How James Patterson completed Michael Crichton’s “Eruption”

If you want to feel awe, try standing near an erupting volcano. The late author Michael Crichton was fascinated by volcanoes for most of his life. And even now, 16 years after his death, among the countless books and documents in his Santa Monica office you will find piles of research on volcanoes.

For his widow, Sherri Alexander Crichton, it’s almost as if he’s still here. “I feel his energy all the time,” she said.

And in the mountain of papers he left behind, she found parts of an unfinished novel centered on a massive volcanic eruption. It seemed to Sherri like something he’d like to share — a posthumous blockbuster from someone who, in his relatively short life, gave so much to the world, including genetically recreated dinosaurs.

In the literary world, Michael Crichton was a colossus – the only writer to have a number one book, film and TV show in the same year. He was also a Harvard-educated doctor, a prolific genius who created scientific thrillers that took millions of people on thrilling rides, from big city emergency rooms in “ER,” to the tornado-ravaged heartland in “Twister,” to places that exist only in our dreams (and nightmares), like “Jurassic Park”.

Sherri Crichton remembers him as incredibly fun but sometimes distant. “I remember when I first started dating Michael, a very dear friend of mine said, ‘Sherri, this is what it’s going to be like: it’s going to seem like he doesn’t want anything to do with you when he’s writing. like he still loves you because he’s going to like the book and you’re going to have to accept that. And I thought, ‘Of course, of course I’ll be fine.’

“But when it happened, like those first few times when he really separated, he was present, but he was actually still in his creation, whatever that was,” she said.

She admits it was a difficult time: “And it took a lot of self-confidence to be able to tell myself, ‘It’s going to be okay. Let’s wait another month. Let’s see how it goes.'”

They married in 2005, but three years later, Michael Crichton died of cancer at age 66, leaving Sherri alone and six months pregnant with their son, John Michael.

As she pieced together her life, she discovered and read parts of the volcano book he was working on, a book about a massive eruption in Hawaii, worse than any in history.

It ended abruptly. “But I kept thinking, ‘There has to be more,’” Sherri said.

And then, after more than a decade, she decided it was time to call it quits. But then there was the question of who. “I just grew up. I thought, ‘What about James Patterson?'”

James Patterson is one of the most successful authors in history, who has sold an estimated 400 million books and collaborated with people like President Bill Clinton It is Dolly Parton. The truth is that Patterson has a backlog of projects that keep him working every day. But when Sherri Crichton called, he answered. And Michael Crichton’s story – about the explosive volcano and the fact that it threatens to open up a pile of toxic waste so potent it could destroy life on planet Earth – was too good for him to pass up.

But finishing the book was a difficult task for Patterson and Sherri Crichton.

She said she was apprehensive at first: “I was nervous because it’s a new relationship,” Sherri said.

Patterson added: “And she lives in Hollywood, and people lie out there!”

“I must say that I am fiercely protective of Michael’s materials,” she said.

WEB EXTRA: James Patterson on the “gift” of a new Michael Crichton thriller (YouTube video)

And how did Patterson find Michael Crichton’s voice – or was it necessary? He said: “I’ve read everything Michael Crichton has written. So I think I had a sense of voice. This book might be a little faster than some of his books, just a little bit. But I had a feeling about it. I challenge people to come out and say: This is where Michael stopped and this is where James began. And I’m very proud of that. I’m very happy with that.”

The final result – “Eruption” by Michael Crichton and James Patterson – will be released tomorrow.

Patterson said: “There’s a quote – I don’t know where this comes from, and it’s not me, but I love it, and it ties into the fact that I took on this project, and I think it’s most valuable, actually, for young people from 20 years. of what is for me – and the quote is: ‘My time here is short; what can I do more beautifully?’

“And I felt like with ‘Eruption’ and Michael Crichton, I thought I could do it beautifully,” Patterson said.

He’s not wrong; Word has it that the finished book has studios clamoring for the film rights.

And it is also true to the spirit of the man who started it. Sherri said: “He was amazing. He was vulnerable and kind.”

And now, their work will live on, in a team effort that is highly anticipated and – at least for Sherri Crichton – worth waiting for.

“I was single until I met Michael,” she said. “And people used to ask, ‘Why are you so picky?’ And I say, ‘It’s still not right.’ So I waited.

“And it was the same thing with Jim. … I waited on this manuscript until I felt like the time was right, that I had all the pieces of the puzzle. OK!”

READ AN EXCERPT: “Eruption” by Michael Crichton and James Patterson

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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Mike Levine.