LIM's 2014 Featured Authors --
Jamie Freveletti is a trial attorney, martial artist, and runner. She has crewed for an elite ultra-marathon runner at 50 mile, 100 mile, and twenty-four hour races across the country, and holds a black belt in aikido, a Japanese martial art. After law school she lived in Geneva, Switzerland while obtaining a diploma in International Studies. Back in Chicago, she represented clients in areas ranging from class actions for mass salmonella poisoning to securities fraud. Her debut thriller, Running from the Devil, was chosen as a "Notable Book" by the Independent Booksellers of America, awarded "Best First Novel" by the International Thriller Writers, awarded a Barry Award for "Best First Novel" by Deadly Pleasures Magazine, and nominated for a Macavity Award for" Best First Mystery" by the Mystery Readers International and "Favorite First Novel of 2009" by Crimespree Magazine. It has been translated into three languages and was an international bestseller.
Her second novel, Running Dark, released in June, 2010, hit both the Chicagoland and South Florida bestseller lists and the third novel in her series, The Ninth Day released in September, 2011 and was chosen as one of the "Best Thrillers of 2011" by Suspense Magazine.
In January, 2011, she was tapped by the Estate of Robert Ludlum to write the next in the Covert One series. That novel,Robert Ludlum's The Janus Reprisal, released on September 11, 2012. The fourth in her series, Dead Asleep released on October 30, 2012 and hit #1 on Amazon's kindle bestseller list. She lives in Chicago with her family.
New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Heather Graham majored in theater arts at the University of South Florida. After a stint of several years in dinner theater, back-up vocals, and bartending, she stayed home after the birth of her third child and began to write, working on short horror stories and romances. After some trial and error, she sold her first book, WHEN NEXT WE LOVE, in 1982 and since then, has written over one 100 novels and novellas including category, romantic suspense, historical romance, vampire fiction, time travel, occult, and Christmas holiday fare. She wrote the launch books for the Dell's Ecstasy Supreme line, Silhouette's Shadows, and for Harlequin's mainstream fiction imprint, Mira Books.
Heather was a founding member of the Florida Romance Writers chapter of RWA and, since 1999, has hosted the Romantic Times Vampire Ball, with all revenues going directly to children's charity. She has been published in approximately 20 languages, and honored with awards from Waldenbooks. B. Dalton, Georgia Romance Writers, Affaire de Coeur, Romantic Times, and more.
Married since high school graduation and the mother of five, her greatest love in life remains her family, and also believes her career has been an incredible gift, and she is grateful every day to be doing something that she loves so very much for a living.
Peter Kornbluh
directs the Cuba Documentation Project and the ChileDocumentation Project at the National Security Archive, a public interest research center located at GeorgeWashington University (Washington, DC). He is co-author of The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History (New Press), author of The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability (New Press) and co-author of a forthcoming book on the untold history of dialogue between the United States and Cuba.
Ten years in advertising and marketing gave Markus Sakey the perfect experience to write about thieves and killers. 
To research his books, he's shadowed homicide detectives, toured the morgue, gone shooting with Special Forces soldiers, ridden with gang cops, and learned to pick a deadbolt. His novels have earned wide critical acclaim, been chosen for numerous Year's Best lists, and sold to Hollywood.
He is writer and host of HIDDEN CITY, on Travel Channel (Tuesday nights at 10 ET / 9 CT) in which each episode he visits a different place and looks at the stories that shape it. Along the way he gets pepper sprayed, attacked by a dog, trains with SWAT, dives for treasure, lands a plane, and meets all kinds of truly fascinating people. The show runs .
He and his wife g.g. live in Chicago, with their "unbelievably beautiful genius daughter." Markus says he can't talk about his life without talking about stories -- "The people that created them are the people that created me."
Local Featured Author Shane Gericke
Shane got his first typewriter at age 7 and has been writing ever since. He spent 25 years as a newspaper editor and reporter, cherishing that noble profession, before leaving his guaranteed paycheck and starting to write thriller novels.
The first was Blown Away, published by Kensington Books in New York. It became a No. 1 bestselling Kindle e-book, a national print bestseller for Barnes and Noble, and Reviewers' Choice for Best First Mystery by RT Book Reviews. It was followed by Cut to the Bone, and then by his latest, Torn Apart, which was shortlisted for the Thriller Award for Best Novel and named a Best Book of the Year by Suspense Magazine.
More satisfying than awards for Shane is the process of writing his books. "They made my heart pound in my ears as I raced through every chapter, and I might even admit to crying when the emotions of a scene got the better of me."
Shane lives in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, with his wife of three decades, Jerrle, who enthusiastically supports his madcap adventures in Thrillerland.