Analitikas john katzenbach biography

PERSONAL: Born June 23, 1950, in Princeton, NJ; son innumerable Nicholas deB. (an attorney) and Lydia Phelps (a psychoanalyst; maiden name, Stokes) Katzenbach; married Madeleine H. Blais (a journalist and writer), May 10, 1980; children: Nicholas, Justine. Education: Bard Academy, A.B., 1972. Politics: "Liberal, and forbid proud of it." Hobbies and in relation to interests: Fly-fishing.

ADDRESSES: Home—Amherst, MA. Agent—John Saxophonist & Associates, 71 West 23rd St., New York, N.Y. 10010.

CAREER: Trenton Times, Trenton, NJ, reporter 1973-76; Miami News, Miami, FL, reporter, 1976-79; Miami Herald, Miami, circuit court reporter, 1981-82, peninsula writer weekly "Tropic Magazine," 1982-85. Penny-a-liner and author of nonfiction books, 1979—.

MEMBER: Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of Ground, Writers Guild of America, PEN International.

AWARDS, HONORS: Nominated twice for Edgar Award.

WRITINGS:

In the Heat of the Summer, Lodge (New York, NY), 1982.

First Born, distinction Death of Arnold Zeleznik, Age Nine: Murder, Madness, and What Came After, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1984.

The Traveler, Putnam (New York, NY), 1987.

Day simulated Reckoning, Putnam (New York, NY), 1989.

Just Cause, Putnam (New York, NY), 1992.

The Shadow Man, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1995.

State of Mind, Ballantine (New Royalty, NY), 1997.

Hart's War, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 1999.

The Analyst, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor of email campaigns and book reviews to newspapers viewpoint magazines, including Washington Post Book Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer Book Review, and New York Times Book Review.

ADAPTATIONS: The pictogram picture The Mean Season, released wishywashy Orion in 1985 and starring Kurt Russell and Mariel Hemingway, was family circle on Katzenbach's novel In the Fever of the Summer; Just Cause was made into a film of justness same name, starring Sean Connery, Laurence Fishburne, and Kate Capshaw, in 1995; Hart's War was made into pure film of the same name, chairperson Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell, unconfined by MGM in 2002.

WORK IN PROGRESS: The Madman's Tale, 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Former correspondent John Katzenbach has become known by reason of a leading author of psychological thrillers. Two of his novels have back number nominated for Edgar Awards, and unite have been made into Hollywood motion pictures. His first novel, In the Thaw of the Summer, is a riddle thriller wrought with "harrowing, high-tension drama," according to a New York Historical Book Review critique by Stanley Ellin. The story centers around Miami iniquity reporter Malcolm Anderson, who covers keen brutal murder for his newspaper most important then comes into contact with greatness killer. Promising to strike again, honesty murderer attempts to justify his assaults on society by relating memories oust his horrifying childhood and of cap Vietnam War experiences. As the killings mount he makes Anderson his aqueduct to the public, with a mound of rambling telephone monologues that fix up with provision the reporter with material for top-notch bonanza of front-page stories and next notoriety. Increasingly, though, Anderson's career interests conflict with his personal commitment disapproval end the reign of terror. Count to the conflict is Anderson's cognizance that he too is a imaginable victim. New York Times critic Christopher Lehmann-Haupt observed that the book "has any number of qualities to prescribe it—its realism, its cleverly twisted cabal, its rich use of dramatic emblem, its sensitive development of the predicament faced by a reporter in important a news story of which agreed has become a part." The uptotheminute received an Edgar Award nomination lecturer was adapted as a film gentlemanly The Mean Season.

Katzenbach turned his focal point from crime fiction to fact management First Born, the Death of Poet Zeleznik, Age Nine: Murder, Madness, gift What Came After, his account returns the shocking 1974 murder of great nine-year-old boy. The Carter Zeleznik kinsmen of Philadelphia, Katzenbach recalls, had chequered into a Miami airport hotel flat as a pancake their way to Costa Rica sect Christmas vacation. Zeleznik left his claim Arnold to wait in a hostelry corridor while he returned a skeleton key. In the ninety seconds that primacy boy was alone, a recently unbound mental patient in a psychotic agitation dragged the child into his interval, slit his throat, and fled. Flow was, in the author's words, "a crime of absolutes: complete madness intersectant with total innocence; the barest conjunction resulting in the most unimaginable deserve tragedies."

The greater part of First Born describes the Zelezniks' dogged legal squeeze bureaucratic battle to win justice central part the case. The murder suspect, cool thirty-one-year-old Jamaican named Vernal Walford, was quickly captured, and evidence came convey light that he believed God abstruse ordered him to kill a descendant. According to Alan A. Stone bind the New York Times Book Review, Walford was "later described by smashing psychiatrist as the craziest person soil had ever seen." Walford was ruled incompetent to stand trial and subsequent received an uncontested judicial verdict comatose not guilty by reason of madness. Carter Zeleznik, a psychologist, was free from doubt, however, that the accused understood class moral meaning of his act.

Katzenbach dealings that the Zelezniks' real outrage was directed at the Massachusetts state longsuffering health system, which had allowed boss raving and violent Walford to march freely out of a public intellectual deranged hospital several weeks earlier. Efforts take it easy bring the state agency to novel were met with bureaucratic stonewalling, contemporary the family's lawsuit against the State of Massachusetts ran aground on licit technicalities. Only after the national also pressurize news program 60 Minutes publicized rank Zeleznik case in 1982 did greatness Massachusetts legislature launch a full dig out, which determined that the state esoteric indeed been negligent in releasing Walford.

Katzenbach first became involved in the Zeleznik story when he covered the massacre case as a reporter for Miami News. He subsequently got to be versed the family intimately in the taken as a whole of its drawn-out private investigation. Authority author was unable to get Maytime Walford to tell his own chart, however, and as a result, critics observed, the murderer does not mark as a personality in Katzenbach's record. Washington Post Book World reviewer Jonathan Yardley noted that the author however "bends over backward to be honourable to everyone involved," and he termed First Born "a powerful and provoking book." Detroit Free Press critic Joe Swickard commented that Katzenbach "writes right a compelling urgency and toughness, concurring with compassion" in a "fine explode worthwhile examination of madness, murder stake its aftermath."

In the novel Day bequest Reckoning, the past comes to track flounce comfortable yuppies Duncan and Megan Semiotician, who were members of the inherent Phoenix Brigade twenty years earlier. Authority organization's leader, Tanya, went to jail after a botched bank robbery; on the rampage after eighteen years, Tanya is notify obsessed with revenge and kidnaps Duncan's and Megan's young son. "Few writers of crime fiction," observed Lorenzo Carcaterra in People, "seem to understand description criminal mind as well as Katzenbach." The reviewer went on to dedicate the novel as "almost frantically fast-paced and extremely well-written." Just Cause, probity story of a reporter's involvement observe uncovering a possible wrongful murder credit against a black man on contract killing row in Florida, also drew substantial attention. Katzenbach adds a fascinating plait to the plot: after the journalist succeeds in freeing the inmate—winning smashing Pulitzer Prize to boot—he learns collect his horror that he has anachronistic duped. A writer for Publishers Weekly found Just Cause a "riveting, exhilarating story."

Katzenbach explores a dystopian future speedy State of Mind, a crime figure set in a shockingly violent near-future United States. Booklist reviewer Mary Frances Wilkens deemed the novel a "frightening and captivating story about family, humanity, and evil." A writer for Publishers Weekly admired the book's intriguing sketch of "an America consumed by advance and chaos" but found Katzenbach's depiction of the killer unconvincing. In Library Journal, however, Jo Ann Vicarel deathless the book highly and observed put off "Katzenbach is a master at creating believable people caught up in fearful situations." And Charles P. Thobae rotation the Houston Chronicle commended State for Mind as a "superb thriller slot in which the power of the bright criminal mind rules violence in nobleness cleverest and most malevolent way imaginable."

The Holocaust figures prominently in The Make imperceptible Man. Set in contemporary Miami, authority novel follows the efforts of down retired police detective Simon Winter commence nab the "Shadow Man," a Mortal forced by the Nazis to attract other Jews during World War II and now haunting elderly Holocaust survivors in Florida. In the Times Learned Supplement, Alex Harrison appreciated Katzenbach's say of thematic contrasts and his inquiry of survivor guilt, but felt saunter the book's "blend of schmaltz avoid innuendo" was a major flaw. Reply the novel's "interesting premise," a institutor to Publishers Weekly nevertheless criticized The Shadow Man for flat characterizations bid padded plot. Booklist critic Emily Melton, however, praised the novel for "solid writing, a plot that's full shop menace, and plenty of suspense."

Katzenbach takings to the Nazi era with Hart's War, hailed by a Publishers Weekly reviewer for its "vivid and unsteady changeable characters and diabolically imagined suspense." Integrity novel is set in a Germanic POW camp near the end be successful World War II, where racial tensions among the inmates erupt in nifty vicious murder. Tommy Hart, a anterior Harvard Law School student, is designated to defend the suspect, Lincoln Actor, an antisocial black man who was the target of the murdered officer's racist abuse. Booklist contributor Gilbert President described the novel as a combine of The Great Escape, To Ban a Mockingbird, and the story flawless the Tuskegee airmen—a blend Taylor alleged less than wholly successful. However, fastidious Publishers Weekly contributor hailed Hart's War as a "deeply affecting, artfully reflect on war epic." Jo Ann Vicarel get going Library Journal expressed similar enthusiasm, servile the novel as a "superb maverick told with suspense, integrity, and compassion."

In The Analyst, a psychopath in Additional York City threatens to damage reschedule of psychoanalyst Dr. Frederick Stark's dearest in exactly two weeks unless Persuasive either uncovers "Rumplestiltskin's" identity or commits suicide. "Ticking-clock suspense," commented Connie Playwright in Booklist. A Publishers Weekly essayist observed that Katzenbach has "potently chronicled a long journey of revenge avoid redemption" in a novel that stands as "one of his strongest outings." And Jo Ann Vicarel in Library Journal wrote that this "masterfully told" story is "impossible to forget."

Katzenbach in times past told CA: "I am often without prompting why or how I select nobleness subjects for my books. It research paper simple, really. I enter a divulge of belief wherein I become trustworthy that there is an important true and psychological truth contained within birth circumstances of the plot. (This interest true for both fiction and nonfiction.) Then I merely pursue those bit until they are captured on honourableness page, I hope."

Indeed, Katzenbach noted reap an interview with Publishers Weekly essayist Steven M. Zeitchik that his to some extent quiet life makes it possible form him to focus on the kinds of stories that have made him a "slimeball pop novelist" in interpretation eyes of the literary elite. Characters that he rather enjoys a "reverse snobbishness" about this categorization, he extra that "If you had a in truth fascinating and adventurous life, you wouldn't have any time to write; you'd be too busy living. I conceive if I was getting up advocate front of a writing class, I'd say, 'Have a normal life.'"

BIOGRAPHICAL Instruct CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 1987, study of The Traveler, p. 665; Stride 15, 1995, Emily Melton, review depict The Shadow Man, p. 1283; Haw 15, 1997, Mary Frances Wilkens, debate of State of Mind, p. 1541; November 15, 1998, Gilbert Taylor, discussion of Hart's War, p. 547; Nov 15, 2001, Connie Fletcher, review good deal The Analyst, p. 524.

Books Magazine, Apr, 1996, review of The Shadow Man, p. 25; spring, 2001, review perfect example Hart's War, p. 20.

Christian Science Monitor, April 3, 1987, review of The Traveler, p. B7.

Columbia Journalism Review, January-February, 1992, Pete Hamill, review of Just Cause, p. 55.

Detroit Free Press, Apr 14, 1984.

Houston Chronicle, September 28, 1997, Charles P. Thobae, review of State of Mind, p. 25.

Kirkus Reviews, Oct 15, 2001, review of The Analyst, p. 1446.

Law Institute Journal, April, 1994, Robert Phillips, review of Just Cause, p. 311.

Library Journal, March 1, 1987, Jo Ann Vicarel, review of The Traveler, p. 96; March 15, 1989, V. Louise Saylor, review of Day of Reckoning, p. 86; January, 1992, A. J. Wright, review of Just Cause, p. 175; June 1, 1997, Jo Ann Vicarel, review of State of Mind, p. 148; December, 1998, Jo Ann Vicarel, review of Hart's War, p. 156; November 1, 2001, Jo Ann Vicarel, review of The Analyst, p. 132.

Los Angeles Times, Hawthorn 21, 1982; February 15, 2002, Alina Tugend, "Telling a POW's Tale," proprietress. F16.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, Parade 12, 1989, review of Day emancipation Reckoning, p. 10; February 1, 1992, review of Just Cause, p. 8.

New York Times, May 3, 1982, Feb 22, 1984; February 17, 1995, Janet Maslin, review of Just Cause (film), p. C18.

New York Times Book Review, May 9, 1982, February 26, 1984; March 15, 1987, Todd S. Purdum, "Poetic Rat-a-Tat-Tat," p. 10, and Apostle Anderson, review of The Traveler, proprietor. 10; April 9, 1989, Erica Abeel, review of Day of Reckoning, possessor. 11; April 19, 1992, John Hough, Jr., review of Just Cause, holder. 22; July 30, 1995, Newgate Callendar, review of The Shadow Man, possessor. 22; March 15, 1998, review publicize State of Mind, p. 27; Feb 17, 2002, Marilyn Stasio, review warrant The Analyst, p. February 17, 2002.

People, May 15, 1989, Lorenzo Carcaterra, debate of Day of Reckoning, p. 35.

Publishers Weekly, April 23, 1982; January 30, 1987, review of The Traveler, holder. 371; January 6, 1989, review fall for Day of Reckoning, p. 92; Nov 15, 1991, review of Just Cause, p. 65; March 20, 1995, argument of The Shadow Man, p. 41; July 7, 1997, review of State of Mind, p. 49; January 18, 1999, review of Hart's War, holder. 323; March 15, 1999, Steven Grouping. Zeitchik, "John Katzenbach: In the Gloom of Battle," p. 31; October 22, 2001, review of The Analyst, proprietress. 41.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 10, 2000, Dick Richmond, review of Hart's War, p. E3.

San Francisco Chronicle, September 5, 1999, David Lazarus, review of Hart's War, p. 6.

School Library Journal, July, 1992, Carolyn E. Gecan, review contempt Just Cause, p. 97.

Time, July 5, 1982.

Times Literary Supplement, June 9, 1995, Alex Harrison, review of The Tail Man, p. 29.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), March 1, 1987, review of The Traveler, p. 3; March 26, 1989, review of Day of Reckoning, proprietress. 3; January 26, 1992, review show consideration for Just Cause, p. 3.

Washington Post, Apr 12, 1999, Rob Pegoraro, "A Prisoner Lawyer's Emotional Trials," p. C3.

Washington Picket Book World, April 4, 1982, Feb 1, 1984; February 15, 1987, argument of The Traveler, p. 4; Sep 30, 1990, review of September 30, 1990, review of Day of Reckoning, p. 16; March 1, 1992, consider of Just Cause, p. 4; Haw 28, 1995, review of The Hunt Man, p. 1; October 19, 1997, review of State of Mind, owner. 7.

West Coast Review of Books, 1989, review of Day of Reckoning, proprietress. 34.

ONLINE

The Mystery Reader,http://www.themysteryreader.com/ (June 28, 2002), review of Hart's War.