Lou Boldt comes alive at reading
Middle of Nowhere heading toward big screen
Ridley, Ive read everything youve written, and I
know Im Lou Boldt.
By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer
Ridley Pearson and Lou Boldt are back, and theyll be at The
Community Library tomorrow at 6 p.m. for a reading from Pearsons newest novel,
"Middle of Nowhere."
Although the event is called a reading, Pearson said he doesnt read
at his readings.
"Theyre called readings because most authors read at
them," he said in an interview. "I like to make personal contact with the
readers, and to me thats the fun of it, because I do spend so much time behind the
screen."
In "Middle of Nowhere," the seventh volume of his Lou Boldt
detective series which recently landed in bookstores, Pearson develops the idea of
correctional facilities being used for telemarketing campaigns.
"When you place your call to L.L. Bean, and they take your credit
card number, youre often giving it to an inmate," said Pearson.
"I was rather appalled at the idea that you give out your credit card
to one guy in a room, and he gives it out to another guy who knows youre going to be
in Hawaii for a week.
"Has anyone put this together? So I put it together in a book."
Even though inmate telemarketers are only a small part of the story, he
said, "it is at the heart and soul of the crimes in the noveland the characters
and their conflicts spin out and away from this central idea."
Another central element of the novel is the "blue flu"that
is, a police sickout. Tensions between striking officers and those "loyal to the
badge" lead to an awful question Boldt must answer. Is someone inside the Seattle
police department helping the suspect?
Tension between him and police psychologist Daphne Matthews leads to a
different but more tantalizing question. Will Boldt resist the temptation that would
destroy his family?
When Pearson created this character, he had no idea so many people would
care about him or his family.
"Boldt was never intended to be a series; he just developed into one.
I didnt start out saying, Okay, Im going to write nine books about this
guy. I wrote one book about him and then four years later I decided to write a
second. Now Ive written seven."
The eerie thing, said Pearson, is "well, he is living. I thought I
created him, but then I met him and that was really an interesting hour and a half.
"It was quite amazing because I walked into the homicide division of
the Seattle police department [years ago] to interview their most senior detective (Don
Cameron), and it was Lou Boldt.
"Instead of taking me to his office, he took me to an interrogation
room where we spent an hour and a half interrogating each other.
"At the end of it I said, You know, I hope I havent just
stumbled and fumbled my way through this because this has been disconcerting. Ive
written this character named Lou Boldt, and you are so much like him.
"And this huge grin went on this otherwise stern face, and he said,
Ridley, Ive read everything youve written, and I know Im Lou
Boldt. And weve been very close friends ever since."
For the first time, Boldt fans will be able to hear Pearson play the audio
part on a book tape, and things look good for Richard Dreyfuss to play Boldt in an A&E
movie.
Pearson recorded "Middle of Nowhere" as a book tape in
unabridged and abridged editions. "So if anybody wants to hear me read, all they have
to do is either rent it from the library or buy it."
As for the movie, Pearson delivered a beat sheet, or condensed outline, to
his producer last week, and she liked it right off the bat. On June 20, the outline went
to Richard Dreyfuss for his approval.
If he likes it and A&E likes it, Pearson could be working on the
script by July 4.