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High Plains Drifter meets The Postman Always Rings Twice: An Excerpt from NYTimes Bestselling Author Vincent Zandri’s thriller, The Caretaker’s Wife
Last year my publisher called asking for my new novel. I wasn’t aware that I owed them a new novel. But sure enough, I did. As panic set in, they asked me for the new novel’s elevator pitch since they’d be going out to vendors and marketing people later that week.
My mouth went dry, pulse picked up, adrenaline burned in my brain. I’d signed a contract with these people and spent my “nice” advance. By all that was right under God and the law, I owed them a novel, and I owed it to them right away.
“Come on then,” the publisher said. “So what’s the pitch?”
“I’ll call you back,” I said.
Hanging up, I wracked my brain. I’m extremely prolific. I write new words everyday, and I always, I repeat, always make my deadlines. But this was the first time in my life I had to come up with a new novel idea on the spot, get the idea approved on the spot, and then write it in a matter of maybe a month at most.
I took a drink of whiskey to calm me down. The whiskey got me thinking. I’d just watched High Plains Drifter, the old spaghetti Western from the 1960s starring Clint Eastwood. I’d also just watched The…
