Prime Crime

MIAMI BOOK FAIR - this weekend, Nov 14, 15 - Walt Disney World 18, 19

2008-11-10T04:15:00.006-06:00

MIAMI BOOK FAIR

Dave Barry and I will be speaking about Science Fair on Saturday morning.

I'll be with Scott Turow taking questions mid-day

The Rockbottom Remainders (full band, all but Stephen King) will celebrate the Fair's 25 Anniversary with a special show in a new location (and food!)

Hope to see you somewhere along the way..

WALT DISNEY WORLD:

TUESDAY NOV 18th: Dave Barry and I will do a signing -- check the web site for details
WEDNESDAY NOV 19th: I will be signing KINGDOM KEEPERS 3 (twice) in the Animal Kingdom -- check the web site for details

Ridley

Dave (Barry) and I get serious on book tour

2008-10-22T10:00:00.001-05:00

Our Mentos experiment goes live at Books Inc. Alameda, CA

Getting serious about Sciene Fair

2008-10-14T06:40:00.003-05:00

Dave Barry and I will be on Good Morning America, Friday, Oct 17.
A preview of our serious attire as modeled by Dave.

SCIENCE FAIR

2008-10-10T16:28:00.001-05:00

Dave Barry and I head out on book tour Tuesday, Oct 14 for what promises to be a experiment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3Cl7OeE3Zs

Boldt's Broken Angel

2008-08-31T18:31:00.002-05:00

I've just completed Boldt's Broken Angel, a (long) short story for the International Thriller Writers anthology that will be published in the spring of 09. It's a "novella" of sorts -- a full Boldt novel condensed to short length -- for all those who've been asking for a new Boldt story. I'm also in discussions with my publisher to continue the Boldt series while not letting up on Walt Femling and the Sun Valley books. More to come on the ITW anthology as I'm informed.

If you want to read someting funny, go to www.MiamiHerald.com and under "columnists" read what Dave Barry has to say about the political conventions.

Dave and I will be touring for Science Fair next month (October) across the country.
Ridley

Next Time You're Lost

2008-08-26T01:24:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I'm on a backroad and I completely loose track of north/south. I strain to find the sun out the window.
Now, along comes another option.

Killer View napkin....

2008-07-18T14:17:00.003-05:00

My friends at Ingram found a new use for my novel: a napkin....
thanks a LOT, Alethea!!!

we had a fun lunch.

Book Tour

2008-07-17T08:11:00.001-05:00

Out on book tour for Killer View -- off to Houston in a minute, always a favorite stop.

I'll be blogging regularly on shanghai-family.blogspot.com for those interested in what moving to China with your family is like!

Hope to see you out on tour.
Ridley

Killer View

2008-07-12T10:05:00.003-05:00

I leave on book tour Monday morning for Killer View. First stop, St. Louis. Here's an early review.
Preparations continue for China... as the clock ticks down.
I hope to see you while out on tour.
If you want personalized or autographed books, contact The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale which is near the end of my tour.
This Monday, July 14th, I will be hosting a week long chat on Barnes and Noble. I hope you'll join me.
Enjoy the KILLER VIEW.
Ridley

Bo-Ridley

2008-06-05T07:35:00.003-05:00

Bo Diddley died two days ago, and I thought I'd share a story.

When I was nineteen...

... and a fledgling folk rock musician (I'm driving our band's 66 passenger converted bus here), my duo partner, Otis Read, and I were flying to perform and were laid over in Chicago's O'Hare airport awaiting flight. This is 1971 or 2. It was a long layover, and "Oat" and I passed the time by pulling out our acoustic guitars and playing a number of songs. After a half hour or so a guy came over and said he liked what we were doing, and asked to play harmonica with us. Now, in the music world, when someone asks to play harmonica with you, it makes you cringe because usually the player is not terribly good -- don't ask me why, but it's just the way it is.

But this guy was good, and he set into an infectious rhythm that carried into what we were playing, and pretty soon we were jamming and connecting, and the other passengers, instead of looking like "when will these guys shut up" were actually interested and started moving closer.

The guy was Bo Diddley.
He got a kick out of the fact that my name was Ridley. (Stephen King, in the Rockbottom Remainders, calls me Bo-Ridley.) We played for about a half hour together, and to use an over-used word, it was "magical." The man's heart must have beat to that rhythm that came to own every song he wrote -- it just flowed out of him.

When we packed up and boarded our flight, and shook hands all around, I was in awe, as was Otis, and I knew it was day I would never forget. And I never have.

So, here's to Bo-Diddley: Keep jamming.

Bo-Ridley

BLOG IS OPEN

2008-05-27T10:09:00.001-05:00

We've removed the requirement to register in order to post on Prime Crime.

You may be asked to match a "word box" in order for us to limit spam.

Please comment as often as you like.
Ridley

Shanghaied

2008-05-27T09:06:00.002-05:00

For those interested, I'm starting a blog about my attempts to move to China for a year.

http://shanghai-family.blogspot.com

I will be on tour for Killer View in July (15-23). Then it's off to write and lecture in the Red Dragon.

Ridley

Begat, Began, Begun - the genesis of Steel Trapp

2008-04-11T17:36:00.001-05:00

JB wants me to explain the genesis of my new YA thriller, Steel Trapp, so here goes:

I originally wrote a sequel to Cut and Run, my thriller featuring a Justice Department agent, Roland Larson. The sequel was a pursuit thriller involving a young boy with a photographic memory, who discovers a briefcase on an overnight train -- a discovery that led him in a mountain of trouble. After finishing a 700 page manuscript, I moved from Hyperion to Putnam and my new publisher, whom I was thrilled to be with, did not want to continue "older" series characters, but start a new series. That resulted in Killer Weekend (2007) and the upcoming Killer View (July 2008) but left "the train book" on a shelf.

My assistant at the time, Louise Marsh, read the train book and promptly told me it would make a good YA thriller, because she loved the character of the young boy with the photographic memory. I didn't want to hear this, of course, because I'd already written that book as an adult book. But the thought had been spoken and it wouldn't go away. About six months later I approached my agent, Amy Berkhower, and later my editor at Disney, Wendy Lefkon, with the notion of recrafting the train novel as a YA novel. The next three edits brought the young boy to the front and cut 300 pages out of the original, and Steel Trapp was the result.
I see it as a PG version of my typically R thriller novels. But it is certainly not dumbed-down; no punches were held. It is a very fast, tightly plotted thriller that I hope adults will enjoy as much as younger readers.

But that's the story... and now you know.

Ridley

Steel Trapp Tour

2008-03-06T06:24:00.001-06:00

The book tour for my new Young Adult crime thriller, Steel Trapp is now on-line.
Some of the dates may change. Hope to see you at one of these stores.
Ridley

Host by Stephenie Meyer (Hardcover: May publication)

2008-02-28T09:56:00.001-06:00

Stephenie Meyer
HOST

The author of the best selling Twilight series, Meyer, turns her pen to science fiction in what turns out to be a work that will haunt the reader well beyond the final page. I say “turns out to be” because the first fifty pages had my head spinning. The reader is expected to know much more about the story than is possible, and is left filling in blanks that take many pages to finally be explained.

The premise is that there are creatures--souls--being attached to humans, and taking them over. Lock, stock, and barrel: emotions, actions, life. The human body is nothing but a host, hence the title.

It turns out to be more complicated than that. Surprise. Most hosts readily give in to the implant surgery (a slice in the back of the neck), but not everyone. The earth is now populated by the transplanted souls, yet a few brave rebel humans remain (hiding in caves in Arizona).

There are some silly missteps: the names of other planets, the flowery dialogue between existing souls. The conceit of the book can be difficult to understand, especially early on.

But Host is rich, vivid, intricate, and yet simple. On many levels it’s a master work. It is Stephenie Meyer, after all. But you may wish your arm chair or mattress came with a seatbelt. It’s a jarring, dark world we are led into -- quite literally. One where it’s often difficult to know whom to root for, and ultimately whom to love or hate. But love and hate are the focus of the story--it is ultimately about emotions and what makes up the human experience. That’s life--and after all, life is what Meyer evokes so well.

Another Stupid Crime

2008-02-28T09:52:00.000-06:00

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/02/28/biker.meeting/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

How stupid can you get?

It Take a Village... or SOMETHING...

2008-02-26T15:55:00.000-06:00

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2257905520080222

Keep an eye on your schoolyard.

No Country For This Guy

2008-02-23T17:00:00.001-06:00

No Country For Old Men

In a stone-faced, yet somehow nuanced performance, Javier Bardem, delivers the goods both to the viewer and anyone unlucky enough to get in his way. No Country For Old Men follows Anton Chigurh (Bardem) as he attempts to reconnect himself with two million dollars in cash, gone missing when a drug deal goes south. South, as in West Texas, which may explain how Tommy Lee Jones was called upon to play the sheriff. This might be Jones’ best performance--it certainly beats Men In Black. The film is unsettling and often hard to watch because of the extreme violence perpetrated in nearly every scene. The body count is high, and only worthwhile tolerating if you have a morbid fascination with a murderous psychopath on an endless blood spree. Some have called this brilliant film making--and if you ignore the repetitive plot and questionable character motivations, judging it solely on its razor-sharp dialogue and brilliant performances, then perhaps it is. But a date movie, it ain’t. No Country For Old Men is better left for film school.

Everyone needs one

2008-02-12T15:23:00.001-06:00

We've decided to do battle with St. Louis water.
UPS just delivered it, and it's about six feet tall.

Old?

2008-02-12T15:13:00.000-06:00

My 93 year old aunt broke her hip yesterday, which will briefly keep her from her weekly horseback riding... This, while a friend prepared for a colonoscopy, and I headed to the lawyer's office to update my will.
When did I become this old?

Writers Strike

2008-02-11T07:12:00.000-06:00

With the writers' strike ending, hopefully we'll see more film action on some of my adult titles. There are several books that have been awaiting submission. What are your favorite movies lately?
Ridley

PBS, BBC and Jane Austen

2008-01-29T16:28:00.001-06:00

Masterpiece: (PBS) The Complete Jane Austen

It was hard for me to imagine a production company tackling the Jane Austen opus again. Hasn’t every one of her stories been shot several times over the past few decades? And aren’t they all rather magnificent? Kira Knightley sealed it by turning in a winning performance in the quite recent Pride and Prejudice. So what was BBC thinking trying to redo the redux?

The answer may be high-def. All the new films are shot in high definition, meaning they will find a home on television for years and years to come. Older TV films do not, and will not look good in high def. But that’s hardly a reason to take on such a project. After all, millions of dollars were at stake, and most if not all of these these stories has been screen multiple times.

The answer seems to be continuity of excellence. Starting with brilliant writers who have adapted Poirot and Sherlock Holmes and dozens of other master works, these new productions stand on the shoulders of the old and reach new heights. The direction and performances, the production values and cinematography are dazzling. The scripts are concise (90 minutes) and the abbreviation has not hindered but helped the story telling. In Persuasion I found myself holding my breath and reeling from the tension--only to realize every ounce of that tension was wrung from a love story. Not one frame of action ever reached the screen.

Me, a thriller guy, riveted. And all by careful characterization.

Now that’s good writing.

Switch over to PBS next Sunday. You won’t be disappointed.

The Bucket List

2008-01-27T19:54:00.000-06:00

I slept through many of the scenes in The Bucket List, a new film starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, which I hope owed more to a bad case of jet lag than editorial comment. The problem with the film is three-fold: sadly, the three dramatic acts. Act 1 is the set-up, and in this case it’s mostly medical. We see who these men were, and who they are now that they’re diagnosed with cancer. There are a couple good lines, but the producers chose to put them in the trailer, so you’ve heard them approximately six hundred times prior to their delivery in the film, and so they fall flat. And that pretty much sums up the film: it falls flat. The second act is a travelogue. The third act is the predictable physical decline of one of the characters and how lives change when we die. No tears from me. Though my wife managed a few. (But she cries at Kodak ads.)

What saves the film, or did for me, are the two performances. Because I will go to any Morgan Freeman or Jack Nicholson film, and I’m not alone: the box office on this film is good. Jack is Jack, and his facial expressions never get old. He’s a master. He makes some pretty standard lines shine. And Morgan Freeman is the answer to that line: Of those still living, with whom would you most like to have dinner? For me, it’s not some Victoria Secret model, or Tom Brady. Maybe I’m getting old. But instead, it might be Steve Jobs or yes, Morgan Freeman. Okay... Nicole Kidman and Scarlet Johansson would make the list. There. Some honesty.

The Bucket List is not great film making, nor is it even fairly good writing. But it’s Jack and Morgan, and so, easily worth the ninety minutes, as long as you leave time for a few naps.

FILM - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

2008-01-27T16:16:00.001-06:00

I tried to picture the Hollywood “pitch” for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (not that there was one, this being a foreign film). “I want to make a movie about a book that’s a memoir of a guy who had a stroke and could only move his left eyelid. Think ‘My Left Foot,’ but it’s ‘My Left Eye.’”

How this film (yes: film, not movie) got funded is anybody’s guess, but we’re all the better for it. In some of the most haunting, surreal, and life-changing camera work and direction ever to hit the big screen, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly takes the viewer inside the thought of a stroke victim. It is tragically amusing. The viewer is almost ashamed to watch, the voyeurism is so profoundly upsetting. The performances are quiet and subdued; it’s really the writer and director who are performing, but the result is a powerful, sometimes magical, often whimsical, tragedy that has Oscar(R) winner written all over it.

27 Jan 2008

HARD TO BELIEVE

2008-01-09T11:19:00.001-06:00

Cops: Pair wheels corpse to store to cash check
Pair wheels dead man to store to cash his Social Security check, police say
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - Two men wheeled a dead man through the streets in an office chair to a check-cashing store Tuesday and tried to cash his Social Security check before being arrested on fraud charges, police said.

David J. Dalaia and James O'Hare pushed Virgilio Cintron's body from the Manhattan apartment that O'Hare and Cintron shared to Pay-O-Matic, about a block away, spokesman Paul Browne said witnesses told police.

"The witnesses saw the two pushing the chair with Cintron flopping from side to side and the two individuals propping him up and keeping him from flopping from side to side," Browne said.

The men left Cintron's body outside the store, went inside and tried to cash his $355 check, Browne said. The store's clerk, who knew Cintron, asked the men where he was, and O'Hare told the clerk they would go and get him, Browne said.

A police detective who was having lunch at a restaurant next to the check-cashing store noticed a crowd forming around Cintron's body, and "it's immediately apparent to him that Cintron is dead," Browne said.

The detective called uniformed New York Police Department officers at a nearby precinct. Emergency medical technicians arrived as O'Hare and Dalaia were preparing to wheel Cintron's body into the check-cashing store, Browne said. Police arrested Dalaia and O'Hare there, he said.

Cintron's body was taken to a hospital morgue. The medical examiner's office told police it appeared Cintron, 66, had died of natural causes within the previous 24 hours, Browne said.

"He was deceased in the apartment when he was removed by these two," Browne said.

Dalaia and O'Hare, both 65, were being held by police and faced check fraud charges, Browne said.

A call to a telephone number listed for Cintron at the apartment he shared with O'Hare went unanswered Tuesday evening. Police said they didn't have an address for Dalaia or attorney information for him or O'Hare.