Chris wrote:
>While I haven't read a great deal of Leonard either,
I wouldn't recommend
>starting with this one. It's good enough, but I
couldn't bring myself to
>finish it and finally saw the movie just to see how
it ended. The movie was
>better. There was talk on this list recently about
how his recent novels
>seem like they're written with too much of an eye
toward turning them into
>screenplays, and I have to agree and say it's usually
to the detriment of
>the book but the benefit of the movie.
On the other hand, Robert Crais' HOSTAGE, which practically
screams screenplay, is simply one of the most entertainingly,
gut-wrenching thrill rides I've ever come across. It plays
out like THE DESPERATE HOURS amped up to DIE HARD #1 (the
good one) levels, the ultimate hostage crisis gone wrong.
Even the cliches in the book snap, crackle and pop, setting
you up for one mind-fuck after another. You really get
dragged into the story, whether you should know better or
not. This is a hard one to read sitting down. Literally, in
my case. By the end, I found myself pacing back and forth
like an expectant father, reading as fast as I could.
The rights have already been snapped up by Bruce Willis,
apparently, with Crais to do the screenplay. In the hands of
a director with a sharp touch, this flick could be a
mutha.
And speaking of movies and books, and San Francisco books
(trust me, someone was), Kent Harrington's new one, THE
TATOOED MUSE, makes very convincing use of the City and at
least one of it's major landmarks/tourist attractions. It's a
swirling mix of Hitchcock odds and ends, with more than a
dash of VERTIGO, and a sprinkle of PSYCHO. He also throws in
writer's block, the Holocaust, psychiatry, and even a good
old locked room mystery. Something for everyone!
--
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