MC_2007_Spring_30
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Two Heads
Are Better Than One
Growing up, one might have attributed stepping on a crack to bringing bad luck, well, at least to the stepper’s mother. But Step on a Crack, the new best-seller from James Patterson ’69 and Michael Ledwidge ’92, has hardly been a harbinger of misfortune for either author. In fact, the partnership has been a lucky collaboration for the two Jaspers.
James Patterson ’69
Step on a Crack, a thriller about a New York City detective who races to save a group of prominent hostages from a ruthless criminal mastermind, has been on the New York Times Best Sellers List for more than two months. It’s the first in a new series by Patterson, widely known for his Alex Cross detective series, including Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, and the first book written with Ledwidge, his fifth co-author who has three crime novels under his belt, including The Narrowback. The teaming up wasn’t coincidental; it was actually the result of some good old-fashioned Jasper networking. The two met when Ledwidge was working on his first novel, The Narrowback, and sent Patterson some chapters, hoping that the seasoned writer could help him get published. Ledwidge explains how he dropped off a few chapters to Patterson’s office — Patterson was still at J. Walter Thompson at the time — and unexpectedly received a call from him that evening. “When the phone rang, I was there with my wife, and just joking around, I said, ‘Honey, that’s James Patterson right now,’” he says. “And I picked up the phone and it was, it was Jim. Not only had he read it, but he liked it, and he asked how he could help.” Patterson helped the aspiring novelist find an agent, and The Narrowback was published in 1999. They stayed in touch, and Ledwidge wrote two more novels, Bad Connection in 2001 and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead in 2003. Then about three years ago, Ledwidge was talking to Patterson about an idea for
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another book, and Patterson asked Ledwidge if he would be interested in working with him. So, how do two people write one novel? As one might expect, there is a lot of collaboration. In the case of Step on a Crack, which was released in February by Little, Brown, Patterson wrote an outline, and Ledwidge reviewed it, adding or subtracting where he saw fit. Ledwidge then did the first draft, and they would look at pages together every month or so. “Basically, I would take a whack at it, and then Jim made it shine,” Ledwidge says with a laugh. There isn’t a whole lot of room for disagreement over plot direction or character development once the writing begins because, as they explain, the outlines are very detailed, so many of the chapters and scenes are hashed out beforehand. Patterson came up with the idea for this one. He was intrigued with the idea of someone interrupting a big, state funeral. “If you watch them, it is incredible — the amount of power and prestige and money that assembles at these state funerals,” Patterson says. “And I thought it would be a very dramatic idea for a thriller.” Then the idea of a policeman, Michael Bennett, emerged. To complicate matters a bit, Bennett’s wife is dying, and he will be left with 10 adopted kids to raise by himself — while he is unraveling a plot to extort money from famous hostages imprisoned in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “Our intent was to do something that was very entertaining, and the notion of somebody who is involved in this kind of negotiation while the wife whom he loves very much is dying, and ultimately he is going to have to manage 10 kids,” Patterson says. “You can’t get much more dramatic than that.” There’s something for everyone in the novel — tragedy, thrills, suspense — as well as a Manhattan College connection. As proud Jaspers, their hero is also an alum. “It [Manhattan College] has actually been a part of my life ever since I was quite young, and definitely it was something to write about,” Ledwidge
says. “It’s funny because in my first book, one of the characters burned down Gaelic Park. In this one, it is a lot nicer to have Bennett be a Jasper.” Just as Alex Cross spawned a series, Mike Bennett will be back. The co-writers are working on another story with their protagonist, who has caught the attention of Hollywood already. Bruce Willis has even expressed some interest in portraying this fictional Jasper on the silver screen. The pair also has another book coming out in July, The Quickie. This time it was Michael Ledwidge ’92 Ledwidge’s idea. He did the first outline, and Patterson contributed his thoughts. Ledwidge then wrote it, and Patterson polished it up. “It’s kind of like Fatal Attraction,” Ledwidge says. “It’s an adventure in which a female cop gets herself into trouble, and she has to kind of make her way back out again.” And if that wasn’t enough, Patterson and Ledwidge are working on a young adult series together, but it’s still a ways off. But for now, these Jaspers are right in step.