Panic Attack (Daniel Rinaldi Thrillers, 6)

A shooter takes deadly aim, and throws a city into panic

Psychologist Daniel Rinaldi is no stranger to trauma. A survivor of not one, but two attempts on his life by a deranged killer, the therapist also counsels trauma patients in his private practice, and contracts with the Pittsburgh Police to help victims of violent crime cope with their experience. When a sports mascot is gunned down mid-field by a sniper at a college football game he attends, Rinaldi becomes an accidental yet integral part of the investigation. To begin with, the victim in the costume is not the person who was supposed to be wearing it.

When the actual "Teasdale Tiger" hears the news, he suffers a crippling panic attack and calls on Rinaldi to talk him through it. From there, Rinaldi seems to be in all the wrong places at all the wrong times, as the sniper continues his killing spree. Meeting with resistance from members of the Pittsburgh Police force and taking dangerous risks in pursuit of the killer, Rinaldi puts his career and his life in harm's way as he races to find a connection between the victims before the shooter strikes again.

Dennis Palumbo, M.A., MFT is a writer and licensed psychotherapist in private practice, specializing in creative issues, primarily in the entertainment industry. His award-winning series of mystery thrillers―Mirror Image, Fever Dream, Night Terrors, Phantom Limb, Head Wounds and the latest, Panic Attack―feature psychologist and trauma expert Daniel Rinaldi.

He’s also the author of Writing From the Inside Out, as well as a collection of mystery short stories, From Crime to Crime.

Recently he served as Consulting Producer on the Hulu limited series The Patient.

Formerly a Hollywood screenwriter, Palumbo’s credits include the feature film My Favorite Year, for which he was nominated for a WGA Award for Best Screenplay. He was also a staff writer for the ABC-TV series Welcome Back, Kotter, and has written numerous series episodes and pilots.

His first novel, City Wars is currently in development as a TV/film, and his short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, The Strand, Mystery Weekly, Black Cat Magazine and elsewhere. He provides articles and reviews for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Lancet, Capital Psychiatry and many others.

His column, “The Writer’s Life,” appeared monthly for six years in Written By, the magazine of the Writers Guild of America. He’s also done commentary for NPR’s “All Things Considered” and regularly blogged for Psychology Today.

Dennis conducts workshops throughout the country. Recent appearances include the Family Therapy Network Annual Symposium, the Association for Humanistic Psychology, Cal State Northridge, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, PEN West, the Writers Guild Foundation, the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, Screenwriting Expo, USC, the Romance Writers of America, the Nieman Foundation, the Directors Guild, and UCLA.

His work helping writers has been profiled in The New York Times, Premiere Magazine, Fade In, Angeleno, GQ, The Los Angeles Times and other publications, as well as on NPR and CNN.

A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Pepperdine University, he served on the faculty of UCLA Extension, where he was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year.