According to a recent US report, crime became a reality for whodunit diva, Mary Higgins Clark, after she lost millions of dollars that she had loaned to a New Jersey company as an investment. “I was shocked,” the best selling, 74 year old scribe told a newspaper. Mary and her two sons, invested more than $8 million – some reports have it as high as $20 million – with a mergers and acquisitions broker, called Wellesley Services LLC, which is linked to a convicted con man, Thomas Giacomaro, 48.
“To my prima donna, Margaret Whitlam.” That’s the dedication in Gough Whitlam’s new and challenging book, My Italian Notebook (Allen & Unwin), which goes on sale this month.
Publishers Weekly (PW) reports that helicopter hero, Col. Ed Fleming, who flew his “bird” during the Perfect Storm disaster and was involved in getting Jerri Nielsen (of Icebound fame) safely out of Antartic, is telling his story in a book that will be published next year.
Another interesting story in PW reports the case of humorist and author, Michael Gerber, who has written a parody of Harry Potter, called Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody. With everyone in the US fearful of incurring the wrath of Warner Bros. who have paid huge money for the franchise, Gerber has been forced to self publish. “If Warner sues, we might as well roll up literary parody right now,” said Gerber. The book, available through Amazon.com features an attempt to prevent a movie about the School of Hogwash from being made…
Chaim Witz, perhaps slightly better known as Gene Simmons, lead singer of the rock band Kiss, is doing great business in the US with his kiss and tell autobiography, Kiss and Make-up. According to PW, the revelation driving readers is his candor about having slept with 4600 females (including Cher and Diana Ross!
Soon to come to the big screen is the film version of Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned, the H.G. Wells classic The Time Machine and A.S. Byatt’s Possession.
Anne Perry, known for her excellent Victorian mysteries, has just signed a new five book deal. They will centre around a new series hero who will solve a different murder in each of the five books set in five different years, just before and during the First World War.
US author Jodie Picoult, who writes top notch legal thrillers, is heading to Australia as a star guest at the upcoming Sydney Writers Festival which is being held from May 27 to June 2. Another star of the festival is Anthony Bourdain of Kitchen Confidential fame.
Star of the Adelaide Writers’ Week (March 3 to March 8), is top British crime writer, Frances Fyfield. A criminal lawyer in real life who is not as well known as Ruth Rendell or Minette Walters but deserves to be, is coming to Australia to promote her latest book, The Nature of the Beast (Little, Brown).
Hot on the heels of Stephen King’s recent announcement that he will never write another book, comes news of a three part mini-series he has scripted for ABC television in the US. Called Red Rose, it is based on the first-hand account of some bizarre tragedies that unfolded in a turn of the century mansion known as Rose Red.
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