AARP Hearing Center
Most weeks, avid readers scanning the best-seller lists are likely to find at least three James Patterson books on them — some solo projects, others collaborations with other writers. They're thrillers, children's graphic novels, middle-grade fiction and nonfiction, including his current big hit Walk in My Combat Boots: True Stories From America's Bravest Warriors, cowritten with Matt Eversman and Chris Mooney.
Patterson, 74, is the world's best-selling author by many accounts, and he's now conquering a new storytelling format with The Coldest Case, an audio-only Audible Original story that Patterson describes as a “movie for your ears.” It's a prequel to his 2017 best seller The Black Book (written with David Ellis) — whose sequel, The Red Book, is out in print today — and the first of a slate of at least five audio projects he has planned with Audible. Characters in the four-hour-long story are voiced by Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul, Krysten Ritter, Nathalie Emmanuel and Beau Bridges. (Subscribers can download it at Audible.com.)
It won't surprise anyone who is familiar with Patterson to hear that he has lots more in the works, including a second thriller, The President's Daughter, cowritten with former President Bill Clinton, out in June. He's also continuing his longtime, devoted support of independent bookstores (he recently donated $500,000 to help them survive the pandemic) and children's literacy.
"I'm staying busy,” he says, matter-of-factly, during a phone interview from his Palm Beach, Florida, home.
More from the interview:
'The Coldest Case’ is ‘very cool’
It's a prequel to The Black Book, which is my favorite of my books. And they did a great job with sound design and original music. ... It has some similarities to the way they used to do radio a long time back, only the production values are much better than they were back then. And it has a great cast: Aaron Paul plays Billy Harney, who, in addition to being a detective, does stand-up comedy in Chicago at a cop bar.
Audible
Writing an audio story is different than writing a book
You have to pace it out. For each episode, you want to end it with a little bit of a bang. And you have to keep using the [characters'] names so people can keep track of who's who, which makes it a little awkward, but it's doable. I like doing new things.
