I never met Vince, but he was so gracious in his fan emails and his guest appearances on Imus in the morning, I felt he and I were friends too. Julie Kramer has written a lovely piece about Vince and the tributes to him at his funeral in a piece with the International Thriller Magazine. (Look it up, if you too were a friend of Vince.)
Mitch appeared in the second book by Vince and from the first page about this guy I haunted the book stores for the next novel.
Along with many of you, I suspect, I cried when Mitch Rapp's beloved wife, Anna, was killed in his book, Consent to Kill. When Mitch was in mourning, and thereafter in each new book I kept hoping Vince would bring in someone else who would heal the wounds in Mitch Rapp.
When the author began to share with all of us, thousands, millions, of readers, the stages of his fatal illness, we all somehow felt that if he could write about such a strong guy like Mitch, he would come through it.
Vince would get well! He would make Mitch Rapp happy again!
At 47 Vince had so many more books in that brilliant, creative mind!
Do you have this kind of relationship with an author you never met, or a character you grew to love?
Please write me and tell me about it, here as a comment or at tstraw2@verizon.net
Thelma Jacqueline Straw
John D. MacDonald's passing many years ago and along with him, Travis Magee, left that void for me. I searched a long time for someone to replace him. Elmore Leonard has come very close. Now that he's in his 80s, I know that at some point the search will be on once more.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ricky, I hear you. Only those of us who have experienced this type of loss can fully understand. it is very different from the loss of real people - yet, some would say, but they are/were your real people . Thelma
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