Al Roker and the Case of the Mystery-Writing Weatherman

The Daily Beast runs my profile of Al Roker, the TODAY Show's weatherman and feature reporter, on the day that his first mystery novel, THE MORNING SHOW MURDERS, is published. Here's how it opens:

Al Roker is a marvel of time management. He has to be, to keep up the rising-before-dawn regimen he’s maintained for more years than he can possibly count, the last 13 as the Today show’s weatherman and feature reporter. Since July, he’s had to roll back the wakeup call even earlier to co-host Wake Up with Al on The Weather Channel, starting at 6 a.m. Once his smiling face signs off NBC and its many affiliates by 10, there’s another few hours to put in at the office of his eponymous production company, responsible for a range of programming, from edible delicacies to murder and meth addiction. And that’s not factoring in last-minute travel plans, speaking engagements, or hosting gigs, like the two years he emceed the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Awards.

Now Roker has added another project to his already jam-packed schedule. The Morning Show Murders, written with award-winning crime writer Dick Lochte, is Roker’s first foray into fiction, and as the title suggests, it’s a mystery, and a pretty good one at that. Roker’s been reading the genre since he was 7 years old, he told The Daily Beast in a telephone conversation late last week. “The Hardy Boys, Edgar Allan Poe, the Nero Wolfe books in high school,” he said. “I’ve always loved the genre. My mother was an avid mystery reader, too. For years I told myself, ‘I’d love to write a mystery,’ but I never really thought I’d do it. Then in the last couple of years I figured it was as good a time as any to try.”

Eventually we get a bit more into process since much of the credit (right there on the book's cover, in fact) owes to Dick Lochte, whom I really hope benefits from the attention Roker's book has already received, including a lengthy piece by Craig Wilson in USA TODAY on Monday and more at Reuters and - of course! - the TODAY Show.

And yes, there are undoubtedly some similarities between real people and fictional characters, but oddly, Ben Lyons wasn't whom I was thinking of in this context.

Comments

[Mary Arrrr]

We watch him on the Weather Channel, and it was pretty funny this morning. Every time they cut away to someone in Atlanta, the person was ignoring the camera, reading the book. Or at least that was going on until the next weather on the 8s came up.

I was glad to see that the co-author was prominent enough on the cover for me to notice it, even in these jokey bits. Funny, I'm one of the people it will make MORE likely to read the book. I wonder how many it will turn off?