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| First British Edition Pan (2001) |
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| Paperback - Pan (2002) |
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Killing Paparazzi: A Coming of Rage Story
| Paperback - Pan (1997) |
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Shooting Elvis: Confessions of an Accidental Terrorist
See Review by
Val McDermid
- Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
See Review by
Val McDermid
- Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
| About The Author In His Own Words… I first considered writing a crime novel when, encamped in a seedy beach front motel in Santa Monica, I witnessed a man tumble out the room next to mine with his head cleaved by an axe. The man had been trying to buy drugs. The gash began somewhere above his hairline and ended abruptly at the bridge of his nose. He struggled to his feet and lurched after his assailants either in a miraculous effort of will or as proof that his brain was not a vital organ. He swayed one way and then another and pitched squarely onto the hood of my car, leaving a squeal of red as he slid to the pavement. I was going through a divorce at the time. I too felt like my head had been cleaved by an axe. I thought, This is a sign. After the divorce I moved to Paris to write my first novel. In Paris I wrote little, drank considerably and violated with gusto Raymond Chandler's wise dictum, Never sleep with a woman who has more problems than you. After a night of drinking in a kitchy provincial disco, the woman with whom I was violating Chandler's dictum drove her Peugeot at 50 kilometers an hour into a parked car on the right. We had been arguing. She wanted to make her point with lethal force. She wore a seat belt. I did not. From my hospital bed I thought, This too is a sign. The novelist is the one exception to the Darwinian rule of survival of the fittest. Failure is the novelist's grist. The more often his skidding heart hurtles off a cliff or he drinks himself into a single-celled organism, the better. For the novelist, repeated life-failures lead not to extinction but to inspiration. I returned to America and wrote. The detective novel that resulted was constructed no differently than most, with the private detectives being approached by a client who purports to want one thing but really desires something more devious and after a double and triple cross, a plane crash, a couple of fights, gun play, some really great sex and about a hundred wisecracks, THE END. Viking-Penguin published that novel and the next one brought a call from Hollywood. Adapting the second novel for television turned into a true Barton Fink experience. Meetings typically took place with no less than four development executives. Just give us the book, we love the book, they said. The book they wanted contained love-struck lesbians, incest and the clever use of two Great Danes which are gutted, stuffed with a million dollars in cash and buried in a pet cemetery. I gave them the book in the first draft. They objected to my clever use of the Great Danes as cruelty to animals. I gave them less of the book in the second draft. They then objected to the incest element and in the third draft questioned the lesbianism. Not much of the book remained after the fourth draft. This is another sign, I thought. I divided my possessions among friends and left for Prague with the idea that I could develop a more original voice in which to write crime fiction. My money soon ran out but the ideas didn't. The first novel I wrote there, Shooting Elvis, has been translated into 12 languages. It introduced the character of Nina Zero, a small town baby photographer who simultaneously blows a terminal at LAX and her small town life to shreds. She discovers in that book that her old life was based on what others expected rather than what she felt most true about herself. She reinvents herself as a paparazza in killing Paparazzi. Both books feature desperate and devious characters, car chases, fist fights, gun play, really great sex and a couple hundred wisecracks. I love genre literature, and I love even more to twist and tweak it. California lives are about reinvention, and I think I've at last invented a life that pleases me, and books that please readers. I live in Prague still, with annual research stints in Santa Monica. Prague has given me more than I can possibly repay: a beautiful city to wander, the opportunity to write full time, and a wife, whom I love with a great and enduring passion. | Bibliography |
Killing Paparazzi: A Coming of Rage Story
pbk 07 Jun 02
by R.M. Eversz
