In the latest episode of Meet the Thriller Author, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Eric Rickstad, the New York Times and international bestselling author whose thrillers have captivated readers around the world. Known for his dark, atmospheric stories often set in small Vermont towns, Rickstad has a gift for exposing the shadowy layers beneath idyllic settings.
Eric shared how his lifelong love of reading—from Encyclopedia Brown to Poe—sparked an early interest in storytelling. Growing up around storytellers and steeped in film noir and Hitchcock, he gravitated toward suspense and crime fiction.
We dove into his latest series, REMOTE, which blends high-stakes suspense with real-life intrigue inspired by declassified CIA remote-viewing programs. Eric explained how his skepticism about the paranormal actually fueled the dynamic between his two central characters: hard-nosed FBI agent Lukas Stark and Garnier, a mysterious “remote viewer.”
Eric’s novels, including Lilith, I Am Not Who You Think I Am, What Remains of Her, and the Canaan Crime Series, have sold nearly 700,000 copies worldwide.
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The Remote Series Book 1
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Show Notes & Transcript
* Eric Rickstad grew up a voracious reader, started writing early, and gravitated to crime, victimhood, and the aftermath of violence; his first “short story” morphed into a debut novel.
* Vermont’s small towns and New England’s gothic woods shape his settings; an oral storytelling upbringing, film noir, and Hitchcock influence his darker crime bent.
* Key influences include Dennis Lehane, Tana French, and Kate Atkinson—he values immersive setting, language, and character detail over pure velocity.
* His style evolved: typically third-person, past tense, multiple POVs, but he’s experimented (e.g., Lilith in first-person present); he still lingers in scenes to build tension through character.
* The Remote series sprang from true CIA programs (LSD experiments, remote viewing) and the Wormwood documentary; a skeptic perspective forces the “remote viewer” to prove himself.
* Lucas Stark’s partnership evokes a Mulder/Scully dynamic; Rickstad outlines lightly, discovers as he writes, and crafted a manhunt around a killer staging family tableaux.
* He dismantles profiler myths: profiling aids peripherally but rarely catches killers; cites Bundy, Son of Sam, and BTK captures as driven by breaks, not profiles.
* Research included extensive calls with 25–30-year FBI veterans and ongoing access to Vermont’s lead homicide detective friend, grounding procedures and real-life logistics.
* Process: drafts longhand in notebooks (4–5 per novel), then types into Word as a built-in second draft; many rewrites; typical timeline ~18–24 months (som...
