Know the best advice I’ve gotten as a writer in the past decade or so?               “When writing a scene, always know where the light is coming from.”               That wise counsel came from my brilliant editor, Natalia Aponte, her thinking that if you describe the scene from…

Bookstores and libraries love to categorize. Generally ‘crime’ gets its own spot, whereas a ‘thriller’ will get placed within the ‘general fiction’. So what separates ‘crime’ from a ‘thriller’ and when do the bookstores and libraries get it wrong?                 That’s actually my absolute favorite question in the…

“Caitlin Strong, Texas Ranger, rides again in Jon Land’s latest action-packed tale.  This one, involving the Mexican drug trade, grabs you fast and holds you tight.  Land knows how to write, how to plot, and how to tell a hell of a story.  One of the best and most original thriller…

Okay, confession time. The truth behind the return of my original series hero Blaine McCracken was not based on planning or inspiration. It was based instead on seizing a fresh and wonderful opportunity based on another opportunity lost. See, around a year and a half ago Clive Cussler parted ways…

  PANDORA’S TEMPLE   A Blaine McCracken Novel   By Jon Land   FINAL DRAFT     “No hero is immortal till he dies.” W.H. Auden         PROLOGUE: THE ABYSS The Mediterranean Sea, 2008 “It would help, sir, if I knew what we were looking for,” Captain John…

“Jon Land’s dazzling new novel, Pandora’s Temple, carries the reader on a wild tsunami of a tale through a world of assassins, doomsday cults, and killer robots, all focused on an ancient and terrifying mystery hidden at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. The story is fascinating and utterly original,…

PROLOGUE Gulf waters off the coast of Texas, 1820   “Give me our bearings, Mr. Jeffreys,” Alfred Neal, captain of the Mother Mary, asked his first officer. Jeffreys met Neal’s gaze with his hooded eyes, then once more consulted his map in the light shed by a lantern hanging from a…

1818:  In the Gulf waters off the Texas coast, the pirate Jean Lafitte and his partner Jim Bowie launch an attack on the Mother Mary, a slave ship carrying an invaluable treasure on board.   The Present:  Fifth-generation Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong finds herself investigating the mass murder of an offshore…

In the three thrillers to feature her heroic, crime fighting efforts, Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong has taken on everything from greedy industrialists to Mexican revolutionaries, to right-wing extremists.  But Strong Vengeance pits her against her most dangerous, and real, adversary yet:  homegrown Islamic terrorists.   “The biggest threat is no longer coming…

“With Strong Vengeance, Jon Land is a thriller author who is writing at the highest level; as always a great plot, interesting characters and a thrill ride that will keep your fingers glued to the pages for hours.” —Strand Magazine “Gripping! Caitlin Strong is my favorite new series character.” —Harlan…