Mark Knopfler, Rüdiger and Me

Click cover to buy on AmazonI recently wrote a short story called Rudiger.  Ititled it and created the main character, John Rudiger, based on emotionsevoked by a song called Rüdiger by Mark Knopfler.   For those of you who don't know him by name, MarkKnopfler is better recognized as the front man, guitarist and creative forcebehind the now disbanded rock group, Dire Straits.  Rüdiger is from Knopfler's first solo album, GoldenHeart.  Rüdiger has a haunting melody and soft backing instrumentsand vocals behind Knopfler's trademark lead guitar and gravelly voice withlyrics that linger.
A link to Knopfler performing the song on Youtube in 1996,when it was released, is here: http://tinyurl.com/423d85w
The melody and pace of the song always called to mind theimage of someone skulking around with something to hide.  For years I've thought of writing astory about a crook hiding out in the Caribbean from the authorities, and everytime I thought about it the song, Rüdiger, played in my head.  So, I wrote the story.
In it, John Rudiger is a fugitive financier living under analias in the Caribbean, because he ran off with close to $100 million from hishedge fund ten years ago.  He's now down to his last $2 million. Katie Dolan, a lawyer with the US Attorney's Office in New York, is sent toAntigua to try to get enough evidence to extradite Rudiger back to the US tostand trial.  Rudiger recruits her to help him retrieve $50 million ofstolen bearer bonds he can't get otherwise get out of a safe deposit box in NewYork.
Katie is no dope, and neither is Rudiger, and each one hasto figure out who's scamming who as they work their plan to sneak the bonds outfrom under the nose of Charlie Holden, Katie's boss, the Assistant US Attorneyin New York (a character reprised from my Wall Street novel, Bull Street), who's wise to both of them.
I enjoyed the characters and writing the story so much thatI'm creating a series out of it, called the White Collar Crime Stories.  Rudiger and Katie will be back, andother shady types will be introduced as well.  I hope you'll give Rudiger a try.
Rudiger is a 10,000word short story, the first in the White Collar Crime Stories.


Read an excerpt from Rudiger
Buy Rudiger
Visit David Lender's website