Amazon.com Review

A Q&A with D.M. Annechino

Question: Where did the inspiration for this story come from?

D.M. Annechino: I thought it would be intriguing to create a villain who struggles between being a healer and being a killer. Most villains are pure evil with few--if any--redeeming qualities. In Resuscitation, we find a well-respected cardiologist gone astray, a doctor who has saved hundreds of lives with his surgical skills. But now, driven by an uncontrollable desire for fame and recognition, he uses his skills selfishly and unmercifully for his own advancement.

Q: Julian, the doctor in Resuscitation, spirals from a desire to help people to an all-out killer pretty quickly. Were you surprised by his brutality and the way his character developed?

DMA: Throughout his development, Julian wrestles between good and evil. He's dealing with a troubled marriage, haunting memories from his childhood, and repressed sexual obsession--and once he steps over the line, he enters into a world he didn't know existed. Then those sweet uncharted waters take control of his every decision.

Q: Sami Rizzo, your detective from They Never Die Quietly, is back in this book. But I've heard that you're now working on a political thriller. Is this the last we'll see of Detective Rizzo?

DMA: I did decide to switch gears somewhat, if for no other reason than to take a break from the serial-killer format. I wanted to challenge myself and craft a complex novel with global consequences. But depending on the feedback I get from my readers, Detective Rizzo may indeed return.

Q: Resuscitation has a ton of medical references. Can you tell us about the research involved in this type of book?

DMA: Ten years ago, I might have spent the best part of six months in my local library with my nose buried in medical reference books. But with the depth of the Internet, research has taken on a whole new light. It also helps that my wife and daughter work in healthcare, so I consulted them many times. If they were unable to address a particular issue, they could turn to their professional networks for answers.

Q: I've read that you didn't always picture yourself as a writer. What made you finally decide to start writing?

DMA: I did very poorly in English in high school and could never imagine myself as a writer. But in 1992, when I was a general manager in the retail automobile business, I decided on a whim to write a guide on how to buy a car without losing your shirt. The book did so well that it motivated me to pen a novel. Once I finished my first novel, that was it--the writer's bug bit me hard, and the rest is history. Here I am many years later, and my third novel is about a month from completion. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it's all real.

Q: What are you reading now?

DMA: A collection of short stories by Stephen King, Nightmares & Dreamscapes.

Q: Which books do you read over and over again?

DMA: Of course, I read thrillers to see how other writers craft their stories and develop characters. But there's only one book I've read a number of times: The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. His prose reads like poetry.

Review

"What happens when an ambitious heart surgeon decides to rewrite the Hippocratic Oath while channeling Machiavelli? Once the doctor sets his ethics aside he finds a brutal road turns darker than even he imagined as he contends with internal demons unburdened by altruistic camouflage.....Left (literally) to pick up the pieces in scenic San Diego is former Detective Sami Rizzo, who quit the force after a horrific experience hunting another serial killer. Still haunted by the captured killer, she tried to escape only to find she must face down the fears that now live inside her. The victims accumulate and their suffering compounds as she rejoins the police to hunt for a medical madman. A full-strength thriller from D. M. Annechino, not for the faint of heart!" -J. Gregory Smith, author of Final Price and A Noble Cause

"I found myself immersed...I couldn’t put it down... fantasy gore is one thing, but gore that could be ripped from a CNN headline is something else entirely...Mr. Annechino spent two years researching serial killers, which is apparent in his story details and all the more disturbing when you consider the killer doctor character himself is stitched together from bits of actual serial killer cases." --BlackGate.com

“Annechino delivers the required chills and thrills in a skillful manner. His novel is lifted above the ordinary by his insightful probing into the mind of the serial killer in search of the root causes behind the butchery. He does so in a manner both instructive and entertaining.” --Robert Wade San Diego Union Tribune “Annechino delivers the required chills and thrills in a skillful manner. His novel is lifted above the ordinary by his insightful probing into the mind of the serial killer in search of the root causes behind the butchery. He does so in a manner both instructive and entertaining.” --Robert Wade, San Diego Union Tribune

"Resuscitation shifts frequently from the point of view of the killer to that of his pursuer, giving the reader considerable insight into the mind of a surgeon, sworn to do no harm, who feels compelled to conduct deadly experiments because 'the needs of the many outweigh the needs of a few.' ...Annechino has created a clever plot, where the early pages seemingly provide the setting and virtually the final answer to the story's major mystery. But the reader is in for a surprise." --I Love a Mystery

A fresh and honest look at a family in crisis from a new voice in young adult literature.<

The power of the old gods was certainly nothing for Mark and Edith—a modern, twentieth-century couple—to worry about. After all—everybody dies!<

CSI London, Urban Fantasy-style! My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluable, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England. Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden . . . and there's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair. The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos - or die trying.<

Mach is a self-willed robot from the technological world of Proton. Bane is an apprentice wizard from magical Phaze. When an accidental mind-switch plunges each into the other's world, they must survive the hazards of the Phaze-Proton power struggle, as well as the hazards of love. Reissue.