sons, Luke.
Daniel James

Palmer,
Michael’s middle son, holds a master’s degree in communications from Boston University, and is a musician, songwriter

and software professional. He lives with his wife and son in Southern New Hampshire, where he mountain bikes and plays tennis.

In one of the more unusual—and successful—writing collaborations in recent memory,
Douglas Preston
and
Lincoln Child

566

have coauthored ten bestselling thrillers over the past fifteen years.

They met when Child, then a young editor at St. Martin’s Press,

asked Preston, a writer for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, to pen a nonfiction history of the museum.

The two later teamed up to write
The Relic
, set in a fictitious natural history museum, which was made into a hit film by Paramount

Pictures. Their protagonist, the eccentric and brilliant Special

Agent Pendergast, has become a cult hero among thriller readers.

They also work solo: Child has written two thrillers and produced

numerous ghost story anthologies, while Preston has written four

nonfiction books and three thrillers, as well as occasional articles

for the
New Yorker
magazine. Child is an aficionado of motorcycles, rare books, fast cars and exotic parrots, while Preston is a

horseman and a member of the elite Long Riders’ Guild. Both writers like to point out that they graduated from college with a “useless” degree in English literature.

Christopher Reich
was born in Tokyo. A graduate of Georgetown University and the University of Texas at Austin, he worked

in Switzerland before returning to the United States to pursue a

career as a novelist. He’s the bestselling author of five acclaimed

novels,
Numbered Account, The Runner, The First Billion, The

Devil’s Banker
and
The Patriot’s Club.
He lives in California with

his wife and children.

Christopher Rice
is the
New York Times
bestselling author of

A Density of Souls
,
The Snow Garden
and
Light Before Day
. He is

also a regular columnist for
The Advocate
.
The Snow Garden
won

a Lambda Literary Award. Rice lives in West Hollywood.

James Rollins
is the
New York Times
bestselling author of numerous thrillers, including
Map of Bones.
You’ll often find him underground or underwater as an amateur caver and scuba diver.

567

From these hobbies sprang his earlier thrillers
Subterranean,

Amazonia, Ice Hunt
and
Sandstorm.

M. J. Rose
is the international bestselling author of eight

thrillers, including
The Halo Effect, The Delilah Complex
and
The

Venus Fix.
She has been a finalist for the Connecticut Book Award

and the Anthony Award. She has also coauthored two nonfiction

books and is on the board of International Thriller Writers, Inc.

Her work has also appeared in Wired.com,
O, The Oprah

Magazine,
and
Poets & Writers.
She is presently published in ten

countries, including Japan, Israel and Russia. In addition, Rose runs

the popular Buzz, Balls and Hype and Backstory blogs and is the

creator of AuthorBuzz.com. Visit all of these at www.mjrose.com.

James Siegel
is the
New York Times
bestselling author of
Derailed

and
Detour
. His first thriller,
Epitaph
, was nominated for a Shamus

Award as best first novel.
Derailed,
with Clive Owen and Jennifer

Aniston, was released in 2004 as a major motion picture, and
De-

tour
is in production.

Brad Thor
, a native of Chicago and a graduate of the University of Southern California, is the
USA TODAY
bestselling author

of
The Lions of Lucerne, Path of the Assassin, State of the Union
and

Blowback.
He and his family divide their time between Park City,

Utah, and the Greek island of Antiparos. Visit his Web site at

www.bradthor.com.

M. Diane Vogt
is the author of the acclaimed Judge Wilhelmina

Carson legal thrillers. The Chinese government purchased and

translated Diane’s fiction and nonfiction as an entertaining read,

reflective of American life and the legal system. A lawyer in private practice for more than twenty-five years, Diane has represented the world’s largest corporations as well as individuals and

governments.

568

F. Paul Wilson
is the award-winning,
New York Times
bestselling author of thirty books and over a hundred short stories spanning horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction and

virtually everything in between. More than seven million copies

of his books are in print in the United States and his work has been

translated into twenty-four languages. He also has written for the

stage, screen and interactive media. Wilson is the creator of the

popular Repairman Jack thrillers.

®

ISBN 1-55254-487-7

Copyright © 2006 by International Thriller Writers, Inc.

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or

utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic,

mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including

xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or

retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher,

MIRA Books, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the

author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name

or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or

unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

MIRA and the Star Colophon are trademarks used under license and registered

in Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, United States Patent and Trademark

Office and in other countries.

The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders of the original works

as follows:

Copyright © 2006 Ted Bell

THE DEVILS’ DUE

Copyright © 2006 Steve Berry

Copyright © 2006 Grant Blackwood

JAMES PENNEY’S NEW IDENTITY

Copyright © 2006 Lee Child

Copyright © 2006 David Dun

Copyright © 2006 James Grippando

Copyright © 2006 Denise Hamilton

Copyright © 2006 Raelynn Hillhouse

Copyright © 2006 Gregg Hurwitz

GOODNIGHT, SWEET MOTHER

Copyright © 2006 S. M. Kava

Copyright © 2006 Joe Konrath

Copyright © 2006 Lescroart Corporation & M. J. Rose

Copyright © 2006 Robert Liparulo

Copyright © 2006 David Liss

Copyright © 2006 Eric Van Lustbader

Copyright © 1968 Dennis Lynds

Copyright © 2006 Gayle Hallenbeck Lynds

Copyright © 2006 Chris Mooney

Copyright © 2006 David Morrell

Copyright © 2006 Katherine Neville

Copyright © 2006 Daniel Palmer and Michael Palmer