By J. Carson Black
One night Glenn and I had cable news on while we were cooking—standard operating procedure. I was jonesing to write a big thriller with a high concept, but had yet to hit on a good premise.
This was a while ago—2006: The Year of the Celebrity. The “news” was clogged by spoiled young ladies who carried dogs around in their purses, and other spoiled young ladies who drove over paparazzis’ feet.
During that hot summer, a suspect named John Mark Karr confessed to killing Jon Benet Ramsey. Prosecutors flew him back from Bangkok, Thailand. He was transferred to a sheriff’s plane and flown to Boulder, Colorado. The paparazzi were there to film the plane coming in. A long long line of them, cameras at the ready.
It was so over the top, I got an idea right then and there. What if the government could distract the media and press with a sensational mass murder to cover up a much more nefarious act? Glenn and I started brainstorming. That idea—that sensationalism can suck up all the air in the room–became the premise for my first Cyril Landry thriller, THE SHOP.
Thanks, cable news!
