Janet Evanovich

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Over the last three decades, millions of people around the world have enjoyed a series of novels about a fictional amateur bounty hunter from New Jersey named Stephanie Plum.

Stephanie is the creation of writer Janet Evanovich. In the 1980s, she was a stay-at-home mom, but when her kids were nearing the age at which they would be leaving for college, she decided to try something new — like, writing.

She started out as a romance writer, and achieved considerable success in that genre.

But after several years, she realized that what she liked best about writing was the action sequences in her books, and their humor.

So in 1994, Evanovich wrote her first mystery, a book called One For the Money . It introduced Stephanie Plum and her offbeat circle of friends and family.

It was an almost instant hit, and gave rise to a series that continues to this day. There are now 30 books in the Stephanie Plum series.

And this is where it all began. So here now, from 1994, my interview with the newly published Janet Evanovich.

Janet Evanovich celebrated her 80th birthady in April. Her most recent Stephanie Plum book, the 30th in the series, was published this year.


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Jeffery Deaver

As a young man, Jeffery Deaver was a journalist. Then he was a lawyer for a while. But then his first love, writing, took over, and Deaver became a mystery and suspense writer.

And he was very good at it, but his real smash-through success came in 1997, with his novel about a quadriplegic police detective named Lincoln Rhyme.

Since then, Deaver has written 15 Lincoln Rhyme books, and is one of the world’s most acclaimed suspense authors.

I had known Jeffery Deaver years before the series began, and we talked about his first Lincoln Rhyme book, The Bone Collector, when it was published.

So here now, from 1997, Jeffery Deaver.

Jeffery Deaver turned 72 last week. His 15th Lincoln Rhyme mystery, The Midnight Lock, was published last yaer.


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Patricia Cornwell

Many authors, maybe even most authors, labor in obscurity for months or years before finally hitting it big with a bestseller .

But Patricia Cornwell hit it big with her very first book, Post Mortem in 1990. And in the three decades since then, she has sold over 100 million books.

Her wildly popular mysteries feature a medical examiner named Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Cornwell based the character loosely on a real life medical examiner for whom she worked briefly in the 1980s.

I first interviewed Patricia Cornwell when Post Mortem was published. The interview you’re about to hear is our second interview, a year later, when her second book, Body of Evidence was published.

So here now, from 1991, Patricia Cornwell.
Patricia Cornwell will be 66 in June. She lives in Massachusetts.

Her latest Kay Scarpetta mystery, Autopsy, the 25th book in the series,was published in 2021.


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James Patterson

There’s a pretty fair chance that even if you only own a few books, one of them is probably a James Patterson novel.

He’s written 28 books in the popular series featuring detective Alex Cross. And that’s just one of the series of books has James Patterson writes.

He writes series novels. He writes stand-alone mystery thrillers. He writes books for young readers. He writes children’s books. And he’s written several non-fiction books.

Patterson has sold over 300 million books worldwide. That’s also made him one of America’s richest authors. Several of his books have been made into movies.

I’ve met and interviewed James Patterson several times, including twice for a couple of his nonfiction books before he became a huge best-selling mystery writer.

This interview is from nearly 20 years ago, when he had just written the 8th Alex Cross book, a mystery called for Blind Mice.

So here now, from 2002, James Patterson.

James Patterson is 74 now. He lives in Florida. To date, there have been 28 books in tghe Alex Cross series, the most recent one published in 2020. This year, however, he’s published several books from other series he writes, standalong mysteries, and books for young readers.

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PD James

For decades, going back to the 1970s, one of the most popular contemporary British mystery writers was PD James.

In a style sometimes reminiscent of Agatha Christie, James wrote about cases solved by her fictional detective she named Adam Dalgliesh.

He was a character she named after a teacher at Cambridge High School.

Book after book, a reputation and popularity grew, until in 1991 James was named a Life Peer in Britain’s House of Lords. She was Baroness James of Holland Park.

I interviewed her several times over the years, about her various Dalgleish nysteries. And then, in 2000, we talked about her autobiographical book “A Time To Be In Earnest.”

So here now, from 2000, P.D. James.

P.D. James wrote four more books in the years after this intervoew, the last of them in 2008.

The Baroness James of Holland Park died in 2014 at the age of 94.

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