Starr of the Show

Continuing what we consider to be an impressive run of guest bloggers, we welcome New York crime-fictionist Jason Starr to The Rap Sheet today. In case you don’t know (and how could you not?), he’s the Barry and Anthony award-winning author of nine novels, including Cold Caller (1997), Nothing Personal (1998), Lights Out (2006), and a trio of Hard Case Crime paperbacks he penned with notable Irish writer Ken Bruen: Bust (2006), Slide (2007), and The Max (2008). Starr’s latest thriller, The Follower, is now available in a new mass-market paperback edition at bookstores everywhere.

Commenting on The Follower, acclaimed wordsmith Joseph Finder wrote that it “puts Starr up there with some of the greats of psychological suspense--Patricia Highsmith, Ira Levin, Ruth Rendell, Peter Abrahams.” Publishers Weekly had this to say:

Murder stalks a love triangle in New York City in Starr’s low-key thriller, his most crowd-pleasing novel to date. Katie Porter believes her encounter at the health club with Peter Wells is total chance. What she doesn’t know is that Peter once dated her sister back in her hometown and has elaborate plans to marry her, after waiting a couple of weeks for the perfect romantic moment to pop the question. And she doesn’t have a clue that her current boyfriend, Andy Barnett, is ready to dump her. A twenty-three-year-old single guy in Manhattan, Andy is a male animal on the prowl, checking out all the action: The clothes were loose, but it looked like she had a nice body--thin anyway, which was all that really mattered. Starr (Lights Out) is a master at capturing the minute-by-minute lives of vacuous yuppies, and he absolutely shines with these characters. When Peter decides he needs to eliminate the competition, this Looking for Ms. Goodbar suddenly becomes a very funny, dark social satire.

And January Magazine contributing editor Anthony Rainone wrote in his own review of the book:

Every principal character in this novel endures some form of transformation, with some ending up more scarred or irreparably damaged than others. The Follower provides a denouement that is a satisfactory conclusion to the tale, yet that also causes ripples likely to emanate for years to come. As always, Starr leaves the reader feeling thoroughly entertained, but at the same time creeped-out.

Starr lets us know that people who visit his Web site and sign up for his newsletter become eligible to win a $50 Amazon gift certificate, as well as other exciting prizes. Newsletter subscribers will also be in the running to win free advance copies of Starr’s next thriller from St. Martin’s Press, Panic Attack, which goes on sale next August.

We’re delighted to have Jason Starr writing on this page today. And we hope you will be, too. Please feel free to comment on his posts as the day rolls along. Starr has promised to keep track of any such comments, and respond as he finds time.