James Patterson has written around 200 books, often with famous co-authors ranging from President Bill Clinton to Dolly Parton.But his latest collaboration presented the perennial bestseller with a first: Write with an author who is no longer alive.
Patterson got a call in 2022 asking if he’d finish a manuscript by Michael Crichton, the creative mind behind “Jurassic Park,” “Westworld” and the TV show “ER,” who died from cancer at 66 in 2008.
Patterson’s keen “Yes!” to that question has yielded “Eruption” (out Monday), a volcanic man versus mother nature page-turner that, according to Patterson and Crichton’s widow, Sherri Crichton, will eventually be coming to a movie theater near you.
“We can’t say much about who we’re talking to, but we think this movie has the potential to be one of those raise-the-bar blockbusters like ‘Jurassic Park’ was,” says Patterson, demurring when asked if Crichton’s good pal – Steven Spielberg – was in the mix.
For Sherri Crichton, the book and the possible movie are nothing short of a miraculous return of a man who she married in 2005 and abruptly lost while carrying their now 15-year-old son, John Michael.
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“We lost him too early,” says Crichton, tearing up. “He was not done. He was in his professional prime.”
For those unfamiliar with Crichton, the summary is: wildly prolific Harvard-educated doctor turned writer who leveraged real science to spin fantastic yarns that captured millions.
Crichton famously is the only writer to have a No. 1 book, movie and TV show at the same time – twice. For the curious, that would be: In 1995, “The Lost World,” “Congo” and “ER,” and a year later a repeat with “Airframe,” “Twister” and “ER.”
Patterson, 77, may well have sold some 425 million books to date, but even he concedes his current co-author had some magic chops.
“The thing about Michael’s work is you always felt after reading it you had learned something, and a lot of people like that,” says Patterson. “I didn’t feel pressure so much as I felt dutiful. I had a responsibility, to Sherri and to Michael. I think it worked out. I defy anyone to figure out where (in ‘Eruption’) Michael’s work ends and where mine begins.”
Without spoiling anything, “Eruption” is the story of a gruff unlucky-in-love volcanologist, John “Mac” MacGregor, whose outpost on the Big Island of Hawaii suddenly becomes ground zero for a possible global Armageddon when one of the island’s two volcanoes gets set to erupt.
The book is a classic summer beach read, with many of its 400 pages broken into two- or three-page chapters that each end in cliffhanger fashion. “Eruption” will revive the art of speed-reading. And Patterson is correct: the story is told with a singular voice that is a compelling amalgam of the two writers.
So how it is that “Eruption” was laying dormant for all these years? Crichton says after her husband died, she was eager to dive into his office archives, both digital and physical, as a way of bringing her closer to him. In that process, she unearthed countless hard drives and folders that hinted at myriad in-the-works projects.
But she soon realized Crichton was almost obsessed with the story of an impending volcanic disaster.
Her husband would detour often on trips to Hawaii to research Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, the island’s twin dynamos, and their honeymoon to Italy included a stop in Pompeii, which was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
“The manuscript he had started in 1994 was called ‘Vulcan’ at first, and later it was ‘The Black Zone,’ but when I dug deeper I could tell his research in this area went back to the 1970s,” she says.
Once she turned over the partial manuscript, notes and other research to Patterson, the two stayed in close touch. “The pages came fast from Jim," she says. "Michael also wrote fast. I could tell I’d made the right decision."
Patterson says other than hiring a few volcano experts as consultants, he dug into the work by himself. “It came naturally,” he says. “The science was a challenge for me, but I feel more and more comfortable with that.”
The only time to two truly compared notes was in sections of the new book that tackle the sentiments of native Hawaiians vis-à-vis nature, science and white leadership on the islands.
“I just wanted to be sure that all that was handled carefully,” says Crichton. “We had to be sensitive to the culture, and Jim was very gracious about all that. It worked out well.”
One of the best parts about digging into her husband’s treasure trove was being able to share his meticulous thought process and story-outlining method with the couple’s teenage son.
“I would say look at how your father pieced things together,” says Crichton. “John Michael is 6-foot-5 and almost as tall as his father (Crichton was 6-foot-9), and he is a very good writer. I said to him, ‘Honey, your father left you all these pieces, maybe one day you can finish them.’ He said, ‘I could but I have my own ideas.’ I laughed and said ‘Touche.’”
Crichton says that there could well be more collaborative works coming out of her late husband’s archives, but she’s not focused too much on that just now.
“I’m simply pleased this worked out,” she says. “Michael didn’t read much fiction, but he did have two (Patterson) Alex Cross books in his library. So I just loved the idea of two of the most powerful storytellers of our time coming together.”
