President fails to ‘connect the dots’ but this crime thriller doesn’t

Salem author Denise Robbins didn’t know the title of her latest release would become today’s headlines, but she’s pleased at the media attention being paid to her crime thriller “Connect the Dots.”

A failed Christmas Day attack on a Detroit-bound Northwest flight led President Obama to proclaim his administration had failed to “connect the dots,” a phrase that has since taken on a life of its own. In a Google search for the words “terror” and “connect the dots,” there are no less than 192,000 returns.

“I received an email from a reader who had just bought my book, and she said she wouldn’t want to have a book title with a phrase being quoted by the president every two minutes,” Robbins said. “I look at it differently. My books are crime thrillers with terror as a main part of the plot. The title and the book fit perfectly with the news event.”

Robbins knows a thing or two about fright and making readers’ hearts pound. A software engineering manager, she successfully combines her knowledge of computers and technology with the world of crime and clandestine activities in all of her novels. Her last release, Killer Bunny Hill, gave readers a glimpse into the breakthrough science of nanotechnology, while Connect the Dots delves into the secret world of the CIA.

Torture, secret prisons, and ghost flights are just a few of the other current-event themes touched upon in Connect the Dots, which was released on Dec. 15.

The hero in Connect the Dots is a special agent, and the heroine is a CIA Human Intelligence Officer who is kidnapped and ends up in a “black site.” Black sites, or secret prisons run by the CIA, made headlines a few years ago when stories about their existence were published by national media. Robbins also effectively intertwines real events like the 2008 Russia-Georgia War into the plot, giving readers a glimpse into behind-the-scenes international activities.

Readers can learn more about Denise Robbins and her crime thrillers at her website www.deniserobbins.com. All her books can be purchased through the publisher at www.lldreamspell.com.