Saturday, September 01, 2012

FPLM field trip: Jesse Kellerman

My intrepid cohort in crime Brooks Sherman and I found our way to Mysterious Bookshop on Thursday (departing from our new office digs, we had to take a new route--it was quite the adventure!)

Jesse Kellerman is a well  known suspense novel writer and his debut novel SUNSTROKE was one where I turned the final page and thought "yowza!"  I've been a fan ever since.



His new novel POTBOILER is a bit of a departure.  I had no clue of that until the reading but you'd have picked up on it from the first page.  Here's why:

"Of all the books I have read this year, this is one of them."--Lee Child

What??

Of course, the plot of POTBOILER revolves around a fictional novelist and his (ta daaa!) fiction novels!  These are blurbs for the character!

Here's another:

"There's no one like William de Vallee.  Every time I finish one of his books, I feel like washing the blood off my hands.  And after Fatal Deadliness, I had to take a twenty-minute shower.  Dick Stapp sends Mike Hammer to the slammer, and Jack Reacher looking for a preacher.  No mystery here; this is a thriller reader's thriller by a thrilling thriller writer." --Stephen King





As Jesse is reading these aloud, I'm in the back row cackling with laughter. (Poor Brooks was inching away from me as subtly as he could I'm sure!)

It's always interesting when a good writer takes a new path. It's a huge risk career-wise because established fans expect the same kind of book they read the last time. This is particularly true among us cackling genre fans.

I can tell you this: POTBOILER is funny as hell. And one more thing: the literary agent is called Savory.  (When Jesse read that part, cackling gave way to outright guffaws!)

Jesse Kellerman is one helluva funny guy, and just plain one helluva writer.  See so for yourself!


3 comments:

Michael Seese said...

As you said, trying something new is always risky. And "out there" humor can be hard to pull off. Kudos to Jesse for succeeding.

NotaWarriorPrincess said...


He had me at "Fatal Deadliness."

Janet Reid said...

I know! Isn't that just a howler of a title!