Rob Hart On Assassins Anonymous

And The Appeal Of The Hitman Genre

     “I’m a big fan of hitman movies, and while I wouldn’t say there was one in particular that spurred me on,a lot of this book clicked for me while I was watching Bob Odenkirk in Nobody.” That’s just one of many influences author Rob Hart said furthered the creative process during in the early stages of writing his new thriller Assassins Anonymous. Speaking in a new Crime Reads Q&A interview with thriller writer Nick Kolakowski, Hart also credited Luc Besson’s 1994 film Leon: The Professional as a serious influence on his writing. “That’s one of my favorite movies of all time,” he says. “And part of the reason I like it so much is for Jean Reno’s deep well of sadness in that. It’s a lonely life, and you can see the way he avoids personal connection, and within that, it’s stunted him emotionally to a large degree. Thirteen-year-old Natalie Portman sometimes feels more mature and grown-up than he is.”

     Generally speaking, “The assassin fits within that same mold as the gunslinger or the private eye or the rōnin samurai,” Hart continues. “They’re guided by an internal moral compass that sometimes feels more precise than the law. We live in a chaotic world and we crave order, and we want stories about characters who do the right thing, even if they do it the ‘wrong’ way.”

     Shameless plug: look for my new thriller, The Fall Of Vivaldi, featuring “retired” assassin Rōnin Phythian, coming September 10.

The 100 Greatest Thriller

Movies Of All Time, Ranked

     Dirty cops, femme fatales, grinning killers, and bone-deep paranoia: a great thriller is something you experience as much as watch. As Matthew Singer recently wrote in Time Out, “When done right, a thriller provokes a physical response more than almost any other film genre. You feel it in your palms as they grow increasingly clammy and your teeth as you grind away the enamel. Your heart starts pumping and your leg begins shaking uncontrollably. That may not sound like fun, but they don’t call them ‘thrillers’ for nothing.

     Not every thriller takes the same path in initiating those reactions, though. In the pantheon of the best thrillers ever made, you’ll find murder, political intrigue, espionage, conspiracy, manipulation, gaslighting and, of course, lots and lots of crime. You’ll also find examples of science fiction, horror, heists, action, even comedy, along with sex-crazed ‘erotic thrillers’ and the ever-nebulous ‘psychological thriller’ subdivision. But no matter how they go about it, the best thrillers will always grab your attention, make you sweat and leave you breathless. Here are the 100 greatest thriller movies ever, ranked by the editors at TimeOut.

How “The Lady Gangster of New

York” Brought Down A Corrupt Mayor

     In 1931, Judge Samuel Seabury was leading an investigation for Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt into corruption in New York City’s magistrate courts when a witness in the investigation named Vivian Gordon was found murdered in the Bronx. Because of the public demand for answers in this high-profile murder case, FDR could no longer keep his uneasy peace with Tammany Hall and expanded the scope of Seabury’s investigation. What Seabury’s team uncovered brought down Mayor Jimmy Walker and began to topple ta long-standing stranglehold on New York City politics.

     As Anthony M. Destafano writes in his new book, Vivian Gordon: The Lady Gangster of Jazz Age New York, the victim had gone from being a convent-educated woman to a struggling Broadway actress and, later, a racketeer who dealt with such legendary gangsters of the period as Jack “Legs” Diamond, Arnold “the Brain” Rothstein, and Charles “Vannie” Higgins. She ran a particular racket in which women she worked with enticed men—usually of the rich and high-status variety—into liaisons. The men then became easy pickings for their extortionate demands of cash, jewelry, or other favors to keep their indiscretions secret.

     In the process, Gordon made a slew of enemies, and days after she decided to testify in Seabury’s corruption probe, she was found strangled to death at age 39. Her death sparked calls for an investigation of Walker’s administration and the lawless atmosphere that pervaded Prohibition-era New York, ultimately leading Walker to resign.

Britain's Simon “The Saint” Templar

…And The Man Who Created Him

     From 1962 to 1969, the British TV program The Saint starring Roger Moore was amongst the most successful series on the planet. Broadcast in the U.S. on NBC and in 60 other countries across the globe, the adventure serial’s central character, Simon Templar, wore immaculate sixties clothes, drove a stylish Volvo P1800 sports car (reputedly, Jaguar refused to loan the production company an E-type), and emerged from every fistfight looking like he’d just come out of the barbershop after a shave and haircut.

     As recently noted in Murder-Mayhem, The Saint was as debonair as Cary Grant and lived the life of a wealthy playboy, but his day job was fighting crime. He was part vigilante, part secret agent, a cross between James Bond and Batman. While The Saint typically is associated with the days of Swinging London, he actually made his debut back in the Jazz Age at the hands of Leslie Charteris, whose real name was Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, born in 1907 in Singapore to a Chinese doctor and an Englishwoman. Regarded with suspicion by both English and Chinese schoolmates, the young boy sought escape in swashbuckling adventure yarns that filled British comic books, eventually devouring stories about such gallant and mysterious heroes as Baroness Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel. 

     The British boarding school Charteris attended was a rough place for a mixed-race child, but in his first year at Cambridge University, he wrote a thriller, X Esquire, about a supervillain menacing Britain with poisoned cigarettes. When it was accepted for publication he dropped out, determined to pursue a career as a writer and gentleman adventurer.

Se7en, And Nine Other Seriously Disturbing Thrillers, Ranked

     While disturbing films are often associated with the horror genre, thrillers often surpass them in their dark subject matter. As S.K. Sapiano recently wrote in Collider, thrillers usually feature more active protagonists than do horror movies, and there is greater potential for creating compelling anti-hero narratives that show protagonists voluntarily venturing into the darkness against their better judgment. “Dark thrillers can come in many forms, ranging from intense action-heavy revenge stories to unsettling slow-burn narratives,” she says. “Making use of graphic imagery, mounting dread, and troubling subject matter, a great dark thriller can make its audience feel as if they are experiencing the events right alongside the characters, creating a strong investment in the story.”

      With all this in mind, Sapiano compiled a list of what she says are some of the most disturbing and most intense thrillers ever made—from Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut to Park Chan-wook's Oldboy to David Fincher’s Se7en.

Now Available!

Beyond All Doubt

[Reed Bunzel writing as Hilton Reed]

“Beyond All Doubt is an edge-of-your-seat fast-moving thrill-ride, kicked off by the reappearance of a dead man and propelling the reader along to the final bullet—and beyond.”— S.J. Rozan, best-selling author of The Mayors of New York

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“Beyond All Doubt is a taut, smart, and emotionally rich thriller. Reed has a sharp eye for character and a screenwriter's feel for action. This tale is sleek as a mink and fast as a bullet.”— T. Jefferson Parker, author of The Rescue

“Beyond All Doubt is not a 'who done it,' but a twisty, compelling 'who did what.' Cameron Kane is a sympathetic, yet unrelenting bulldog in his pursuit of the truth about his wife's death. Intriguing and intense, Beyond All Doubt is a winner!”—Matt Coyle, bestselling author of the Rick Cahill crime novels

“In this action-packed and engrossing thriller, Reed masterfully balances between a husband’s drive to uncover the truth about his wife’s death and a father’s instinct to protect his family at all costs. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down!”— Matthew Farrell, bestselling author of The Woman at Number 6

“Beyond All Doubt has plenty of thrills—deadly snipers, false identities, shocking deaths—but at its heart, this book is about a grieving single father whose desperation propels the plot like a speeding car with its brake lines cut.”— Cayce Osborne, author of I Know What You Did