Rick Mofina is a former crime reporter and the award-winning author of several acclaimed thrillers. He's interviewed murderers face-to-face on death row and patrolled with the LAPD and the RCMP, and his true-crime articles have appeared in the New York Times, Marie Claire, Reader's Digest and Penthouse.His latest novel is The Burning Edge.
Not so long ago I asked Mofina what he was reading. His reply:
Right now I am reading True Grit by Charles Portis. I confess that my introduction to the story came through the John Wayne movie when I was probably about the same age as the heroine, 14-year-old Mattie Ross. Mattie's quest isVisit Rick Mofina's website.justice for the murder of her father by Tom Chaney, a former hired hand. She hires crusty U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn to help her pursue the killer. I loved the story and began looking into the book. Having learned that the tale, as written by Portis, is actually told through Mattie's recollection as an old woman, intrigued me. I had always intended to seek it out and read it. The story exceeds the movie, Mattie's voice is a masterstroke. The book is as mesmerizing as it is entertaining. I think it deserves to be ranked with anything created by Twain or Faulkner. And I have never lost sight of the fact that it could also be called one of the best crime stories ever written.
--Marshal Zeringue
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