Guest Post and Giveaway: A Sinister Obsession by S. B. Redstone

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A psychopathic killer on a quest leaves behind a string of brutal murders, and to find the Who, the police must first discover the Why…

Detective Aubrey McKenzie has been assigned to investigate the murders. A lovely, fabulously wealthy, dark-haired Scot, whose iron will was forged in the inferno of human tragedy, Aubrey is stymied by the lack of solid clues. Now she must rely on her paranormal ability to apprehend the killer—an ability that has been invaluable in her police work but has made a disaster of her social life.

Fate teams Aubrey with Detective Joshua Diamond, a handsome, talented, and compassionate man who is more than happy eating a greasy bacon-cheeseburger and wearing clothes that should have been thrown out with the trash. In a race against time, Aubrey and Joshua must overcome their vast differences—and their attraction for each other—and discover the identity of this elusive killer, and the quest this fiend is on, before more lives are destroyed.

GUEST POST

Life (love) and death in mystery thrillers 

For me and my writing style, love and death, are complex and inseparable. I intentionally have them share the spotlight in my mystery thriller. Love doesn’t have to imply romance, which I include in all my novels. Love is a feeling state that can be honest or dishonest in a person’s heart. I think most mystery thriller writers prefer to have both in their novels, but I don’t know why, since I’ve not had the opportunity to ask them. The book Psycho by Robert Bloch, Norman Bates was a psychotic murderer who believed he so deeply loved his mother, he became her. Whenever he imagined someone would come between him and his dead mother, he murdered them. The villain in my novel believes that love is the catalyst for achieving happiness and will use any means to achieve that happiness. When the desire for love becomes an obsession, in a heartless personality, the only person feeling love is the villain, everyone else is feeling hate. 

When the villain expresses deep love while acting in a heartless manner, I believe the readers are repulsed, which draws them deeper into the story. 

The difference between a mystery and a mystery thriller is intensity. Love and death are exaggerated in mystery thrillers, although real life will always vault fiction. When you have characters that love life and desire happiness, and they are brutally murdered, I feel that turns a mystery into a mystery thriller. From another angle, it’s my intention to contrast true love and death, and by doing so, death becomes that much more heinous. 

I love putting romance in a mystery thriller. Growing up, I watched every 1930’s and 1940’s detective mystery that came on television. It’s the style of writing that I love to duplicate. In particular, I loved The Thin Man series with Nick and Nora Charles who were private detectives. It was the interaction between them that was just as terrific as the plot. In truth, I can’t remember any of the plots of The Thin Man series, but I remember their loving, sarcastic, and one up-man-ship interactions. I feel it’s their interactions that intensify the mystery and thriller parts of the story. If the good guys aren’t crazed by the mystery and evil, why should the readers. Just telling the readers about death, has little impact. I think pure evil is monotonous and boring. Furthermore, placing romance in a story is a purposeful diversion from the mystery, which is surely enjoyed by the readers, but causes them to become that much more obsessed with discovering the mystery. 

Lastly, a doomed character who fights to stay alive, intensifies the emotion, and that’s the thrill.

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About the author: 

I write under the name S. B. Redstone. I began my career, after graduating from Hunter College, as a caseworker for the New York City Department of Social Services, Protective Services, investigating the horrors of the abuse and neglect of children. After attaining master’s degrees in Social Work and School Psychology, and then completing a post-graduate education in Psychoanalytic Therapy, I became a School Psychologist in the New York City Department of Education and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in a private therapy practice on Long Island, treating adults, adolescents, children, and couples. Always striving to improve my understanding of human nature, I researched and then wrote a personal improvement book, Taming Your Inner & Outer Bullies: Confronting Life’s Stressors And Winning, which offers remarkable insights into behavior, societal institutions, and relationships. I have written articles on the web concerning human nature, relationships and the abuses of societal institutions, given lectures, and appeared on radio shows. 

Always having a vivid imagination and a desire to write fiction, I developed my writing skills by becoming a successful writer of short stories, all of which have been published on the web and in print. As an expert in the field of human psychology, I have been able to develop realistic characters from the dark side of human nature where my villains don’t aspire for happiness through personal achievement, but rather from their demented narcissistic schemes. Many of my characters have been taken from my clinical experiences and interesting people I know. I love romance in my stories. It is an essential element in my mystery thriller A Sinister Obsession and horror novel. Now that I am obsessed with writing “senior” romances, it has become further developed and heartfelt. I have two seeking publication at this time. I am a member of the International Thriller Writers Organization and Romance Writers of America. 

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