Bestselling thriller author Basil Sands took the time to sit down and chat with me for this month’s issue of The Big Thrill Magazine, and I’m really excited to share it here, because it’s fantastic stuff! We talk about my latest novel, PAYBACK, what it takes to get a novel (THE AMENDMENT KILLER) considered for a TV series, the finer points of celery, dipping sauces and why in the heck did I decide to become a novelist anyway? I’m including an excerpt below, with a link to the full interview. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed the conversation! 🤩📚
“Death to the Gatekeepers!”
Olympic gymnast, turned physicist, turned lawyer Ronald S. Barak’s latest installment in the Brooks/Lotello murder mystery series, PAYBACK, presents an interesting take on the writer’s conference scene—which is to say that someone is killing off the gatekeepers one by one. He claims on his website that some of his fans believe he is the model for the mysterious antagonist, but of course, Barak isn’t naming names…except when he begins killing off the big ones.
Barak describes PAYBACK like this: “PAYBACK is a fantasy ‘Whodunit’ murder mystery that takes place at a renowned week-long writers conference held every year at the luxurious Hotel Marisol on the sun-drenched island of Punta Maya. Attracting literary luminaries and reading fans alike, the conference is attended by one guest too many, a writer wannabe whose efforts have not received the recognition the author expects, or perhaps one might say … demands.”
In addition to writing a traditional whodunit story, he says that he also wanted to make somewhat of a commentary, an eye-opening, real-world illustration of the decline in society’s morals.
“For example,” he said, “the college admissions scandal and the failure of sports, academic, and church leaders to expel offenders within their ranks who prey on those entrusted to such institutions.”
