QUESTIONS FROM READERS

CHICO1204@aol.com: What inspired you to begin your writing career?

Richard North Patterson: I was a lawyer, traveling like crazy, missing my kids. I tried to think of what I could do other than write --- but being a novelist requires no qualifications. I had read a lot. I had some Watergate experience. My first book came out of that.

danjenn@optonline.net: Do you mind the criticism you receive for writing about controversial subjects?

Richard North Patterson: Oh, no. You don't love being disliked. But I would feel cowardly not to write about these topics --- it enriches my work and gives me a very good reason to get up in the morning. And if certain people don't like me, it means I'm doing something right.

LPS444@aol.com: Do you have any particular public policy issues you hope to address in future books?

Richard North Patterson: The death penalty.

SBanton343@aol.com: Why do you see this novel as the end of Kerry Kilcannon?

Richard North Patterson: As a writer you exhaust your ability to explore a character. I never wanted to write a serial character --- writers who do resent reader expectations.

How can we better educate people that the same guns used for hunting by weekend hunters are not the ones that should be banned?

Richard North Patterson: Ask them to be logical. How do you rob a liquor store? Not with a long gun. The rise of murder coincides with the rise of the handgun.

READER COMMENTS

jganje@ndcourts.com
With relish, I had read nearly all of Patterson's early books. Finely wrought characters, intelligent dialogue, nuanced consideration of the all too often clash between ethics and law --- all made the books good reading. I, therefore, am sorry to see Patterson turn his considerable talents to caricature in his recent "political" novels. PROTECT AND DEFEND could have been a good, even compelling, book about abortion rights, but nuance was absent and caricature supreme. It looks like, from the book description, that BALANCE OF POWER will be the same --- only directed at guns and gun rights. No balance there I suspect. Too bad. Looks like Patterson has given up what he has done so well in the interest of writing very long campaign flyers.

sabrewer@att.net
I just finished reading this incredible book and can't get the images out of my head. Patterson is a master of words and his willingness to write about subjects that are still so hotly debated serves to prove he is a master of his genre. Though I am saddened to think that this is the end of Kerry Killcannon, I certainly look forward to his next work. It remains a shame to me that as Americans and adults, we are unable to resolve our differences is a logical and peaceful manner. I am also mystifyed by a system that protects the rights of "any" citizen to bear arms by refusing to mandate background checks and yet exploits the right of women to choose.

markr@insightgroup.co.uk
This is not so much a question as a statement. I have just finished reading Balance of Power. A wonderful piece of fiction with its roots firmly lodged in fact. The complexities of corporate business, US government and powerful lobbies were illustrated perfectly with a superb storyline. Hailing from the UK the complexities of US government are, I must admit, somewhat beyond my everyday comprehension. However, this book expanded my understanding ten fold. Congratulations on a wonderful piece of writing and sadness on my part that this is the end of the Kilcannon trilogy - a character which I have grown to like and admire - if only more of our politicians (US & UK) could be like this character but in real life and drop political posturing and position for the passion, drive and reasons that they first entered politics - to make a difference that they believed in not one that will feed their egos or the highest fund raiser.

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