Mark Knopfler, Rüdiger and Me
I recently wrote a short story called Rudiger. I titled it and created the main character, John Rudiger, based on emotions evoked by a song called “Rüdiger” by Mark Knopfler. For those of you who don’t know him by name, Mark Knopfler is better recognized as the front man, guitarist and creative force behind the now disbanded rock group, Dire Straits. “Rüdiger” is from Knopfler’s first solo album, Golden Heart. “Rüdiger” has a haunting melody and soft backing instruments and vocals behind Knopfler’s trademark lead guitar and gravelly voice with lyrics that linger.
A link to Knopfler performing the song on YouTube in 1996, when it was released, is here: http://tinyurl.com/423d85w
The melody and pace of the song always called to mind the image of someone skulking around with something to hide. For years I’ve thought of writing a story about a crook hiding out in the Caribbean from the authorities, and every time I thought about it the song, “Rüdiger,” played in my head. So, I wrote the story.
In it, John Rudiger is a fugitive financier living under an alias in the Caribbean, because he ran off with close to $100 million from his hedge fund ten years ago. He’s now down to his last $2 million. Katie Dolan, a lawyer with the US Attorney’s Office in New York, is sent to Antigua to try to get enough evidence to extradite Rudiger back to the US to stand trial. Rudiger recruits her to help him retrieve $50 million of stolen bearer bonds he can’t get otherwise get out of a safe deposit box in New York.
Katie is no dope, and neither is Rudiger, and each one has to figure out who’s scamming who as they work their plan to sneak the bonds out from under the nose of Charlie Holden, Katie’s boss, the Assistant US Attorney in New York (a character reprised from my Wall Street novel, Bull Street), who’s wise to both of them.
I enjoyed the characters and writing the story so much that I’m creating a series out of it, called the White Collar Crime Series. Rudiger and Katie will be back, and other shady types will be introduced as well. I hope you’ll give Rudiger a try.
Update: since I wrote this post I introduced a new short story about Rudiger, Rudiger Comes Alive. It’s the prequel to Rudiger, about how Walter Conklin, wunderkind hedge fund manager who runs a $1 billion technology fund, gets stuck between his CFO cooking the books to draw in more investors, Charlie Holden on his trail to arrest him, and his wife Angela, who’s never at a loss for (sharp) words. Leaving the country begins to seem like a viable option to him.
Rudiger is a 10,000 word short story.
Rudiger Comes Alive is a 13,000 word short story.
Read an excerpt from Rudiger Comes Alive
Now Rudiger’s subsequent adventures are available in the collection, Rudiger Stories. And a Rudiger novel, Spin Move, takes Rudiger and Katie on a new jaunt from the Caribbean to Africa, Continental Europe and the UK. I hope you’ll give them a try as well.
Buy Rudiger Stories: Buy US Buy UK
SIGN-UP TO BE AN INSIDER
Looking forward to reading the first of the series, an exciting premise. Is there a love story between Katie and Rudiger in the future?
Yes and no; they can't trust each other, but they can't seem to stay away from each other. So I guess it works. There will be more stories with them in the future. I hope you like this one.
I'm giving you the versatile blogger award! Check out my blog http://fromstephskitchen.blogspot.com/ to receive it.
I'm a fan of Mark Knopfler, and stories inspired by music. Yours sounds great!
Thanks. I love the song, and it evokes a mood that I started this story with, and I think I captured it in Rudiger's personality.
Mark is really pretty great. I love dire strats and I cant even fathom how he plays some of the things he does without a pick. Great post keep up the hard work. Check these out IStillGotMyGuitar.
Thank you, I enjoyed the story behind Rudiger. I was only a few words into your post and the song that popped up in my head was E.T. by Katy Perry. When I wrote Flashback To The Dragon, a story about a serial killer with a mommy complex, I played that song over and over again because of its haunting melody and what evoked in me erotic visions over the wording.
It is interesting to see how much music moves you. Congratulations on your series.
I have been a Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler fan for many, many, (many) years. I know a lot of his songs have been inspired by his experiences, people he's met, and books that he's read. It's a nice tribute for one of his songs to trigger the creativeness of someone else. Congrats on your book.
Nigel – I'm obviously a fan of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits as well. Thanks for reading and for your comments.
Well, what can i say that wasn't already said…i'm a huge Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler fan and saw them live more than 10 times and that song is one of the highlights of Golden Heart, along with Darling Pretty, Are We In Trouble Now and the title track. I'm sure your book will be a bestseller!!! Congrats Telmo from Portugal