Tag: Thrillers (41-50 of 55)

Sep 14 2009 10:33 AM ET

Dan Brown speaks: The first interview about 'Da Vinci Code' sequel 'The Lost Symbol'

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Fans have held their breath for six years for Dan Brown’s follow-up to his blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code, which sold an astounding 80 million copies worldwide. The wait finally ends at midnight tonight when readers can finally get their hands on The Lost Symbol, which follows Harvard’s Robert Langdon as he become enmeshed in a mystery involving the history of the Freemasons in Washington, D.C. Why such a long wait? In a rare interview appearing in this week’s issue, Brown tells Entertainment Weekly that during his long absence from the public eye, he made himself a promise. “I will not write a lame follow-up. It could take me 20 years. But I will never turn in a book that I’m not happy with. Four years ago, I wasn’t happy with the book. Five years ago, I wasn’t happy with the book.” Finally, amidst a flurry of articles trumpeting the 45-year-old author as the white knight come to resuscitate a wheezing publishing industry, he felt ready to return. “And if the book weren’t good,” he says confidently, “I’d be terrified.”

Brown makes it clear he didn’t spent that last six years procrastinating. “I write seven days a week, starting at 4 o’clock in the morning, including Christmas,” he says. “I worked on this book at 4 in the morning in my hotel room while I was living in London and going to court. I’ve probably written 10 novels worth of pages to write The Lost Symbol.” The first review, from the New York Times, has already hit the Internet — and it’s a rave.

Brown, however, knows not all critics are in love with his work, something he learned the hard way. “The Da Vinci Code had the audacity to park at No. 1 for a little bit too long,” he says. “And it became very en vogue just to trash my books.”

Sep 13 2009 07:42 PM ET

First review of Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol'

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6a00d8341bf6c153ef011570de1436970c-800wiThe New York Times’ Janet Maslin has posted a glowing review of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, which goes on sale Tuesday. “Too many popular authors (Thomas Harris) have followed huge hits (The Silence of the Lambs) with terrible embarrassments (Hannibal),” writes Maslin. “Mr. Brown hasn’t done that. Instead, he’s bringing sexy back a genre that had been left for dead.” According to Maslin, the new book is replete with plot tricks and twists, codes, secrets, and explorations into ancient philosophies and the occult.

SPOILER ALERT! Maslin says that Brown’s hero, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, has been lured to Washington, D.C., to give a speech on behalf of his old mentor Peter Solomon at the Capitol—only to find Solomon’s severed hand atop the Capitol Crypt. The mystery/treasure hunt that ensues does, as has been rumored, prominently feature the Freemasons. Only they do not occupy the villain role that Opus Dei played in The Da Vinci Code. According to Maslin, the villain this time out is a sinister psycho named Mal’akh.

Observant types will remember that back in 2003 Maslin also had the first review of The Da Vinci Code — and it was a rave as well. “Not since the advent of Harry Potter has an author so flagrantly delighted in leading readers on a breathless chase and coaxing them through hoops,” she wrote. Brown later admitted that “people called and said, ‘Is Janet Maslin your mother, because she never says stuff like that?’”

Sep 9 2009 12:35 PM ET

James Patterson: Prolific author or brand manager?

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James-Patterson_lJames Patterson™, perennial mainstay of the best-seller lists, just renewed his deal with Hachette’s Little, Brown for his next 17 books. That’s right: his next 17 books. That commits the former advertising exec to the publisher until 2012, for 11 more adult books plus six books for younger readers. That’s actually a slackening of his current publishing pace. By year’s end, Patterson will have published a whopping 22 books in the last three years alone. (Many people I know haven’t read that many books in that time.)

But Patterson, of course, is more than just a proverbial book factory. He’s an actual book factory, typically using credited co-authors to compose “first drafts” from elaborate outlines that he sends (as he detailed in a 2006 Time profile). Like Patterson himself, most of his collaborators have a background in advertising: There’s Richard DiLallo on the Alex Cross thrillers, Michael Ledwidge on the Michael Bennett thrillers and the Daniel X young-adult series, Maxine Paetro on the Women’s Murder Club mysteries, and Howard Roughan on various standalone thrillers. And while there is no co-author listed on the cover of the popular Maximum Ride YA series, about a group of kids who are part bird and part human, the copyright on those books is listed not as “James Patterson” (as it is on most of his titles) but the cryptic “SueJack, Inc.”

It’s an impressive commercial operation. The question is, can James Patterson™ be considered a prolific author in the way we regard Joyce Carol Oates (nine books in the last three years, by my count) or Alexander McCall Smith (ten books in three years)? Or is he more like Carolyn Keene or Franklin W. Dixon, the credited “authors” of the comparably well-branded Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mystery series? Are you still a writer if you subcontract out much of the actual, you know, writing?

Sep 8 2009 04:24 PM ET

Anthony E. Zuiker brings reading to a new 'Level' with online video extras?

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Anthony E. Zuiker, a.k.a. the creator of CSI, has released a novel, Level 26. And as expected, the book follows a familiar hero: a crime scene tactician who must chase down a deadly enemy.

But Level is not quite your run-of-the-mill thriller. Zuiker, who wrote the book with Duane Swierczynski, opted to add a more interactive component to the book, allowing readers to log onto a website every five chapters to watch a “cyber bridge.” (In fact, Level is branded “the first digi-novel.”) So what exactly does that mean? In this case, Zuiker’s “cyber bridges” are short movies 2-3 minutes long, starring familiar faces like Bill Duke (Predator) and Kevin Weisman (Alias) that serve to enhance the plot for readers. (The films do not simply reenact the book’s scenes — instead, they attempt to give the reader additional, admittedly inessential information regarding the plot).

Fun or no (I’d vote “fun”), Zuiker’s experiment brings up a question: Is this kind of interactive reading the kick in the pants the publishing industry needs? With so many consumers trading in TV and the web for books, is this one way that publishers can reel their readers back in? Personally, though I think the concept is cool, I’m not sure how many readers would be willing to put down their books and hop over to their computer to watch a video.

But would you, Shelf Lifers? Do you like this concept, or do you prefer uninterrupted, old-fashioned reading?

Sep 1 2009 04:21 PM ET

'Today' invites viewers to channel their inner Robert Langdons

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6a00d8341bf6c153ef011570de1436970c-800wiThink you’ve solved the mystery of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol? (C’mon, you know you spent hours trying to decode that cover in July!) Well, prepare to become more confused (or vindicated): NBC’s Today is offering Robert Langdon fans the opportunity to garner more clues with the show’s build-up to the book’s Sept. 15 release.

For an entire week — starting Sept. 8 — the morning show will reveal exclusive information, via Matt Lauer, about pivotal locations featured in the novel. If you crack the clue, you can log onto Todayshow.com to enter your best guesses. (Answers will not be revealed until the day after Symbol‘s release, of course).

Since I’m not the most devout of Brown’s readers, I ask you, Shelf Lifers: Would determining the book’s key locations actually help you determine the plot of the book? Since Symbol apparently focuses on the Freemasons — and Doubleday already announced that much of the action takes place in Washington, D.C. — wouldn’t most of the locations be fairly obvious already? (I’m thinking Washington Monument, the Capitol building, etc.). True, landmarks always play a big role in Brown’s books, but since most of of Brown’s locations harbor secret, often fictionalized meanings previously unknown to us readers, wouldn’t it be meaningless to try to piece together the plot from the settings alone?

Am I totally Langdon ignorant or what? Fill me in, friends! And will you tune into Today, if only to see their interview with Brown Sept. 15?

Aug 31 2009 10:10 AM ET

Hollywood screenwriters keep pulp (short) fiction alive

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The short stories in places like The New Yorker can be lovely, evocative pieces — but they don’t usually involve an insanely jealous trapeze artist or a serial killer escaping from the back of an FBI agent’s sedan during an earthquake. That’s a pity. But pulpy, plot-driven tales about circus artists and killers (and killer circus artists) are the main offering at Popcorn Fiction, a month-old literary site where a bunch of Hollywood screenwriters are trying to revive a languishing genre, one story at a time. As with most anthologies, the stories are a mixed bag. But early highlights include “Lightning in a Bottle,” a variation on the old saw about a jazz musician (this time a drummer) who sells his soul to a mysterious stranger for the perfect jam, by Craig Mazin (a co-writer of Scary Movie 3 and 4), and “A Best Friend Named Rick,” about a newly sprung ex-con struggling to stay straight, by Nichelle D. Tramble (a story editor on the NBC drama Mercy).

The idea for Popcorn Fiction grew out of one screenwriter’s love for old-fashioned storytelling. “I had been listening to satellite radio and I started listening to these old great ’50s radio programs like X Minus One, The Shadow, and Have Gun Will Travel,” says site founder Derek Haas, an L.A.-based scribe whose credits (with writing partner Michael Brandt) include 2007′s 3:10 to Yuma and 2008′s Wanted. “And I thought, nobody writes these kinds of things anymore, or if they do, they’re not easy to find. So I started knocking the idea around with some screenwriting friends and said, ‘What if I started commissioning screenwriters to write short stories?’”

Haas, who’s collected stories mostly by word of mouth and says he is not (yet) seeking general submissions, posts a new tale on the site roughly once a week. This week’s new entry: “Hours,” set in a hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, by Eric Heiserer (2010′s A Nightmare on Elm Street reboot). In coming weeks, Haas promises a yarn by Emmy winner Leslie Bohem (Dante’s Peak, TV’s Taken), a “funny little vampire story” by actor-comedian Patton Oswalt (Big Fan), and a crime tale by Oscar winner Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Mystic River).

You might think that Haas and his screenwriting pals would use the site to fish for movie deals. You’d be right. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer just bought Haas’ own story “Shake,” an adrenaline-charged but implausibly over-the-top thriller about an FBI agent with Parkinson’s chasing a serial killer during an earthquake in L.A. (Check it out here.) Curiously for a website founder, though, Haas has no plans to profit from Popcorn Fiction: Authors maintain all copyrights to their material. “I’m trying to help writers push new ideas in such a tough spec market,” says Haas, whose second novel, Columbus — a sequel to his 2008 thriller, The Silver Bear — is due in bookstores this November. “Every day you read on Ain’t It Cool News or one of those sites that Hollywood has run out of ideas, that all they can do is take these old films or these old TV shows and make them into movies. And I’m like, Wait. There’s a way to get new ideas into the system.” Now the rest of us don’t need to wait for a studio greenlight to see some of these ideas come to life on the screen — our computer screens, anyway.

Aug 27 2009 03:58 PM ET

Ian Rankin's new graphic novel: Inspector Rebus, meet John Constantine

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Fans of Scottish thriller writer Ian Rankin’s bestselling Inspector Rebus series will be curious and happy, I think, with Rankin’s new foray into the graphic novel. He’s written a down-and-dirty look at reality TV in Dark Entries, published in hardcover by DC Comics’ Vertigo Crime imprint.

While Rebus doesn’t appear in Dark Entries, Rankin has tackled a similarly smart/cynical/wisecracking character here, one familiar to fans of the comic book Hellblazer: the dour, chain-smoking detective who dabbles in the occult, John Constantine. The clever plot involves Constantine hired by the producers of a hit reality show called Haunted Mansions because the set appears to be, well, haunted.

What results is a locked-room mystery that owes a little to Agatha Christie, black-and-white art by Werther Dell’Edera that is both comic-strip efficient and suitably noir. Rankin is that rare writer who can write lines like, “The mansion has been breached. Hell has broken in,” and not have them seem melodramatic, but, rather, tough-guy terse. That, plus the Scottish slang (“They can shove it up their jacksies”) makes Dark Entries a fun, frenetic read for the dark final days of summer.

Aug 26 2009 09:10 AM ET

Obama's vacation reading picks: How do they stack up?

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A confession: I just returned from a lovely two-week vacation, and I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t pick up one single book during my time off — not even while spending hours planted in a beach chair with nothing to look at but the Atlantic Ocean and elaborate gold jewelry of my fellow Jersey Shore vacationers. But since a good portion of my job entails burying myself in a book, I figured I deserved the break, right? Right? Well, I feel ever more ashamed of myself after discovering that President Obama packed five books in his suitcase for his Martha Vineyard vacay. And this is a man whose 9-5 involves, you know, trying to save the world and stuff.

But let’s look at his list to make sure our prez is being swayed in the right direction at his local Barnes & Noble. According to deputy press secretary Bill Burton, Obama brought along George Pelecanos’ 2009 novel The Way Home; Tom Friedman’s 2008 environmental manifesto Hot, Flat, and Crowded; Richard Price’s 2008 thriller Lush Life; Kent Haruf’s 1999 novel Plainsong; and David McCullough’s 2001 biography John Adams. I have to say, I’m impressed with Obama’s attention to fiction — presidents like George W. Bush tended to focus on nonfiction titles like James L. Swanson’s Manhunt and David Halberstam’s The Coldest Winter. Or so says Karl Rove, who last year wrote in the Wall Street Journal about his yearly reading contest with the then-president — Rove won every time.

Tell me, how does Obama’s vacation reading stack up against your own? Do you applaud his beach-reading choices, or should he have thrown in a Nicholas Sparks novel like seemingly everyone else on my beach?

Aug 21 2009 11:00 AM ET

'Blackest Night Superman': The Man of Steel as a zombie?

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This week’s smartest, grisliest mainstream comic book is the first issue of Blackest Night: Superman. It’s part of the Blackest Night miniseries I wrote about a few weeks ago centering around Green Lantern, but in the Superman edition, writer James Robinson has the Man of Steel, infected by this miniseries’ Black Lantern, turn into a kind of zombie-Superman, a bizarre (as opposed to Bizarro), back-from-the-dead-and-angry Superman who digs up the grave of his own father, among other very bad things. Even Krypto the Super-Dog gets hurt in this issue.

Really, these Blackest Night titles (last week’s Blackest Night: Batman was a good ‘un, too) combine the best elements of both superhero comics and horror comics, along with some fine storytelling by Robinson, Peter Tomasi, and the miniseries’ guiding force, Geoff Johns. You don’t have to be a hardcore, know-every-detail-of-the-mythology fan to hop on this train. Check them out.

Aug 11 2009 12:33 PM ET

Thomas Pynchon speaks! Author lends his voice to 'Inherent Vice' trailer

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41786526So it turns out that Thomas Pynchon really does sound like The Dude from The Big Lebowski. Tracy Locke of The Penguin Press confirms that the reclusive author narrates the trailer for his new book, Inherent Vice, which we wrote about on Shelf Life yesterday. Of course, Simpsons fans might have recognized the voice from Pynchon’s memorable guest appearance — with a paper bag over his head — in a 2004 episode of the long-running Fox series. (In fact, the Wall Street Journal went so far as to send the Simpsons clip and a Pynchon-voiced German TV spot to a Michigan-based sound engineer and voice identification expert to help prove it’s Pynchon on the trailer.)

Although the text of the trailer’s voiceover is not from Inherent Vice, Locke says that Pynchon composed it himself. The trailer seems to channel the voice of the book’s hero, a stoner private eye in ’70s L.A. named Doc Sportello. Now the real question is: Does Pynchon also look like The Dude?

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