THE STAND by Stephen King I first read The Stand in junior high, after it was re-released in its extended, uncut form. This book is like a master class in creating interesting characters, and experiencing a story through their various points of view. If we say a...
ECHOES IN THE DARKNESS by Joseph Wambaugh. This story of a looking-for-love schoolteacher who falls for a co-worker with the gift of gab and little else was one of my first introductions to what true crime could be: fascinating, twisty, sad, tedious, sometime...
It was only after I finished writing WATCHING YOU that I thought about what might have inspired the story. I don’t plot my psychological thrillers in advance, so I didn’t know what was going to happen when I created the character of Marnie Logan. The hook was...
1. The iStun: In Once a Spy, which I wrote in 2008, a spy uses a million-volt stun gun that's disguised as an iPhone. When the book was published in 2010, readers thought the device stretched credulity. Today not only are such devices available online for $35, they...
UNFORGIVEN I love this film for a number of reasons. Mostly it showed us the consequences of killing someone and the cast was just amazing on every level. THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES This is the one that was my “JONAH HEX” movie for real. When I was younger I liked the...
Watch: LONESTAR– My first crooked cop crush was on Matthew McConaughey’s Buddy Deeds from John Sayles’ 1996 flick about the discovery of a shallow grave outside a small border town in Texas. The moral complexities of the character were a revelation to me. Yes he...
