January 2010On Sale: December 29, 2009Featuring: Jack MacAlister; Sophie Rose400 pages ISBN: 0345500768EAN: 9780345500762Mass Market Paperback (reprint)$7.99 Romance Suspense Buy at Amazon.com Fire and Iceby Julie Garwood Sophie Rose is a crime reporter at a major Chicago newspaper and the daughter of Bobby Rose, a charming gentleman and big-time thief. When asked to write an exposé about her notorious father, Sophie quits and goes to work at a small newspaper, covering local personalities such as William Harrington, the 5K runner whose trademark is red socks. Those socks—with Sophie’s business card tucked inside—are practically all that’s found after Harrington is killed near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, seemingly in a brutal polar bear attack. Sophie heads north to investigate, but danger follows in her wake. After one attempt on her life, she’s assigned brash but sexy Jack MacAlister as a bodyguard. But Sophie and Jack will soon be fighting more than their growing passion for each other. Powerful forces will stop at nothing to prevent the exposure of the sinister conspiracy Sophie and Jack are about to uncover. A fast-paced romantic suspense filled with lots of excitement, thrills and chills. Previous Picks Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

That’s the tagline for Dead Head, my latest suburban noir novel (Minotaur April 2010). I started asking that question two years ago when a middle class mother of two in southern California was taken away in handcuffs after authorities learned she was a fugitive from the law. Ripped from the headlines is hardly a new concept – writers as varied as William Shakespeare and Dominick Dunne have looked to news reports for inspiration, so that puts me in good company! Almost every day there’s a news item that has the fledgling writer as well as the more experienced one thinking “that would make a good story.” Most writers I know have idea files – mine is six inches thick and filled with clippings and printed articles ranging from the story of a Chicago woman who poisoned the trees in a public park because they were obstructing her view to last year’s much more serious violent chimp attack, which took place five minutes from my home in Connecticut. (Yes, I had met the chimp once.) But this woman’s story really resonated for me. I’ve lived in cities and suburbs and it’s so easy not to know the person next door. We…