Hi to my friends and fans in the UK,
Just heard Don’t Look Twice debuted at #7 on the London Times bestseller list! One of the great thrills of being an author is having your book responded to and appreciated in countries other than your own, to thousands of fans around the globe you will never meet, many that come from differing cultures. It shows the universality of theme in crime fiction today. In reflecting the world at large, dealing with current issues and crises, in delving into the themes of redemption and guilt and courage and secrecy, one could make a case that commercial fiction is the genre of fiction that most matters today. Not to mention, that’s where the sales are!
Don’t Look Twice marks my third stand-alone thriller since I left James Patterson. Having written with Jim is definitely a double edged sword. On one hand, I learned an unquantifiable amount in my books with him. About pace, the impact of short, dramatic chapters, layering in surprises and twists and turns, and most important to me, investing the reader in your hero or heroine’s plight within literally ten pages.
Yet the truth is, I don’t write Patterson clones. Never set out to. I like to write about the closet of family relationships and torque them—fathers who betray their daughters; husbands of eighteen years who have kept secrets from their wives; and in this new book, two brothers, one politically connected, the other bent on finding the truth, who inextricable, inexorably must collide. The challenge for me was always to incorporate these stylistic elements in my own voice and in my own kind of tales. Many people, reviewers, JP purists, sometimes booksellers assume all you’re trying to do is repackage or re-merchandise what Jim did with my own picture on the cover. My British fans who helped my book get to #7 know that is farthest from the truth.
Ty Hauck is a far different figure than Alex Cross or any of those I wrote with Jim. He’s wounded, impetuous, flawed, with a burden of tragedies, self-deprecating, yet he’s a steadfast, courageous and unwavering defender of the truth. Willing to take on the quest of those who need him. He sees the good in people, which sometimes gets him into a boatload of trouble.
So I hope you enjoy Don’t Look Twice. For those of you who enjoyed The Dark Tide, it picks up where that book left off. Like The Dark Tide, it starts with a local tragedy around Greenwich, Connecticut that twists and winds its way into a global story of corruption and profiteering. I’d be interested in hearing your comments, so find me on Facebook or MySpace or andrewgrossbooks.com or just write your comments below.
I’ll be posting another blog here soon, so hope you can catch me again then.
Cheers.
