Eric Van Lustbader: writer of thrillers and fantasy fictions
Eric Van Lustbader’s first novel, The Sunset Warrior, was published in 1975. Since then, he has published more than 35 best-selling novels, beginning with The Ninja, a New York Times Bestseller for 24 consecutive weeks. The Ninja introduced Nicholas Linnear, one of modern fiction’s most beloved and enduring heroes, continuing his exploits in five subsequent best-sellers. It also introduced the Western world to the Japanese term itself.
He is also the author of a number of short stories, screenplays and novellas. Three of the short stories appeared in 1999: Hush, in Off The Beaten Path: Stories of Place for Farrar, Strauss and Giroux; Slow Burn, in Murder And Obsession for Delacourt Press, and An Exultation of Termagants in the millennial supernatural mega-collection 1999 for Avon Books. A highly successful short novel, Art Kills, was published in 2000 by Carroll & Graf. He also has two stories in anthologies from the International Thriller Writers, an organisation of which he is a long-time member.
In 2000, Lustbader was asked by DC Comics to write a graphic novel. He chose to write about his favourite childhood comic character, Batman. The result was Batman - The Dark Angel, which was the only graphic novel to be chosen as a Monthly Choice of the Quality Paperback Book Club.
In 2008, Lustbader wrote First Daughter to wide acclaim. The novel features Jack McClure and Alli Carson, Lustbader’s first continuing characters since Nicholas Linnear and Jake Maroc. There are five books in the McClure series.
At the beginning of 2020, he stepped away from the Bourne franchise to concentrate on a new series, starring Evan Ryder, a female field agent with a complicated and surprising past. The Nemesis Manifesto, the first novel in the series, was published in 2020. The follow-up, The Kobalt Dossier, was published in June 2021. The third Evan Ryder novel, Omega Rules, was published in May 2022.
Lustbader was born and raised in Greenwich Village, where he developed an interest in art as well as in writing. He lived downstairs from the young Lauren Bacall and built orange-crate racers in Washington Square Park with Keith and David Carradine. He is a graduate of Columbia College, with a degree in Sociology, but his real education came much earlier at The City & Country School where, as Lustbader, is fond of saying: “I learned all the important lessons that would stay with me for life.”
He was the first writer in the US to write about Elton John and to predict his success. As a consequence, he, Elton and Elton’s lyricist Bernie Taupin became friends. Writing for Cash Box Magazine, he also predicted the successes of such bands as Santana, Roxy Music, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, David Bowie, and The Who, among others.
He is a second-level Reiki master and he listens to music constantly and is always ever on the lookout for new bands and artistes. He and his wife, the author and editor Victoria Lustbader, live on the eastern end of Long Island.
