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Celebrity Authors
279 Plays1 year ago
What happens when someone famous for something else writes a mystery? In this week's episode, Brook and Sarah discuss mysteries written by authors famous for other achievements.
Discussed in order
David Walliams
State of Terror (2021) Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny
Mycroft Holmes (2015) Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse
Mycroft and Sherlock (2018) Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse
Thursday Murder Club (2020) Richard Osman
Kitchen Confidential (2000) Anthony Bourdain
The Bobby Gold Stories (2001) Anthony Bourdain
The President is Missing (2018) James Patterson and Bill Clinton
Jeffrey Archer
Katrín Jakobsdóttir
Ragnar Jónasson
Anne Holt
Tom Bradby
Michael Dobbs
Run, Rose, Run (2022) Dolly Parton and James Patterson
The Apollo Murders (2021) Christ Hadfield
Full Disclosure (2018) Beverley McLachlin
Denial (2021) Beverley McLachlin
For more information
Instagram: @cluedinmystery
Contact us: hello@cluedinmystery.com
Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
Transcript
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Focus
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Hi Brooke. Hi Sarah, how have you been? I've been okay, how about you? Yeah, really good. Getting settled in after the holidays and yeah, just kind of getting back into a normal routine feels good. I agree. Yeah, it's nice to be out of a routine, but it's also kind of nice to be in it.
00:00:39
Speaker
Yeah, so today we are going to talk about celebrities who are also mystery authors. And I'll just start with a brief overview. Last season, we discussed mysteries where the sleuth is a celebrity. We talked about Obama and Biden or Queen Elizabeth solving crimes. Today, we are talking about ones where a celebrity or at least someone who is notable for a reason other than writing is the author.
Celebrities and Non-Fiction Writing
00:01:08
Speaker
When researching this, I found several examples of politicians who've released books. Perhaps the most notable is Winston Churchill, who had over 40 books published, though with the exception of one novel and a couple of short stories, they were nonfiction. He received the Nobel Prize for his writing in 1953.
00:01:25
Speaker
Children's stories are also a favorite for actors and other celebrities who want to be authors. The list is long and includes Reese Witherspoon, Kristen Bell and Madonna. And one of the UK's leading children's author, David Walliams, was already established as a comedian and an actor before his first book was published.
00:01:43
Speaker
Countless household names, including politicians, athletes, actors, and a former senior royal, have published memoirs. So people who are already accomplished in one area of life are no strangers to success in publishing. But we're here today to discuss mystery, and there are several examples of celebrities who have published mysteries.
Celebrities as Mystery Authors
00:02:03
Speaker
Many choose to set their stories in a world that's familiar to them. I'm thinking of Hillary Clinton's book, State of Terror, which was co-authored with Louise Penny and features a US Secretary of State or Bill Clinton's books, co-authored with James Patterson and feature current or former presidents. Others choose settings that are entirely different to the one that they became established in, such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the former NBA star who wrote episodes of Veronica Mars and has co-written three novels featuring Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes.
00:02:32
Speaker
And Brooke, I know that you and probably many of our listeners have read a couple of mysteries written by celebrity, although he wasn't famous in North America before his first book came out. Richard Osman was a comedian and a television personality before the Thursday Murder Club was released. And I actually saw an article yesterday saying that two of his books were amongst the most requested from the Overdrive app last year. And that's the app that serves many libraries.
00:02:59
Speaker
Another name that might surprise you is Anthony Bourdain, who was a chef, but actually released a couple of crime novels in the mid 1990s before Kitchen Confidential came out in 2000, and released a book featuring a mob tough guy about a year later.
Appeal and Setting of Celebrity Mysteries
00:03:14
Speaker
And though those stories are a little different from what I usually read, they are well written. So I thought we would start our conversation today by talking a little bit about the appeal of reading a mystery written by someone who is already famous.
00:03:27
Speaker
Brooke, would you rather read a mystery in the world that the author is familiar with or one that is completely outside it, like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's books? Yeah. Thanks for that, Sarah. That was so good. I think that I tend to enjoy the ones where it's put in the world that they're such an accomplished person in. Because that gives me that feeling of, this is behind the scenes. This is the real deal because this person has lived in this.
00:03:56
Speaker
I think it's similar to the way that what Agatha Christie did in the Golden Age as far as she took readers inside the drawing room of the wealthy elite. And these, when it's written by somebody who is
00:04:13
Speaker
a famous politician or a famous journalist or someone, it takes us inside their world and it makes it feel more realistic and as if it could really happen. So I think that I prefer those. Yeah, I think you're right. I think it adds a richness if you know that they're familiar with whatever the story that they've crafted is.
00:04:38
Speaker
And I think that, and there are a lot of examples of people who started out as lawyers and then wrote books or people who were medical examiners and then wrote books. There's lots of examples of those. But I think when you have that other layer of them being really well accomplished and really well known for that work, it just adds to that, adds to the enjoyment of reading that book.
00:05:08
Speaker
Exactly. Yes, we're already intrigued with that person because they're so highly successful. And so then to have a mystery written by them just makes it all that more fun. And I think they also, it feels as a reader like they're bringing some truth. So, you know, I think about Hillary Clinton's book and as you're reading it, you think, well, you know, she's probably exercising a little bit of
00:05:34
Speaker
maybe exercising a bit of frustration or saying some things that she wished she'd been able to say when she was actually in that role, or Bill Clinton's book where there's a scene where his character is escaping from his Secret Service detail and you think,
Insights into Celebrity Author Collaborations
00:05:54
Speaker
he probably, I mean, maybe he did that and we never will never know. Maybe he just kind of dreamt of being able to do that. And you can, I don't know, just get a little insight into the the author's personality as well.
00:06:09
Speaker
Oh, that's totally true. In preparing, I read an article about the work collaboration between Louise Penny and Hillary Clinton, and they were batting ideas back and forth about what they could base this book on. And Penny finally asked Hillary Clinton, what were your nightmares when you were Secretary of State? What kept you up at night?
00:06:36
Speaker
Apparently, Hillary came up with three things that were high on that list. I'm sure the list is incredibly long when you're in that position, but she gave Louise Penny three and from that three, they chose one. But I thought that was a fascinating way to approach it. It's exactly like you said, it's very much a window into what they go through as people in those positions.
00:07:05
Speaker
So if she came up with a couple of other ideas, Brooke, does that mean that they've got a couple of other books that they're going to be working on? You know, that thought struck me too. And then the article ended by both of the women saying that at this point, they were just happy with the way it was right now. And I think it's very endearing, you pointed this out, Sarah, that they are friends. And actually, they were acquaintances.
00:07:31
Speaker
had been acquainted before they wrote the book together and now they've retained that friendship. I think that they have a nice, strong friendship. Maybe there's still hope down the road.
00:07:43
Speaker
So one thing that struck me, Brooke, is the risk that the co-author takes in agreeing to be on the cover with someone who's established because, you know, I think like we mentioned, readers are going to pick up this book probably with a bit of skepticism that it's
00:08:04
Speaker
not going to be very good, particularly if they were critical of that celebrity. And I'm thinking about the politicians who write crime novels that, you know, if you weren't a fan of this person as a politician, you're going to pick up that book and expect that you're not going to be a fan of their writing.
00:08:26
Speaker
Exactly. Or just the simple fact that it's, oh, it's one of those celebrity writes a book projects. Um, and, and just kind of have a jaded attitude about those types of projects. Yeah. I think if, if I ever were to have it, the opportunity to co-author a book with someone who was famous, I think I would work so hard to make sure that that was the best book that I had ever published for that reason.
00:08:56
Speaker
Absolutely. And I think it's very important to know that whatever information that the celebrity is giving, assisting with, is going to make that book stronger. It's going to make it more rich and
00:09:12
Speaker
believable like we were referring to, it builds the world. It's a huge area of information for that author. He or she couldn't gain otherwise. I think that, yes, that celebrity's name is there, but we also have to remember that hopefully they're contributing a lot to the work as well.
00:09:35
Speaker
After I read the Bill Clinton Patterson book I I always try to read it first before I go in to see what other readers thought of a book but I went in to check out Goodreads and I thought it was really interesting because a lot of the reviews it had it has great reviews. This was the first Is it the president's missing is that the title it's the first one that they wrote together and the reviewers were a lot of them saying
Risks and Public Perception of Celebrity Co-Authored Books
00:10:02
Speaker
that
00:10:02
Speaker
wow i didn't expect to like this book but i actually did it was really good and it was good because you know it had so much detail and inside information
00:10:15
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm like you. I try to read a book first before I take a look at what the reviews were. And so after I read the Louise Penny Hillary Clinton book, I looked it up on Goodreads. And I was surprised at the passion that some of the reviewers shared. And there were several who made comments that they were never going to read another Louise Penny book.
00:10:40
Speaker
because she had collaborated with Hillary Clinton, because they just so much disagreed with Hillary Clinton's politics. And I do think that that's a risk, particularly if you're writing with a politician, that because politics people can be so passionate and it can be so divisive, that there could be a whole group of people who will
00:11:05
Speaker
never entertain the idea of picking up your book because that other name is on it.
00:11:11
Speaker
Absolutely. It is a definite risk that you would run to put your name side by side with someone because you're uniting with them in some level. But it always surprises me when audiences do that. I try to separate that part of me that has maybe my own
00:11:36
Speaker
my own views on things with what we're really getting down to is entertainment. So it kind of surprises me when people do that. And, you know, there are lots of examples of even specific authors who people will write them off because of something they did in public or a celebrity. You see that a lot of times. A celebrity speaks out about something and then someone will say, well, I'm never going to see their movies ever again. I'm like,
00:12:01
Speaker
Really, you kind of have to separate those two things in my mind. But, but yeah, it would be risky.
Categories and Business of Celebrity Authors
00:12:09
Speaker
And you would have to just, I think, either be so well established that it didn't matter if you lost a little bit of your audience, or so committed to working with this person and wanting to, to write this book that you that you could weather that storm if it came.
00:12:28
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. So Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton are not the only politicians who've written books. So Jeffrey Archer, who was a member of the UK House of Lords, has sold over 270 million copies of his books, and that's just according to his website.
00:12:48
Speaker
The current Icelandic Prime Minister, Katrin Jacobstadter, has a book coming out later this year that she co-authored with Ragnar Jönesen, who is an established crime writer. And Ann Holt, the former Norwegian Minister of Justice, has published over 20 mysteries.
00:13:07
Speaker
Some of those were co-authored and some of them were not. I've read one of her books and it was quite good. I think I'll read another. The book that I read did feature some politicians as part of it, but it really was focused on the police aspect of the investigation.
00:13:27
Speaker
which I thought was interesting. Actually, I looked her up and she was a lawyer and so would have worked closely with the police. She had some experience in that as well. Right. I like your distinction that you made that some of these authors stay in their lane and really play off of their area of expertise where they have gained success and notoriety.
00:13:56
Speaker
Some of them take on the classic detective police procedural and write over there. Thinking about this, I think then there's another layer of different categories. One of them are the collaborations or like you said, the co-authors. This would be like what President Clinton and Hillary Clinton did with having a very successful crime writer collaborate with them.
00:14:25
Speaker
then we have some that are probably most likely ghost written. So the person has their name on the front, but you know, keep it under wraps that it's likely ghost written. And I think that those two categories feel like they're much more for commercial reasons. I wouldn't put the books by
00:14:48
Speaker
Patterson or Patterson or penny in the area of gimmick. But we do see some gimmicks in the marketplace from other titles. But then we have a third category and I would probably put Anne Holt and Tom Bradby, Michael Dobbs. These are all people who have worked in the political sphere who
00:15:15
Speaker
as far as we can tell, and I think it's highly likely, are full-time authors. They've created an author career for themselves. I don't know, I just thought that those distinctions were interesting because I think sometimes these books can get a bad reputation, especially when you look at, you mentioned the children's sphere. I started out writing for kids, still do, but in the picture book sphere, I guess I would say.
00:15:44
Speaker
And there are a lot of picture book authors who turn their nose up to the fact that if you're a celebrity, then the answer is an automatic yes. At the publishing house, you get your picture book done. And there are all these fantastic writers out there and illustrators who would love to start their picture book career.
00:16:04
Speaker
but it's difficult because the celebrities have all the good slots, right? So anyway, getting us back to the mystery genre, I think that there are some different levels to that. And yeah, so what do you think about that, Sarah? Yeah, I was reflecting on something similar, particularly around the
00:16:24
Speaker
as you say, the children's books where it seems that a celebrity just needs to raise their hand and they get to publish their book. I think the publishers, like you say, there's some easy sales as a result of the platform that the celebrity has.
00:16:49
Speaker
readers pick up those books because they're curious, right? Like what kind of a book would Madonna write, for example? But I think when you look at particularly around the mysteries,
00:17:08
Speaker
I think if they've published multiple books, that's a signal that readers have responded really well to those books. Because you can assume that the first book is going to sell a bunch of copies because of the name that's associated with it. But if it wasn't that great of a book, you're not going to buy the second book and certainly wouldn't buy the third. So yeah, I think it's probably
00:17:37
Speaker
easy money for publishers, but also a little bit risky.
Collaborative Writing Process Insights
00:17:41
Speaker
I think the co-authoring is really interesting because there are a lot of examples of celebrities who co-author with established authors. And so James Patterson and Dolly Parton had a book that came out over the summer in 2022. Maybe that's a shift that we're going to see more of.
00:18:06
Speaker
is more of those high profile collaborations because I think James Patterson has done a lot of collaborations with other authors because his model is a little bit different. I think he comes up with the idea and then has someone else do the bulk of the of the actual writing and you know maybe we're going to see a shift and his books will feature some more well-known names on the covers.
00:18:31
Speaker
I mean, I understand why someone would co-author with an established crime writer because you've got someone who knows what they're doing, but also particularly, I think about the Icelandic prime minister, she's probably pretty busy doing that job.
00:18:53
Speaker
Right? You know, she, you know, has a bit of time every day to work on a book. If she's got a co-author, that whole process is accelerated, I would imagine.
00:19:05
Speaker
Yeah, good point. Yeah, in an interview between James Patterson and President Clinton, they described their process and it was really fascinating to me because James Patterson kind of put together the outline. They must have collaborated on the idea of the storyline.
00:19:24
Speaker
The outline together and then he would send little assignments back and forth to President Clinton and he would fill in the blanks and then you know James Patterson would massage it and send it back and I thought well you know that's just exactly what you would expect if you were co-authoring a book.
00:19:40
Speaker
I also really appreciated because you could tell that President Clinton was just a huge fan of James Patterson or I shall say mystery authors in general. He's a fan of the genre, a big reader in the genre.
00:19:56
Speaker
And the comments he made, you know, those are some of his heroes, those authors. And it got me, you know, kind of proud to think like even the President of the United States is impressed by what an author, a good author can do to hook the reader and keep them, you know, turning the pages on the edge of their seat.
Reflections on Revered Authors
00:20:17
Speaker
I thought about making some
00:20:19
Speaker
bumper sticker Sarah that said authors because even the president needs heroes. But that might be taking things a little too far. I love it Brooke.
00:20:36
Speaker
I love it. I love it. Um, but I mean, you're right. Like actually I read, um, an article about, um, Karen Jacob's daughter, the Icelandic prime minister. And, and you know, she said like reading mysteries is something that she's done her whole life. She's, you know, she's loved the genre and for her probably because of the stress that comes with her job, sitting down and writing is just a stress release for her.
00:21:06
Speaker
Because at the end of the day, you know, we put these people on such a pedestal, which in, and they deserve it, you know, they are world leaders or, you know, very impressive, successful people. But at the end of the day, they're just a person. And I think we forget about that. Like, you know, whoever it is, wow, they love Agatha Christie too.
00:21:27
Speaker
They're just like me. It really kind of personalized it, I think, and brought it back down to just the human level. Yeah, absolutely.
Canadian Celebrity Authors
00:21:40
Speaker
I think you can kind of imagine having a conversation about your favorite Agatha Christie novel with one of these authors, because there's not much else that I feel like I would be able to talk to them about.
00:21:55
Speaker
This is true, we could have that in common. So I have a couple of Canadian examples that I wanted to share, Brooke. Chris Hadfield is the former commander of the International Space Station, and he released a Cold War thriller, I don't know if it was last year in 2021, but called The Apollo Murders. And so there's lots of technical detail about space travel.
00:22:17
Speaker
But the story was, you know, I thought it was quite good. And the first female Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Beverly McLaughlin, has published two crime novels, both of them featuring a defense lawyer. And I enjoyed both of those and definitely would read another if she published a third. And it was just really interesting reading the books by both of those authors and definitely seeing their experiences in those books.
00:22:47
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you for suggesting those titles, especially the space, um, the space title. Like that is a area that I feel like is maybe a little, um, void. We don't hear about the people who have been astronauts and things like that, like, and get to hear about their experiences. And then you put a mystery in there. Yeah, that sounds fantastic.
00:23:10
Speaker
So I will admit that originally I thought it was going to be more of a cozy whodunit, but it is much more of an international Cold War thriller, but yeah, really good. And I hope he, I hope he publishes another, but apparently it was, it was a pandemic project for him because he, you know, kind of everything shut down. I was like, well, what am I going to do? I guess I'll write a book.
00:23:36
Speaker
Like many people, we started turning towards some of those bucket list items during the pandemic when we were, we had a lot of time on our hands. So that's, that's really fun.
Speculating on Future Celebrity Mystery Authors
00:23:48
Speaker
So I have a question for you, Brooke.
00:23:52
Speaker
What celebrity would you like to see as a crime author? Okay, so this is really in fantasy land because our dear Alex Trebek has already passed. But wouldn't it be fun to have the game show murders? Because there would be lots of trivia. There would be like all these clues that he would have to figure out in order to solve the mystery. So I'm going to say Alex Trebek.
00:24:18
Speaker
Oh, that's such a good pick. But yeah, I think that that ship has sailed. But perhaps, you know, there's an opportunity to write your own mysteries with him as the sleuth.
00:24:35
Speaker
Oh, now we're back to our celebrities as sleuth category. I like the direction you're taking this, Sarah. So for me, I think I would choose, I think it would be fun to see Taylor Swift author a mystery series.
00:24:51
Speaker
I had my first thought when you asked me the question was somebody in like the entertainment world. So I think that would be really fun. And you know, you could envision the concerts and yeah, that could be a lot of fun. And I mean, we know again from our celebrities as sleuths episode that there are a couple of books featuring her as the sleuth. So
00:25:14
Speaker
She wouldn't necessarily need to star in her own books, but it'd be fun to see her or really, as you say, anybody in the entertainment industry writing a couple of books about some crimes and mysteries in their world.
00:25:30
Speaker
Because that's what it gives us as we started with, you get an interior look at that world. You get to step inside. And I cannot imagine that there aren't all sorts of interesting things that go on in the world of Hollywood or the entertainment industry that would just be fascinating that we know nothing about. So yeah, great pick, Sarah.
Conclusion and Credits
00:25:53
Speaker
So Brooke, thanks so much for today's conversation. I think it was really fun to talk about people who are
00:26:00
Speaker
high profile or well-known in one industry, writing mysteries as well. Yes, thank you, Sarah. This was so much fun. And thank you all for listening today to Clued In Mystery. I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery.
00:26:18
Speaker
Clued In Mystery is produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers at Silvermansound.com. Visit us online at CluedInMystery.com or social media at CluedInMystery. If you liked what you heard, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or telling your friends.