Jim Bean is a Las Vegas based private investigator who gets paid to uncover secrets. Specializing in small time insurance and infidelity cases, Bean makes a decent enough living to keep him in booze and Ms. Annie in kitty chow. While he is an expert in uncovering...

Hart created a carefully plotted short story in the title story, TAKE-OUT. A small time New York City gambler gets in over his head at a Chinatown gambling parlor. He is forced to make unusual and dangerous deliveries for the parlor’s owner to pay off his dept. His final delivery is a twist that takes the reader by surprise.

It is impossible to determine what the truth really is. We bring with it our own experiences, memories, and opinions. We cannot judge things completely or dispassionately. Can we really look at facts without seeing them through the prism of our feelings? I think the answer is no. Can someone be good and bad at the same time? This is what my character Katie is struggling with, experiencing the pain of questioning what happened. She realizes that she cannot rely on her memory.

I wrote this book quote by Ada, “Perhaps the most hurtful and inimical result of the campaign was the pervasive acceptance of Nazi policies by German society…it became apparent that they would no longer stand up for us. Those who uttered hateful speech were sinful, but the greater sin was committed by those who did not speak at all.”

I follow Edward Snowden on Twitter, and he’s been a terrific resource in bringing attention to the government’s increasingly Orwellian surveillance apparatus. Facial recognition technology combined with vehicle- and officer-mounted video cameras; increasingly miniaturized drones; voiceprint technology; portable cellphone trackers; ubiquitous license-plate readers…the government knows more and more about us while we know less and less about the government, and if you’re writing political thrillers without taking Big Brother into account, you’re missing an important opportunity and probably a degree of realism, as well. – Barry Eisler

THE EARL AND THE ENCHANTRESS by Paullett Golden brings to life the 1790s in this historical novel with a touch of romance.  As an English professor at the American Military University she has decided to become an author as well. In this debut novel her heroine lives...