Anatomy of Fear
Originally titled “The 23rd Face,” which I thought made more sense and sounded Graham Greene-ish, but my editor hated it and I’ve grown to like the new title. I totally fell in love with my new character, Nate Rodriguez, a police sketch artist, and a smart, handsome Puerto Rican Jew (just like me; not). One reason I invented Nate was to have an excuse to illustrate the novel—Nate’s forensic sketches (which I made) fill the book. Nate gets called into a case of a hate crime killer, and it gets personal. He also gets involved with a sexy detective, Terri Russo, and I think they make a good team. This book, and the next were almost made into a TV series. It was so close. The writers strike killed it. Along with another detail I am not at liberty to discuss. Now it’s been through 3 different production companies. I’m thinking number 4 will be the one that gets it made. “Anatomy…” won the Nero Wolfe award for best crime novel of the year. We created a very dark little video to promote the book. Check it out:
Note: This was filmed in my old studio on 38th Street. I play the artist and the killer is played by my assistant, Ryan Ernst, who also modeled for the killer’s portrait in the book.
