Peter Blauner

Page Updated: 02/12/99

Peter Blauner

Man of the Hour

The Intruder

About the Author (Photo by Jerry Bauer)

Bibliography

First British Edition 4th Estate (1999)

Paperback - 4th Estate (1999)

Man of the Hour
When David Fitzgerald, a teacher in a Brooklyn high school, saves a student from a terrorist bomb, he becomes the emblematic modern hero - the President talks about him, TV talk shows fight over him and camera crews dog his every step.
But when the police reveal that he is a suspect in the bombing, everything turns upside down. His media appearances are made to look sinister. His livelihood is taken away. Even his right to see his own son is threatened. Transformed from hero to pariah, he has to put his life on the line - and find the real bomber before he strikes again.
Man of the Hour is a climactic thriller, an eye-opener into multi-racial society in America and the problems brought about when diverse cultural and religious backgrounds are thrown together. No one better than Blauner captures the threat of horror and anxiety confronting ordinary men living in the midst of urban violence today.
Blauner spent two years around New York's public school system, travelling to the Middle East and meeting with associates of the terrorists who blew up the World Trade Centre. Interestingly, he found some of the terrorists easier to talk to than schoolteachers.
'A stunning tale of media excess, sudden fame and the true meanings of heroism... A page turner that moves with the efficiency of a clock on a stick of dynamite.' Michael Connelly
'Both exciting and intelligent… a compelling book about terrorism experienced at ground level.' Scott Turow
'Peter Blauner is not only a gifted suspense novelist, but a writer who combines topicality, realism and atmosphere into a compelling reading experience. I highly recommend Man of the Hour.' Richard North Patterson
'A page-turning thriller of the first order.’ Jeffery Deaver
'A remarkable achievement. I loved it, couldn't put it down.’ Stephen King

Paperback - 4th Estate (1997)

The Intruder
As the government tries to map out a workable stalking law, and the unstable dispossessed are held up as prime suspects in difficult crimes (the murder of Caroline Dickinson in Brittany for example), Peter Blauner's thriller strikes at the very heart of current middle-class angst. The setting for The Intruder is Manhattan - the comfortable, respectable upper west side (and the book is brilliantly evocative of the city), but this is not exclusively a New York story.
This is a novel that threatens to unseat all that is held dear and inviolable: the happy and secure family unit. The Intruder combines a family in jeopardy - a now-familiar theme in contemporary thriller culture - with the increasing sense of menace we all experience on the street. Blauner pits a successful lawyer, Jake Schiff, against a crack-smoking homeless man called John Gates but gives it a twist. Gates stalks Schiff’s wife, a psychiatrist trying to help him, and threatens their son with a razor, behaviour which brings Jake to an act of tragic desperation when the police can't help him. Jake realises too late that he has been set up and he finds himself on the verge of losing everything he has worked so hard for: job, family, nice house - rather like John Gates...
The Intruder was inspired by an unsettling true-life event. Blauner explains: "I was pushing my son's stroller on Broadway and Eightieth Street a couple of years ago and suddenly a large, muscled homeless man jumped out of a doorway, cocked back his fist and said, 'Call the cops now, because I am going to kill you : the threat obviously set off my paternal instincts - it made me so angry that I realised l would have killed the man in order to protect my young son. That realisation had me thinking what would the consequences be if someone followed through an impulse like that? In terms of protecting his family, can a good man go too far?"
'The Intruder is unputdownable!… the last time I felt this strongly about a book it was Thomas Harris's Red Dragon.' Stephen King
'Nobody writing suspense novels does it as well. The Intruder is the best novel I have read in years, better than Grisham, better than Richard Price, better than Patricia Cornwell. Man of the Hour is another Blauner winner.’ James Patterson
'The Intruder is an accomplished thriller which reminds us that crime and craziness do not exist in a void but are born and bred amid the inhumanity of our cities.' GQ
'The Intruder has poise and verve, constant menace and occasional stunning violence.' Sunday Times
‘The Intruder is a truly damn fine read. Peter Blauner turns up the heat and never compromises on the intrigue and mystery. Sensational action from start to finish by the grandmaster of suspense.' Clive Cussler
'This is one of those "nightmare come true" novels with a creepy premise that makes us uncomfortable and a dark character that scares the hell out of us because we know him, know his evil. Peter Blauner should certainly get an award and a round of applause for The Intruder. A terrific read!' Nelson DeMille, author of The Gold Coast and The General’s Daughter
'No other American novelist has come close to Peter Blauner in capturing the heart-killing anxiety that has cut a ragged hole through life in big cities. The gnawing dailiness of menace, violation, loss and insecurity are on every page. But this is not a tract; it is a fine novel, peopled with rich, surprising characters caught in a story that is elegantly written and swiftly paced. After reading it, you will never walk down a city street in the same innocent way.' Pete Hamill, author of A Drinking Life

About The Author
In His Own Words…
I was born and raised in New York City, where I attended the Collegiate School on the Upper West Side. Despite what most people might consider a decent upbringing, I've always been interested in the seamy side of things. I have made a career out of writing about unusual and marginal characters. During my first year at Wesleyan University I started writing and won a prize for the best short fiction by a student. I took time off from college, to work as a newspaper reporter at the Norwich Bulletin in Connecticut and the Newark Star-Ledger in New Jersey. After I graduated, I took a job at New York magazine where I stayed for ten years, covering crime, politics and other forms of anti-social behaviour. This was during the eighties when people were writing about Donald Trump, instead my pieces were about hookers, con-artists, street people, boxers. In 1991, I broke away from the magazine business and fulfilled a lifelong dream by publishing my first novel, Slow Motion Riot, which won the Edgar Alien Poe Award for best first novel.
Research:
In order to write Slow Motion Riot, about probation officers, I spent six months as a volunteer with the department of probation. For my next book Casino Moon, set in Atlantic City, I spent months hanging round the hotels and casinos soaking up the atmosphere. To research the homeless character in The Intruder I spent several months working in a homeless shelter and later spent time in homeless encampments and tunnels around Manhattan. Oddly though the most difficult task was writing about the upper-middle class couple in the book. After years of writing about people on the edge, the world of the wealthy and privileged seem like a jump. I spent a good deal of time with a friend who is a defense lawyer and also with someone who is a psychiatric social worker.
Peter Blauner and Movies:
Slow Motion Riot has been optioned for a movie and is being developed by Harold Pecker director of Sea of Love and Martin Worth, who produced Malcolm X
Casino Moon has also been optioned, this time by producer James B Harris, who produced Stanley Kubrick's Lolita. Harris and I wrote the screenplay and a German Production company has put up half the money.
Film Rights to The Intruder have been bought for nearly $3 million by Peter Guber (Batman, Rainman). The screenplay has been written by Ted Tally, who won an Oscar for his screenplay of Silence of the Lambs..
Peter Blauner's previous novels include Casino Moon, Slow Motion Riot, which won the 1992 Edgar Allan Poe award for best first novel of the year, and The Intruder, a New York Times and international best-seller. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

Man of the Hour (4th Estate, 1999) 4th Estate Pbk Jan 99

The Intruder (4th Estate, 1996) 4th Estate Pbk Jan 97

Casino Moon ( 1992)

[../twebref.htm]