Newsroom – California State University, Northridge

Director of CSUN’s Klotz Student Health Center Publishes Mystery Novel

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Jun. 22nd, 2011) ―

Linda Reid Chassiakos is a medical doctor, director of the Klotz Student Health Center at Cal State Northridge, medical manager, and author of several professional articles and features in major newspapers and magazines such as the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times.

Reid Chassiakos has added another item to her résumé–mystery writer, under the name Linda Reid.

Her book, “Devil Wind,” follows the adventures of Sammy Greene, a radio talk show host and investigative reporter, as she attempts to stymie the efforts of a rogue CIA operative trying to take advantage of the hysteria surrounding the approach of Y2K.

“Living in Los Angeles right before Y2K seemed a perfect backdrop for a story that also deals with how fear can be used to manipulate,” said Reid Chassiakos, who co-wrote the book with Dr. Deborah Shlian, a physician, healthcare consultant and author of nonfiction and fiction, who she worked with at UCLA.

“The earthshaking events at the turn of the millennium were critical in shaping our future as a country,” Reid Chassiakos said. “We wanted to focus on the political upheavals as we transitioned from the complacent dot-com world of the ’90s into the era of terror in the ’00s, through a ‘what if scenario,’ i.e. ‘what if a rogue CIA operative decided to take advantage of the fears of an impending apocalypse to stage a ‘terrorist attack?’”

“Devil Wind” is the second novel featuring Sammy Greene. Greene debuted in Reid and Shlian’s first novel, “Dead Air,” winner of the 2010 Royal Palm Literary Award for Best Suspense/Thriller.

“Sammy Greene, the feisty, Brooklyn dynamo, her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Dr. Reed Wyndham, and ex-police chief Gus Pappajohn were welcoming us from the page and eager to share another thrilling adventure in the story of their lives with Deborah and me,” Reid Chassiakos said. “We have already plotted and are busy spending weekends writing Sammy’s third and fourth adventures—in Florida and in Greece.”

Reid Chassiakos said “writing a first novel was exciting because it’s an open door that leads writers to a world of infinite possibilities. Our second novel was rewarding, because it felt like returning home to visit with beloved family and friends.”

Reid Chassiakos practiced medicine in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, and has worked extensively in television and radio in Washington and Hollywood. After her stints as a radio announcer, the “Doc Around the Rock,” Reid Chassiakos served as a medical correspondent for Eyewitness News at the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., for CNN, Lorimar-Telepictures and Lifetime Medical Television. She was the co-host of the NBC-TV series, “Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll,” and a staff writer for the TV series, “Family Medical Center.”

She brought those experiences to bear to capture the gritty realism in her books.

“Deborah and I certainly included experiences from our exciting medical lives in our L.A. Medical Center hospital scenes,” she said. “And, Sammy’s radio show was inspired by my own work in broadcasting.”

In addition to co-authoring the Sammy Greene thrillers, Reid Chassiakos is the co-editor of the book, “Collaborations Across the Disciplines in Health Care,” and the author (as YS Pascal) of the sci-fi/fantasy books “Where Angels Fear to Tread/Renegade Paladins,” winner of a 2010 Mensa Sharp Writ Books Award, and the recently released, “Abyssal Redemption.”

 

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