The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0316031941 ISBN 13: 9780316031943

Publisher: Back Bay Books, 2010

Synopsis

A great recurring character in a fictional series you love becomes an old friend. You learn about their strange quirks and their haunted pasts and root for them every time they face danger. But where do some of the most fascinating sleuths in the mystery and thriller world really come from?

What was the real-life location that inspired Michael Connelly to make Harry Bosch a Vietnam vet tunnel rat? Why is Jack Reacher a drifter? How did a brief encounter in Botswana inspire Alexander McCall Smith to create Precious Ramotswe?
In THE LINEUP, some of the top mystery writers in the world tell about the genesis of their most beloved characters--or, in some cases, let their creations do the talking.

About this title

About the Author:

Otto Penzler is the proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, the editor of many mystery anthologies, and co-author of The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, for which he won an Edgar Award. He lives in New York.

From AudioFile:

Male English, Irish, and Scottish writers have their essays read in the rich, liquid tones of John Lee, while Justine Eyre impersonates female scribes from both sides of the Atlantic. Blessedly, she's a talented mimic, so her Anne Perry sounds like a cheery Brit, while her Carol O'Connell is definitely from New York. Eyre's husband, John Nelson, is stuck with standard-issue Americans, which is another way of saying English with the music washed out. It's still a thrill, though, to get behind the curtain. We learn that Michael Connelly is afraid of tunnels. And that hero Jack Reacher got his name after Lee Child's wife suggested that if writing didn't pan out, the author's height might win him a job in a supermarket, reaching for boxes on high shelves. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0316031941
• ISBN 13: 9780316031943
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416
• Editor: Penzler Otto