I am thrilled to welcome one of my favorite authors, Vincent Zandri! He is the prolific author of The Remains, the overall best-selling thriller offered on Amazon, as well as more than 16 other best-selling novels.
The Ashes, Vincent’s highly anticipated follow up to The Remains and the second installment in his Rebecca Underhill trilogy, was the number one seller on Amazon in the categories of Horror, Crime, Women’s Adventure, and Men’s Adventure!
A Marriage of Suspense and Romance
First off, I want to make it clear that I’m not a romance writer. But I am romantic. What I mean is, I like to stress the romantic in my novels. Especially stand-alones like The Remains and its sequel, The Ashes. When I wrote the former, I never expected so many romantic suspense and even straight out romance readers to devour it as much as they have (the novel was first published in late 2012 and still sells tens of thousands of units per year). I wasn’t thinking romance while writing it so much as I wanted to dig deep into the love affair of protagonist Rebecca Underhill, and her divorced, writer husband, Michael.
Maybe Rebecca and Michael couldn’t make marriage work for them, since he was often broke or drinking too much or just plain making a mess of things, but their love for one another never abated, even after their divorce. And when Rebecca was suddenly faced with the life-threatening crisis of her childhood abductor having been released from prison . . . a madman bent on finishing the job he started thirty years earlier . . . Michael proved his devotion to his ex by doing his best to protect her from the inevitable assault and abduction that was to come. They even rekindled their romantic relationship. Something that would result in a child. The child Michael would never meet.
But then, Michael does meet his son, Mike Jr.
Sort of.
In The Ashes, Mike Jr. swears he not only sees his father standing by the edge of the cornfield in the back of their farmhouse, but that they have talks. Mike Jr. loves his father as much as he is afraid of the other man who lives inside the corn. Mr. Skinner or, the Skinner. He’s the man who once shared the same prison cell as Rebecca’s childhood abductor. Now he too, is free. And he is coming not only for Rebecca, but this time, he is coming for her child. How will she cope without Michael, her true love? Maybe death isn’t as absolute as they say. Maybe when you love one another as much as Michael and Rebecca did, you can still find a way to communicate, even from the grave.
Meet Vincent
Vincent has earned widespread acclaim for his work, including the 2015 International Thriller Writers Award for Best Paperback Original, Moonlight Weeps, which was also a finalist for the Shamus Award for Best Paperback Original by the Private Eye Writers of America. Suspense Magazine named The Shroud Key one of the Best Books of 2014. Bestselling author Harlan Coben described The Innocent as “. . . gritty, fast-paced, lyrical and haunting,” while the New York Post called it “Sensational . . . Masterful . . . Brilliant!”
Vincent was born in Troy, New York, and raised in Latham where he attended a private Catholic school. After graduating from The Albany Academy for Boys, a military high school, he attended Providence College and earned an MFA in Writing from Vermont College. It was in college that he discovered his passion for writing, departing from his father’s plan for Vincent to join the family commercial construction business. He was the subject of a major feature in the New York Times, and has appeared on Bloomberg TV and FOX news. A freelance photo-journalist and author of the popular “lit blog,” Vincent has also written for Living Ready Magazine, RT, New York Newsday, Hudson Valley Magazine, The Times Union (Albany), Game & Fish Magazine, and many other publications. Vincent lives in Albany, New York, which frequently serves as the setting for for his novels, with two dogs and when not writing enjoys running, lifting weights, flyfishing, and hiking. He says, “You’re only as good as your next book. It’s never what you’ve done. It’s always what you’re about to do.” Fortunately for his devoted readers, he writes every day except Sunday because he says it makes him “feel whole and relevant.”
Connect with Vincent at his website, or on Facebook or Twitter.
1 Comment
Thank you for hosting Vincent today, Janie!