Author Spotlight - Nike Chillemi shares her favorite authors

I have a lot of favorite authors. As pretty much everyone knows, I read crime fiction. I wasn't aware of too much in the crime fiction department in Christian fiction for a good long while. I guess it took me awhile to catch up to where some Christian authors were going in terms of grittiness. So, I pretty much read secular authors.

For two to three years, every time I ventured into reading what I was assured was a seat-of-the-pants Christian suspense; it turned out to be the same-old, same-old romantic suspense story with many implausible elements and the police procedure really off the mark.

During that time I read everything I could get my hands on by Michael Connelly, the former crime beat reporter for the LA Times. He writes the infamous Harry Bosch homicide detective series. Connelly has got another intriguing character, Mickey Haller. THE LINCOLN LAWYER, one of the Haller books, was recently made into a movie that did very well in reviews and at the box office. In the beginning years of my writing, Connelly influenced my writing more than any other writer in terms of what cop culture really is. He gets his police and court procedure really right.


Then I discovered Robert Liparulo, and began to see how faith issues could be interwoven into the inner turmoil a character was experiencing. I went totally berserk over Liparulo for about a year. Every time I opened my mouth it was Liparulo, Liparulo.


Now if anyone thinks my writing is going to be anything like Connelly's or Liparulo's, they're going to be sadly disappointed. Hey, first of all, hey, I'm female. Like most ladies, I like a goodly dose of romance in the story. I've been told that my break out novel BURNING HEARTS has suspense, action, and romance in equal measure with a bit of humor thrown into the mix.

Other Christian market favorites are J. Mark Bertrand, Steven James, Sibella Giorello, James Scott Bell. My other general market favorites are Robert Crais, Barbara Parker, J.A. Jance.