The best character-driven thrillers

I not only loved this book (and all of Ross Macdonald’s writing) but he wrote his only screenplay for me as a producer in Hollywood, based on this book, The Instant Enemy. Working with him closely on this book taught me a great deal about writing complicated character-driven thrillers. He was a master at that, and it was an extraordinary education for me.

As a movie producer, I developed the screenplay and produced the movie, Ghost Story, at Universal. The movie featured Fred Astaire, John Houseman, Melvyn Douglas, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Universal bought the rights to the book and asked me to develop the screenplay and produce it. Larry Cohen, who’d written Carrie, wrote the screenplay. What a thrilling experience to adapt a wonderful, complicated book into a movie. I worked very closely with Larry and came to know the book very well. There was too much material in the book for even a long feature film, so we had to find a way to preserve the richness, the complexity of the book, to tell the story in a movie that would have to be in less than two and a half hours. In the process, I developed a great respect for the book, for Peter Straub’s ambition, his skill, and his ability to tie together complex elements of the plot.

This is an unsettling, deeply disturbing book. I put it on my list because I worked with Bob Lifton (Robert Jay Lifton) in a tutorial for 2 years at Yale. He was a student of unthinkable disasters, atrocities (Hiroshima, Thought Reform and the psychology of Totalism, Nazi Doctors to name a few). For over two years, we met together regularly to discuss and try to understand what was happening in contemporary American culture, and how it was changing during the late 1960s, particularly among young people. We talked about political unrest, the Vietnam war and the Bobby Seale Black Panther trial in New Haven, the student strike and the May Day, 1970 rally, including memorable appearances by the Chicago Seven, thousands of Panther supporters, and observed by the 82nd Airborne Division. He, and his book, helped me sort out how unthinkable things could happen, and he helped me come to an internal understanding, helped me evolve a more complex sense of myself to navigate in the world I was living in. 

When I was thinking about the second book I wrote in my trilogy, I knew I had to learn about violence, particularly violence in prison. What causes it, its impact, and why some people hurt themselves in prison. My brother recommended James Gilligan, a prison psychiatrist, and his insights and understanding of it shaped the central character in my book. It’s troubling but fascinating reading for anyone who’s interested in understanding this.

I’ve read most of his work and as I’m a writer who tries to write complex psychological, character-driven thrillers, Turow is my touchstone. He consistently sets a very high standard. He’s not only an excellent writer, he crafts complicated storylines skillfully, without deceiving you or tricking you. You’re often fooled, but never disappointed. His characters are carefully conceived and multifaceted. Without drawing attention to it, he successfully elevated middlebrow legal mystery thrillers into high-quality literature.