Brad Meltzer stopped by Good Morning America to discuss his latest book, The Viper.
Meltzer’s thriller novel, scheduled for release on Tuesday by William Morrow, is the third installment in his series of books featuring mortician Jim “Zig” Zigarowski and sketch artist Nola Brown, following The Escape Artist and The Lightning Rod. In The Viper, the two try to solve the murder of a dying man with a secret; a critic for Kirkus called the book “dark and quirky fun.”
GMA co-anchor George Stephanopoulos noted that the book takes place “in a very special, very rarefied world,” Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
“Dover’s a place where all of our fallen soldiers go, where our secret spies go, where the astronauts went when the space shuttle exploded,” Meltzer said. “Dover’s a place that’s filled with secrets, and I love secrets. So I wanted to bring people into this world where you can’t really go. And where’s America’s most secretive funeral home? It’s in Dover, of all places. And I thought, That’s the best place to [set] a thriller.”
Stephanopoulos mentioned the epigraph from The Viper, a quote from journalist Dale Maharidge: “I don’t believe in closure. I don’t think we ever really get over anything.”
“When it comes to closure, there’s a term I found, called pentimento, and it’s a painting term for when…the paint gets so dry and brittle that it becomes transparent,” Meltzer said. “You can actually see the pencilwork on the canvas. So as a result, you can see the artist’s mistakes; you can see their first drafts.…So for me, closure is overrated. What we have to do is love ourselves for who we are. That’s why The Viper is my most personal book, is because I finally realized that.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
