Today’s guest author is receiving rave reviews for his novel!!! So when Alissa, from Meryl L. Moss Media, emailed me, I jumped at the chance for him to stop by and visit. So without further ado, Mr. Mark Rubinstein!!!
MARK RUBINSTEIN
MARK RUBINSTEIN grew up in Brooklyn, New York, near Sheepshead Bay. After earning a degree in Business Administration at NYU, he served in the U.S. Army as a field medic tending to paratroopers of the Eighty-Second Airborne Division. After his discharge, he went to medical school, became a physician, and then a psychiatrist. As a forensic psychiatrist, he was an expert witness in many trials. As an attending psychiatrist at New York Presbyterian Hospital and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Cornell, he taught psychiatric residents, psychologists, and social workers while practicing psychiatry. Before turning to fiction, he coauthored five books on psychological and medical topics. He lives in Connecticut with as many dogs as his wife will allow in the house. He still practices psychiatry and is busily working on other novels. To learn more, please visit www.markrubinstein-author.com.
GUEST POST
Why Crime?
I’m often asked why I write crime-thriller novels. Sometimes, I think the answer is easy: I love to read them, so I write them, too.
But why crime more than any other genre? You can tap the range of human emotions and experiences in virtually any genre, so what about crime novels is so attractive?
I suppose part of the answer is that I find events that could actually happen to people like you and me the most frightening of all. The chance that you’ll encounter a ghost, be transported to another planet, or have a paranormal or sci-fi experience is pretty remote. Often, the story is pure fantasy, and the situations aren’t possible. But you could very well be the victim of some thug’s violent intentions or end up as the target of extortion or threats, or you could unwittingly run afoul of some criminal enterprise.
In other words, the situations in crime novels take on the prospect of possibility, which makes the stories ever-more frightening. These events could actually occur.
But more than fear drives these novels. Greed, lust, revenge, cowardice, nobility—these attributes run rampant in crime novels. And the narrative is all vicarious, so the tension, anxiety, and outright fear are felt by someone else, not by you. You can live through a character’s experiences. This aspect makes the story tolerable—even enjoyable. You can pull back anytime you want.
Even more striking (and this quality is not limited to crime fiction) is that many characters in crime novels are larger than life. If they’re well developed by the author, they draw the reader inexorably into their spheres.
Think of Vito Corleone in The Godfather or Harry Bosch in the books by Michael Connelly. Imagine Ben and Chon in Don Winslow’s fabulous novel Savages or Eddie Coyle in George V. Higgins’s classic crime novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle (made into a movie, starring Robert Mitchum). Or think about characters in novels like Get Shorty, by Elmore Leonard, or Mystic River, by Dennis Lehane. The characters live and breathe on the page, and you can’t help but love some and hate others. You end up worrying about and rooting for some, while you loathe and want to see the demise of others.
Maybe enjoying crime novels all boils down to basics—the old good-versus-evil dichotomy of human existence. Maybe it’s more complicated than that. I’m not really sure. I just love a good crime thriller.
Mark Rubinstein
Author, Mad Dog House
ABOUT THE BOOK
Thirty years after escaping his hell on earth—a harrowing childhood in SheepsheadBay, Brooklyn—Roddy Dolan is grateful to be living the life of his dreams. He has a successful, fulfilling career as a surgeon, a beautiful family, and a lovely home in Westchester County, New York. His past is now just a bad dream.
When he was young and living in Brooklyn, Roddy had an explosive temper and shady friends, which nearly landed him in prison at 17. If it weren’t for a compassionate judge and the Army, Roddy might have ended up going nowhere. But that’s the past, gone for good. Today, at age 45, Roddy is a different man—worthy of the respect he has earned. He is in control of his destiny and rage is no longer part of his life. Or, so Roddy thinks…until a character from his past turns up and re-evokes his long-buried “Mad Dog” alter ego.
A gripping, harrowing, and provocative psychological thriller, MAD DOG HOUSE (Thunder Lake Press; October 23, 2012, 12.99, 978-0-9856268-4-6), revolves around three men—Roddy “Mad Dog” Dolan; his best friend, Danny Burns; and Kenny “Snake Eyes” Egan—who grew up in hell together and never thought their pasts would come back to haunt them. Throughout the novel, Mark Rubinstein provokes people to think about the haunting power of the past and the demons lurking inside their loved ones…and perhaps themselves.
THANKS TO ALISSA AT MERYL L. MOSS MEDIA,
I HAVE TWO (2) BOOKS TO GIVEAWAY
OPEN TO U.S. AND CANADA RESIDENTS
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I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,
in exchange for my honest review.
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family and/or friends.
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