Less than two years ago, I released a book with a wild, fictional premise. Nightfall told the story of controversial shootings of black citizens by Minneapolis police, unleashing racial violence. In an outlandish twist, Nightfall posited the existence of groups intentionally inciting and exploiting the violence for their own political and criminal purposes. Farfetched, some …
Is NIGHTFALL ripped from the headlines? Well, maybe clipped out neatly. I did consciously select the topic of police shootings as the backdrop to the book, but I didn’t envision the launch coming a month before a Minnesota gubernatorial election. A double dose of Real World. Brian Lutterman answers questions about his forthcoming …
Is NIGHTFALL ripped from the headlines? Well, maybe clipped out neatly. I did consciously select the topic of police shootings as the backdrop to the book, but I didn’t envision the launch coming a month before a Minnesota gubernatorial election. A double dose of Real World. I’ve answered some questions about NIGHTFALL (set for launch …
That’s right, free. On February 12-16th, the Downfall ebook will be available absolutely free on my page at Amazon.com. It’s my way of thanking readers who have bought Windfall or Freefall, or the Downfall paperback edition. It’s also a way of introducing new readers to the Pen Wilkinson series (by the way, the fourth installment …
Possibly the two unluckiest people in the known universe were the characters played by Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers in a 1980’s television show called Hart to Hart. This insufferably cute couple, an industrialist and his wife, had the misfortune of stumbling onto a murder, extortion attempt, kidnapping, or other crime each and every week …
I Hate It When That Happens, or The Depopulation of Cabot Cove Read More »
I lost my car keys the other day. For many people, that’s a ho-hum, everyday event. For me, it was a traumatic milestone, a really big deal. I never lose my car keys. But these days, as I approach the dawn of my seventh decade, it’s just another in an unwelcome series of “firsts.” Forgetting …
Fine Wine and Moldy Cheese – Aging Fictional Characters Read More »
This isn’t the post I set out to write. I had hoped to talk about my appreciation for all the support I received from Gary Schulze and Pat Frovarp during their ownership of the Once Upon a Crime bookstore in Minneapolis. I still plan to do that, but it will have to wait. Today, shockingly, …
From our It’s About Time file: “Justice Department Sets Sights on Wall Street Executives.” Attorney General Lynch recently instructed federal prosecutors to concentrate more on prosecuting individual executives, rather than just their employers, for financial crimes, and to pressure Wall Street firms to turn over evidence about their employees’ misconduct. That this new policy should …
Dustin Hoffman’s character in Tootsie remarks that impersonating a woman made him a better man. I’ve undertaken a similar task that offers the potential for improving my maleness: I write mysteries with a female protagonist. More than that, I have written my latest books, Downfall and the upcoming Windfall, from a first-person viewpoint, in the …
Crossing Over – Writing for an Opposite-Sex Character Read More »
In creating characters for my novels, many of whom occupy the business world, I try to use traits that make the people colorful and interesting. And in doing that, I drawn upon what I see of real people in the real world. I usually don’t have to look very hard to find corporate leaders who …
As one of the few authors of mysteries set in the business world, I was eager to read the Edgar-nominated Black Fridays, which is set on Wall Street. Author Michael Sears, himself a former Wall Street trading wunderkind, doesn’t disappoint. While Black Fridays does not wow the readers with its mystery plotting, or in its …
The Wall Street Trap – Black Fridays by Michael Sears Read More »
Disability is anything but “thrilling,” of course, but it poses an interesting opportunity for the writing of thrillers. There are many types and degrees of disability. Some people are completely disabled, others less so. Some have a disability that’s obvious, while the limitations of others are invisible. The protagonist of my new novel, Downfall, Pen …
Corporate Thriller–is the term an oxymoron? I answer that witticism with a resounding, “No.” Story and characters are the heart of any novel. But where do they come from? What environment do they grow out of? In part, the answer depends on which mystery-thriller sub-genre the novel inhabits. Cozy mysteries, for example, can be set …
For Tori McMillan, widowed and unemployed at thirty-six, it seemed as though life couldn’t get much worse. But then she watches in horror as her best friend inexplicably walks into a crowd, kills four people, and disappears.