ROADSIDE CROSSES: DOUBLE GIVEAWAY DAY, PART ONE

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ROADSIDE CROSSES
by Jeffrey Deaver

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The Monterey Peninsula is rocked when a killer begins to leave roadside crosses beside local highways . . . not as memorials of past accidents, but as an announcement of his intention to kill. And to kill in a particularly horrific and efficient way: using the personal details about the victims that they've carelessly posted in blogs and on social networking web sites.
The case lands on the desk of Kathryn Dance, an agent with the California Bureau of Investigation and the state's foremost kinesics — body language — expert. She, along with close associate and friend, Deputy Michael O'Neil, and the fellow CBI agents introduced in The Sleeping Doll, follow the leads to Travis Brigham, a troubled teenager, who is retaliating against those who have posted attacks on him in a popular blog, The Chilton Report, for his part in a fatal car accident that took the lives of two high school girls.
The investigation reveals that Travis, who idolizes the Columbine and Virginia Tech killers, is bent on revenge — first against those who cyberbullied him, then against anyone connected with the blog that, he believes, has destroyed his life. He vanishes and, using techniques he learned as a brilliant participant in MMORPGs, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, easily eludes his pursuers and continues to track his victims, some of whom Kathryn is able to save just in time, some not. Among the obstacles Kathryn must hurdle are politicians from Sacramento, paranoid parents and the blogger himself, James Chilton, whose belief in the importance of blogging and the new media threaten to derail the case . . . and possibly Dance's career itself.
The book picks up only a few weeks after The Sleeping Doll ended and Kathryn must not only run the Roadside Cross case but has to confront issues that loomed at the end of that first book in the series — issues that threaten to tear her family apart.
Typical of the author's novels, Roadside Crosses is a roller coaster of a thriller. It takes place over four days, is filled with dozens of plot twists, cliffhangers and heart-rending personal subplots.

And, not surprisingly, the novel offers up several, well, surprise endings.

A searing look at the accountability of blogging and life in the online world, Roadside Crosses is the third in Deaver's high-tech thriller trilogy, along with The Blue Nowhere and The Broken Window.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Q&A from jeffreydeaver.com

Question: Did you always want to become a writer? Jeff Deaver: Yes. I wrote my first "book" at age eleven. Q: How do you manage to find fresh story ideas? Jeff: I'm often asked where the ideas for my books come from. To answer that I have to describe what I think is my responsibility as a thriller writer: To give my readers the most exciting roller coaster ride of a suspense story I can possibly think of. This means that, rather than looking through newspapers or magazines for inspiration, I spend much of my time during the early stages of a book sitting in a dark room and trying to think up a story line that will fit the typical Deaver novel: one that features strong (though possibly flawed) heroes, sick and twisted bad guys, deadlines every few chapters, a short time frame for the entire story (eight to forty-eight hours or so), lots of surprising plot twists and turns and plenty of cliffhangers. Q: You've been described as a 'psychological thriller writer.' Do you think this is accurate? Jeff: It's accurate to the extent that I explore the psychology of crime and crime detection in my books: the minds of the criminal and his hunters. I also try very hard to create characters — both heroes and villains — with psychological depth. In other words, the people who populate my books are more than caricatures. We inhabit their minds throughout much of the book. Of course — as in my Lincoln Rhyme series — there's a great deal of forensics and police work that has little to do with psychological profiling. Q: How did your first writing get into print? Jeff: I was editor of my high school literary magazine and a reporter for the school newspaper. Q: Does writing come easily to you? Do you revise much? Jeff: I wouldn't say it comes easily to me but I thoroughly enjoy doing it so I'm lucky in that sense. I revise a great deal. My publisher doesn't even get a peek at my manuscript until I've revised it at least twenty or thirty times (and I mean major revisions). Q: Where do you like to write? Jeff: I write pretty much anywhere — on planes, in hotel rooms, anywhere in my house. (My office sometimes gets so cluttered I end up working in the kitchen. When the kitchen goes, it's up to my bedroom. And so on and so on. I wish I had a bigger house.) I like the writing area to be silent (or with jazz or classical accompaniment occasionally) and either windowless or shaded. When it comes time to write the book itself I'll shut the lights out, picture the scene I'm about to write then close my eyes and go at it. Yes, I can touch type. And, yes, sometimes my hands accidentally move over one key and I end up with a paragraph or two of encryption. Q: Do you ever have "writer's block?" Jeff: I've often said that there's no such thing as writer's block; the problem is idea block. If you have a craftsman's command of the language and basic writing techniques you'll be able to write — as long as you know what you want to say. This is not to belittle the affliction, of course, because figuring out what you want to communicate can be one hell of a daunting task. When I find myself frozen — whether I'm working on a brief passage in a novel or brainstorming about an entire book — it's usually because I'm trying to shoehorn an idea into the passage or story where it has no place. I ask myself: What am I trying to say? If I can't answer that, or if the answer doesn't enhance the work, I back off and try another approach. Trying to write books with a subject matter or in a genre or style you're not familiar with is the best way to find the Big Block looming. Q: What is the best advice about writing anyone ever gave you, and who gave it? Jeff : Mickey Spillane: "People don't read books to get to the middle. They read to get to the end." Q: You've also been a folk singer. What led to that interest? Jeff: Ah, there's nothing like music. It's seductive, it's all-consuming, it's emotional, it's infinitely creative . . . . I was a singer-songwriter, not particularly talented musically but drawn to the craft of song writing. I liked the challenge of writing in a very concise structure in which both meaning and form are important. (It's far easier to write long than it is to write economically.) I performed and taught music in clubs in the San Francisco Bay area and Chicago. But that was years ago and I don't do it anymore. Q: Were you happy with the movie version of The Bone Collector? And were you involved in making this movie? Jeff: I thought the movie was very good. There were probably some things I would have done differently but my expertise is in writing novels, not making movies. Directing films is extremely arduous work and I wouldn't want to do it for any money. I let the movie-makers do their thing and they let me do mine. That's a great relationship. And, no, I was not involved with the making of the film. On other movie fronts: I've sold The Blue Nowhere to Joel Silver at Warner Brothers (The Matrix, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard) and The Devil's Teardrop to Wolfgang Peterson (The Perfect Storm, Air Force One, In the Line of Fire). Q: What do you do for fun? Jeff: Cook and have dinner parties, including some rather bizarre ones (Roman and medieval, for instance). When you work alone, you need to socialize at some level.

HOW ABOUT A GIVEAWAY?
WANT TO WIN?

Thanks to Kelly at Simon and Schuster,
I have one copy of this exciting book to give away.
Please follow the simple rules and the book
could be yours very soon!

RULES:

--U.S. Residents Only
--No P.O. Boxes, Please
--Email address must be in your comment
--ALL comments must be separate to count or
they will count as one instead of possible two.

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: Comment and tell if you have read any other Jeffrey Deaver book and which one, OR why you want to read this one!

+1 MORE ENTRY: Blog or Tweet about this giveaway and leave link in your comment!

Watch for my NEXT GIVEAWAY later today
in order to have a chance to not only win that
book, BUT also you might be able to win
both of today's giveaway books. Keep your
eyes peeled!

ALL ENTRIES ARE DUE BY JULY 30!