A wide-ranging conversation between authors Eric Rickstad and Don Winslow.
Eric Rickstad is the New York Times, USA Today, Daily Globe, and international bestselling author of nine novels, published in numerous languages. His novels have been awarded a New York Times Best Thriller Of The Year, NPR Book Of The Year, Amazon Book of the Month, Apple Book of the Month, and two International Thriller Award nominations for Best Novel. His newest book Remote: The Six is available now; the sequel Remote: The Five will be published on July 8, 2025. He lives in Vermont with his wife, daughter, and son.
Don Winslow is the author of twenty-one acclaimed, award-winning international bestsellers, including the New York Times bestsellers The Force and The Border, the #1 international bestseller The Cartel, The Power of the Dog, Savages, and The Winter of Frankie Machine. Savages was made into a feature film by three-time Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone. The Power of the Dog, The Cartel, and The Border sold to FX in a major multimillion-dollar deal to air as a weekly television series beginning in 2020. A former investigator, antiterrorist trainer and trial consultant, Winslow lives in California and Rhode Island.
___________________________________
DON WINSLOW: You’ve been writing crime novels to great success for a while now. What sets your novels apart is that they are recognized as much for your original voice, language and character development as they are for their suspense and violence. Your most recent novel, Lilith, was an NPR Books We Love Book of the Year and was longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary prize for, “an influential work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture.” Not a lot of crime novels rise to this level of literary recognition. You could write about anything. Why crime?
ERIC RICKSTAD: Genre is a strange beast. The Sympathizer is a crime novel and a spy novel, and it won a Pulitzer. The Shining is “horror” but also one of the greatest Great American novels every written. Poe’s still hanging in there with crime. Your own novels have impeccable writing and characterization, and voice. I read them for that first. Conversely, there is a lot of “serious, literary” fiction where the writing is not original.
I am as intrigued by crime as anyone else. It mystifies and confuses us, especially violent crime.
Specifically, though, it stems from a close childhood friend of mine. One of my closest friends growing up ended up robbing a Denver bank at gunpoint. After he fled the bank in his vehicle, he was chased by a CNN helicopter and state and local police. This was the late 1980s. It was the first ever live fugitive chase in history. While I was watching it unfold live, I had no idea it was my friend I was watching. He ran down and killed an officer going 80 MPH, then crashed his vehicle. He attempted to kidnap a mother and her baby and commandeer her car but she got away as he fired at her. He took an elderly man hostage and had the man drive while he hid on the passenger floor. The helicopter eventually cornered the truck in a parking lot and my friend was shot thirteen times and killed. All on live TV. I had no idea this criminal was my friend until after he was killed and they showed his mugshot and said his name. He’d escaped a Texas prison where he was serving a life sentence for kidnapping a kid for ransom. I had no idea about that either. I was so stunned and confused. Not long before this, my friend had visited his old neighborhood in Vermont. At the time, he was a fugitive from Texas. I, and no one else, had any idea. He was an athletic, easy going, charming and funny teenager when I knew him. And within a couple years had become a desperate, violent criminal. Ever since then, I’ve explored in my writing, what happens along the way that some people turn to crime. In the case of my friend, we learned something traumatic and horrific had happened regarding his father’s suicide before he moved to our neighborhood.
DON WINSLOW: I think your work also sets itself apart by focusing on the victims and the aftermath and consequences victims and survivors of crime carry with them for the rest of their lives. A lot of crime fiction focuses on the cat and mouse, the suspense, and the victims, regrettably, are just fodder.
ERIC RICKSTAD: I focus on the victims because I’ve known a lot of victims of crime and violence, too. I’ve seen the toll it takes on victims and their families, indeed on entire communities and towns. It alters the trajectory of many lives. I am convinced, for instance, that my friend I mentioned would never had done what he’d done, taken the path he did, if he’d not witnessed horrific violence as a boy for which, additionally, he was never given help to process that trauma. It is not an excuse for his actions at all. But take away that awful experience that changed his own trajectory, those first dominoes to fall, so to speak, and there is no impetus.
DON WINSLOW: To be clear, your books are also known to be utterly terrifying and addictive as well. They have that rare mix of both the artistic use of language and voice and being ramped up with incredible tension and suspense. They are literally books that readers cannot put down. Your newest, Remote: The Six is as well written as any of your previous novels, but it is also the most terrifying and commercial. It is full bore FBI serial killer manhunt with a manipulative and cunning killer that, to me, feels as groundbreaking as Hannibal Lecter was. While there is a strong appetite from readers for serial killer novels, these novels prove harder and harder to pull off successfully. Why a serial killer novel?
ERIC RICKSTAD: Serial killers fascinate us. They’re at once real and unfathomable. Human beings who hunt and kill, and sometimes eat, other human beings. They’ve frightened and enthralled us going back to at least 1574, if not much farther, when the Werewolf of Dole, a French hermit and cannibal was convicted of murdering four children and terrorizing a community. I myself have been captivated and repulsed by them since 1978. I was in fifth grade then and I picked up a Reader’s Digest to flip through during reading time and stopped on a page of photos I thought were of different men, some bedraggled, bearded and grave, others clean-shaven, charming, and smiling. There was one photo of man screaming and in such a fury he seemed positively possessed with rage. I was stunned to find out these photos were all of the same man: Ted Bundy. He was not the “infamous” household name yet. It turned out too, that Bundy was born in Burlington, Vermont, literally across the road from my mom’s childhood home and just miles from where I was reading about him.
I couldn’t fathom how a person could commit such atrocities. This is where I believe our fascinations, for better or worse, lies. We can never understand it. There is no rational explanation for killing and torturing other people. The explanation for the killer in Remote, known only as Q, is utter madness to us but entirely rational to him. Q’s reasons are tapped into a realm that is profoundly dark and secretive and conspiratorial. He believes what he is doing is for some better societal good. Is necessary. As we learn more about him, we are forced to see what he is doing from his own perspective. He is so chilling and calculating and certain in righteousness that he repels and draws us. He strikes fear in us. That fear creates adrenaline. And adrenaline can be addictive. We want more. Readers, from what I can tell so far, want a lot more of Remote.
DON WINSLOW: In Remote, you tear down pop culture ideas about and around serial killers. For one, Stark dismisses profiling and the FBI’s Behavioral Science department out of hand. He doesn’t believe behavioral science is science at all. He faults TV shows and novels like The Silence of the Lambs and other pop cultural phenomena for elevating the notion that profiling is more crucial in helping to solve criminal investigations than it is in reality.
ERIC RICKSTAD: Right. Stark is a skeptic and a pragmatic professional who finds and follows evidence. He’s also right in many ways. One of my favorite shows is Mindhunter. Just a terrific show. I’m still pissed it was cancelled. Stark, however, is of the belief that while profiling might be peripherally helpful to a small degree, it has never actually helped catch a real killer. Evidence catches the, and, in many high profile serial killer cases, just plain luck. Bundy was caught because an escaped victim identified his VW Bug, which led to a traffic stop. The Son of Sam was caught because of a parking meter fine. The Golden State Killer was caught because of DNA forensic evidence. Agent Stark in the novel posits that if Ted Bundy had been profiled at the time of his crimes, a profiler would likely have deemed Bundy a basement dweller, single, an odd loner, poorly educated, low IQ, and socially awkward, and NOT the handsome, charming, socially adept, educated law student that he was, involved in a long-term relationship. I had fun working completely against and dismantling what Stark sees as a pop culture myth and that has become almost its own industry pop culture.
DON WINSLOW: You often bring other genres to your crime novels with great success. Lilith has a vigilante bent. The Silent Girls and The Names of the Dead Girls have elements of horror. Remote dives into a speculative/SciFi element when Stark is forced to work with a mysterious man with a vague past by the name of Gilles Garnier. Garnier, and the FBI Director himself, claims Garnier is a Remote Viewer, an individual who can supposedly view people and places remotely with his mind. This cranks up the suspense exponentially and goes to disturbing places beyond anything Stark or Garnier, or readers can ever imagine. Yet, it’s believable and feels grounded in reality. How were you able to pull off this SciFi angle so successfully?
ERIC RICKSTAD: Lukas Stark is a cynic, as I am, and many people tend to be regarding this type of “ability.” He needs proof. And I believe the reader does too. As you mention, Lukas is “forced to work with” Garnier and Garnier “claims to be” and is “supposedly” a remote viewer. At the outset, Stark is dismissive of Garnier. Is he really who he says he is? How can he prove it? Stark leaves it to Garnier to prove to him, and thus the reader, that he is what he claims. This escalates the suspense and the risk to Stark as to whether Garnier is not what, AND who he claims to be. Can he be trusted at all? Garnier is an odd and mysterious person and isn’t sure himself at times just who he is. But he is integral to all the terrifying ways the novel unfolds. It’s a lot of fun to write such an enigmatic character.
DON WINSLOW: Yes. Without giving too much away, the killer, Q, might also be a remote viewer, which of course creates the ultimate in cat and mouse, FBI manhunt. IF the killer can see those who are after him, how can the FBI ever catch or stop him?
ERIC RICKSTAD: Exactly. It sets up the ultimate cat and mouse. If Q can see Stark and Gilles at any time, he’s ahead of the game. Always. IF, he can do what he claims. I liked creating that tension that maybe there is always another explanation for the strange things that are occurring.
DON WINSLOW: Your Canaan Crime Series, and most of your standalone novels are set in small towns. Remote: The Six is set across great swaths of the United States as Stark and Garnier try to hunt down the rampaging Tableau Killer. This novel is set across the United States, from rural Texas to suburban Oklahoma, to Washington DC. Was it a challenge?
ERIC RICKSTAD: A challenge only in the best of ways as a writer. A treat, really. I prefer to read and write novels with a setting that is a character itself. Your books are steeped in setting, whether it’s Rhode Island, New York City or LA. I love that. My favorite authors, from Lehane and Chandler to Shirley Jackson and De Maurier all have such a great sense of place. In Remote I had the chance to write about Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington DC, the FBI headquarters, and the suburbs of DC where FBI and CIA agents and their families live was a fun departure too. An FBI Special Agent I spoke with at length mentioned a region of Virginia coined Spookville because it’s almost exclusively FBI and CIA agents living there. I love those little insider details.
DON WINLSOW: Speaking of the FBI. This is your first novel with a main protagonist as an FBI agent, yet Stark jumps off the page as if you’ve written this type of character for ages. You immerse the reader in the stress and cost of his work, as well as the protocol, procedures, weaponry, and tactics an agent needs to hunt a serial killer. How did you nail what feels like such in-depth insider knowledge?
ERIC RICKSTAD: I was very fortunate to speak with two longtime, career FBI Special Agents. They spoke to me on the phone for hours and exchanged numerous emails, answering any questions I had. They were invaluable. I could not have written Remote without their input. They told me everything from the gear and weaponry FBI agents would to surveil and swarm a house in very specific situation, and everything from chain of command, warrants and flak jackets, to hi-tech surveillance and going undercover. Authenticity is paramount and I hope I did their important careers justice for the readers to enjoy. Any place I failed to do so is on me.
DON WINSLOW: You have another law enforcement professional who gives you advice, and there is a good story behind it.
ERIC RICKSTAD: Yes, I am friends with Vermont State Police’s Detective Lieutenant of Major Crimes Unit. He supervises all of Vermont’s homicide investigations. We met when we both signed on as first-time Little League coaches for our kids’ 1st grade team. We were both so far in over our heads. He soon found out I was a crime writer and I found out he was a homicide detective. I thought he’d dismiss me out of hand, especially when he told he was going to listen to The Silent Girls on his drive to a Homicide Detectives conference in New Hampshire and loved it. I thought he’d find all kinds of holes in it or roll his eyes, as a professional. But he loved it. Ever since he’s been a resource for me, as well as a friend. I’d ask questions while we were coaching and still do when we drop off and pick up our kids at school. Or shoot him a text whenever I need to. His help is invaluable too.
DON WINSLOW: Lukas Stark has his own mysterious and frightening backstory too. He’s married and has a young son, but something truly shattering and violent happened when he was a boy that has trouble and colored his entire life. He’s suppressed it most his life, but this Tableau Killer case is causing it to come back in ways he isn’t seem able to control and leading to his making questionable personal choices. He also brings a personal element of voyeurism into his character arc and the intense plot of the novel. When it gets down to it, Remote Viewing is the ultimate in voyeurism.
ERIC RICKSTAD: Yes. His boyhood was scarred by a horrific event that ties in with why he became an agent to begin with, but might now undermine his career, and his own family life. His own trauma led to a different path than my friend who was killed by the Colorado police, but it is still a path whose genesis is in violence. It informs him and if not handled and controlled by him at all times, can lead to a very dark place. His insecurity in relationships, even in his marriage leads to a sort of paranoia he always carries with him, a sense of wanting to know what is going on with others closest to him at all times, a sense of wanting to be a fly on the wall. Being an FBI agent, he has access to a lot of surveillance technology himself to take advantage of to do just that, for better or worse.
DON WINSLOW: There is a lot of technology and cutting-edge science in Remote. It is the underpinning of the entire novel really. As we read more, we learn that Gilles Garnier and Q are linked by a mysterious past tied to a covert program involved in extremely nefarious and dangerous endeavors that are terrifying for humanity.
ERIC RICKSTAD: They are terrifying, especially since they are here. The technological ability to create and tamper with the natural state of human beings is here and has been for a while. The more I researched certain aspects, without giving it away, the more terrified I became.
DON WINSLOW: So, in Remote we have a full-on FBI serial killer manhunt, an elusive, terrifying serial killer whose reason for killing might be more terrifying than the killings themselves; a SciFi bent with a remote viewer who might not be what or who he even says his, conspiracy, the dismantling of pop culture myths about serial killers and profiling, and an FBI agent whose past is haunting him, all written and pulled off as only you can do it. It is an extraordinary read and reminds me of other classics like Michael Mann’s Manhunter, based on Red Dragon. It’s got all the making of a bestseller.
ERIC RICKSTAD: One can hope.
DON WINSLOW: Good thing the second book in the Remote series hits July 8th. Best of luck with it.
ERIC RICKSTAD: Thanks so much Don. I’m a big fan going way back.
