Archive for the ‘planet awards’ Category

Rave review from Starburst Magazine for my new thriller novel STOPPING POWER!

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2021

“Prolific author and film director Eric Red has previously shown us very memorably that those long open sparsely populated highways just aren’t safe both with his screenplay The Hitcher, filmed with Rutger Hauer in 1986 and more recently with the homicidal trucker in his novel White Knuckle, which is in pre-production at the moment.

Well, put the key in the ignition and rev up, Eric Red takes us on another dizzying, high octane, pedal to the metal thriller. Stopping Power is a gripping thriller that evokes the very best cinematic vehicular mayhem movies. Imagine Vanishing Point, crossed with Speed and the infamous O.J. Simpson car chase and enjoy the wild ride. Stephanie Power is taking a well-deserved break with her teenaged daughter. They’re on a road trip in a luxury motorhome. Pulling up to refuel, Stephanie finds the motorhome and daughter missing. Both have been taken by a desperate and lethal bank robber Ilse Bakke, who demands that Stephanie drive around in her original getaway car, as a decoy for the police while Bakke drives to freedom in the other direction. If Stephanie stops, or is caught by the increasingly trigger-happy police – the daughter dies. Of course, Bakke can see everything on the live TV news feed.

Stopping Power is a rapidly paced page turner from the first paragraph, and is tightly written with a staccato beat that screams for the book to be filmed. This is Red’s uniquely visual writing style – he writes like a film director. An interesting device used to great effect in this book is applying the normal third person narrative for the bulk of the book, but using the first person for the sequences detailing Stephanie’s thoughts and feelings as the main protagonist. But IS she really the main character? Ilse Bakke as the truly psychopathic schizophrenic villain is a memorably disturbing and well drawn character, eliciting both sympathy, repugnance and fear. She is the perfect character foil to test just how far a mother will go to protect her daughter, and to explore the beginnings of Stockholm Syndrome between Bakke and her hostage.

All in all, this is another triumph for Eric Red.

4/5 stars.” – Robin Pierce, Starburst Magazine

The paperback is available in bookstores and on Amazon at amzn.to/3nKcc8V

Kindle edition will be released on December 3rd.

My road-thriller novel WHITE KNUCKLE now available in Kindle edition.

Thursday, October 14th, 2021

WHITE KNUCKLE is now available in Kindle editions for eBook readers at: https://amzn.to/3jm3k8n

Read the book and see the movie, soon to be filmed starring Gina Carano produced by Dallas Sonnier!

My novel WHITE KNUCKLE soon to be a major motion picture starring Gina Carano is back in print.

Saturday, September 4th, 2021

By popular demand, my road-thriller novel WHITE KNUCKLE currently being made as a movie starring Gina Carano is finally back in print in new trade paperback and Kindle Editions from Seidelman & Company.  Read the book that started it all that William Friedkin director of The Exorcist and The French Connection calls “Terrific stuff. Great suspense!”
Available in bookstores or on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/2WNcC5e

I’m very honored to be inducted into the Arrow in the Head at JoBlo.com Horror Hall of Fame!

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2020

Watch the YouTube video at: https://bit.ly/3po8uAX

My road thriller novel WHITE KNUCKLE won second place as Thriller Of The Year at the 2020 Planet Awards in Berlin, Germany.

Saturday, November 28th, 2020

I’m honored WHITE KNUCKLE received the Planet Award.

The novel was recently published in a beautiful new German translation edition from Berlin publisher Savage Types.

From the publisher’s description:  “There’s a killer on the road… He’s a big rig truck driver who goes by the CB handle White Knuckle, and he’s Jack the Ripper on eighteen wheels. For thirty years he has murdered hundreds of women in unimaginable ways, imprisoning them in a secret compartment in his truck, abducting them in one state and dumping their dead bodies across the country. Dedicated FBI agent Sharon Ormsby is on a mission to hunt down and stop White Knuckle. She goes undercover as a truck driver with a helpful long hauler named Rudy in a cross-country pursuit that will ultimately bring her face-to-face with White Knuckle in a pedal-to-the-metal, high-octane climax on a highway to Hell.”

Here’s what people had to say about WHITE KNUCKLE:

“Eric Red is the successor to Richard Matheson and Robert Bloch. And he proves it once again here in WHITE KNUCKLE with a “road” story that is every bit as memorable as Matheson’s DUEL. Partly horror with a psycho on the loose, partly police procedural, it’s a taut suspense story, and a welcome return to the road horror story by the man who defined this genre with his screenplays NEAR DARK and HITCHER. There is no padding in the story, the pacing moves as relentlessly as White Knuckle’s black Kenworth truck. Literally, no filler – all killer.”  – Robin Pierce, Starburst Magazine. (9/10 stars)

“The character of White Knuckle himself is one of the most gruesome and terrifying ever imagined. Like Thomas Harris did in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, Red demonstrates that the scariest monsters are flesh-and-blood humans we might see on any given day, with an altogether different attitude about the value of life. Eric Red is an author to discover and enjoy, and WHITE KNUCKLE is highly recommended for those who prefer their horror with a huge dose of reality. But avoid reading it before taking a road trip, unless you’re prepared to alter your route before hitting the road.” – Bookgasm.

“Absolutely compelling reading…While WHITE KNUCKLE is punctuated by brutal violence and high action, it’s really powered by its characters. FBI Agent Sharon Ormsby is an effective protagonist that really comes to life, a strong and smart woman with a real life and a past that she will have to confront. The action of the story rests on her able shoulders…You can’t be sure what the future has in store for any character, and you can’t get comfortable with anything or take anyone’s fate for granted.” – Tim Potter, The Horror Review.

“Rip-roaring, knuckle-biting, constantly suspenseful adventure in this riveting mystery thriller by the author of IT WAITS BELOW, WHITE KNUCKLE pits a probationary FBI Special Agent with a sad background and finely tuned intuition against a human monster–a long hauler trucker who began killing and torturing animals at age six and who has slaughtered women and girls in interstate rampages for four decades. Rife with high-octane tension, WHITE KNUCKLE is a Don t Miss, but don’t read while traveling the highways, or sleeping alone.” – Mallory Heart Reviews (Five star review)

“Red’s prose is hammer down all the way. If you’re looking for a good, solid read to wile away a few summer hours, WHITE KNUCKLE is certainly worth a look.” – Cemetery Dance.

“WHITE KNUCKLE is a tautly gripping thriller that keeps you on edge throughout the entire cross-country trek. It’s a heart-thudding thrill-ride that must be taken this summer.” – Arrow In The Head at JoBlo.com.

“WHITE KNUCKLE is one mean mutha truck driver.” – Jack Ketchum.