Payback
Every year, author Ronald S. Barak attends the ThrillerFest conference in New York, where the world’s most famous thriller and mystery authors mingle with emerging writers to network, learn and spark the creative juices.
Barak apparently looked around and didn’t have to step out of the conference hotel for his latest literary inspiration.
In Payback (Gander House Publishers), Barak has delivered an astute commentary on his very own genre and a cleverly plotted adventure full of masterful twists revolving around murder at the fictitious Thriller Jubilee convention in sunny Punta Maya.
Cyrus Brooks, former U.S. District Court Judge, just wants to enjoy his retirement and maybe pursue a hobby. At least his wife wants him to. He can’t sing or dance, so those dreams might have to remain dreams, but he has a keen interest in true crime and a wishful knack for writing.
His ever-supportive wife decides to indulge this interest and book him a trip to Thriller Jubilee, the flagship trade conference of The International Thriller Organization (a takeoff on ThrillerFest’s operator, International Thriller Writers). It’s a weeklong getaway off the coast of Spain where Brooks will be surrounded by the best crime writers in the world. What could possibly go wrong?
A THRILLER-WRITING KILLER
As it turns out, plenty. At the start of the conference, renowned literary agent Genevieve Lasko disappears. Soon there are two more disappearances, and Brooks and his partner, veteran D.C. cop Frank Lotello, must put their investigative talents to use solving the mystery behind the disappearances and saving the conference participants from a potential killer who may have read one too many crime novels.
Payback, the third novel in Barak’s Brooks/Lotello series, certainly is a deep dive into the world of thriller and mystery writers. But Barak takes this meta whodunit a step further by bringing well-known thriller writers into the fray as characters … and victims.
Brooks says, “Writing is just a thin version of doing.” If that’s the case, could somebody at the conference have made the leap from writing about murder to actually committing it?
Brooks and Lotello initially suspect the guilty party is a budding mystery aficionado eagerly present at the conference to learn. As they probe further, however, a more sinister hypothesis emerges: they’re dealing with a seasoned crime writer who could be far more formidable than any amateur.
Their other task? Keeping the whole thing under wraps so the conference can go off without a hitch — but without the conference organizers joining the moral decay and coverups of the modern-day business world. Talk about a challenge!
THE THIRD IN THE BROOKS AND LOTELLO SERIES
Barak’s previous two novels in the Brooks/Lotello series, The Amendment Killer (November 2017) and The Puppet Master (January 2019), saw the partners negotiate a hostage situation that could have national ramifications — an 11-year-old diabetic granddaughter of a Supreme Court Justice being held hostage, along with the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — and track a D.C. vigilante serial killer targeting corrupt politicians. As Payback takes Brooks and Lotello out of D.C., they’re out of their element (and jurisdiction) for the first time.
Barak’s debut novel, The Amendment Killer, was recently selected by BestThrillers Magazine as one of the top 21 thriller and mystery novels of the 21st Century, along with the likes of Grisham, Connelly, Dugoni, Patterson, and Turow, and a very select few others. A seat at the table with some very fine writers. Payback is equally top-notch.
Writers generally write from personal experience. Barak certainly left ThrillerFest with ample material. And that’s to the benefit of his readers, who need not trouble themselves in deciphering reality from fiction in this innovative and exciting novel that unfolds pretty close to home.
Payback is available for purchase. Learn more about Barak on his BookTrib author page and his website.
