December 11 – 17: “What’s your favorite book or movie that combines thrillers with the Holidays?”

What’s your favorite book or movie that combines thrillers with the Holidays? Join ITW Members Cheryl Hollon, Colin Campbell, Jennifer D. Bokal, Ines Eberl, Lynn Cahoon, Jim L’Etoile, Victoria Gilbert and Luke Murphy as they dig deep into this week’s holiday-themed Roundtable. Scroll down to the “comments” section to follow along!

~~~~~

Cheryl Hollon writes full-time after an engineering career designing and installing military flight simulators in England, Wales, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, and India. Living her dream, she combines a love of writing with a passion for creating glass art in the small glass studio behind her house in St. Petersburg, Florida. Cheryl is an officer of the Florida Gulf Coast Sisters in Crime, and a member of Mystery Writers of America.

Victoria Gilbert, raised in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, turned her early obsession with reading into a dual career as an author and librarian. She has worked as a reference librarian, research librarian, and library director. A member of International Thriller Writers, Sisters in Crime, and Mystery Writers of America, she lives in North Carolina with her husband, son, and some very spoiled cats.

James L’Etoile’s crime fiction work is recognized by the Creative World Awards, Acclaim Film, the Scriptapalooza Television Script Competition, Killer Nashville Reader’s Choice, and The American Book Festival Awards. At What Cost was released by Crooked Lane Books in 2016 and BURY THE PAST (a 2017 Best Book Award finalist in the mystery/suspense category) was published on December 12, 2017. James L’Etoile worked in prisons and jails for twenty-nine years before turning to crime fiction. He is an experienced correctional administrator, facility captain, associate warden, chief of institution operations, and director of state parole. He draws upon his experience to bring his crime fiction to life. He consults in prisons, jails and community corrections across the country and when he isn’t writing, he and his wife Ann-Marie participate in therapy dog programs for seniors in memory care and Read To A Dog children’s reading programs.

Winner of the Sexy Scribbler for 2015, Jennifer D. Bokal is the author of the best-selling Ancient World Historical Romance, The Gladiator’s Mistress and the second book in the Champions of Rome series, The Gladiator’s Temptation. She is also the author of Her Rocky Mountain Hero and Her Rocky Mountain Defender, both part of the Rocky Mountain Justice series with Harlequin Romantic Suspense. Jen holds a master of arts in creative writing from Wilkes University and is a member of both the Romance Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. Happily married to her own Alpha Male for twenty years, she enjoys writing stories that explore the wonders of love. Jen and her manly husband live in upstate New York with their three beautiful daughters, two aloof cats, and two very spoiled dogs.

Ex army, retired cop and former Scenes Of Crime Officer. Colin Campbell is the author of British crime novels Blue Knight White Cross, and Northern Ex, and US thrillers Jamaica Plain, Montecito Heights, Adobe Flats and Snake Pass. His Jim Grant thrillers bring a rogue Yorkshire cop to America, where culture clash and violence ensue.

Lynn Cahoon is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Tourist Trap cozy mystery series. Guidebook to Murder, book 1 of the series, won the Reader’s Crown for Mystery Fiction in 2015. She also pens the Cat Latimer series. A Story to Kill and Fatality in Firelight are available in mass market paperback. She lives in a small town like the ones she loves to write about with her husband and two fur babies.

Luke Murphy is the International bestselling author of Dead Man’s Hand (Imajin Books, 2012) and Kiss & Tell (Imajin Books, 2015). Murphy played six years of professional hockey before retiring in 2006. His sports column, “Overtime” (Pontiac Equity), was nominated for the 2007 Best Sports Page in Quebec, and won the award in 2009. He has also worked as a radio journalist (CHIPFM 101.7). Murphy lives in Shawville, QC with his wife, three daughters and a pug. He is a teacher who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and a Bachelor of Education (Magna Cum Laude). WILD CARD, a sequel to Dead Man’s Hand, is Murphy’s third novel.

Ines Eberl grew up in Berlin and Paris and earned her law degree at the University of Salzburg. She gained her first experiences as a journalist in the newsroom at the Austrian television network ORF, then she returned to academia to conduct research on German contemporary history, in particular the Third Reich and Nazi legislation, at the Institute for European Legal History. Today she works at a law firm as a lawyer whose passion for writing remains. After authoring several suspense novels, she is now a member of the ITW and belongs to the Crime Writers´Association of the U.K.