– Review by 17x New York Times bestselling thriller author, John Lescroart:
“Killer book. I loved every page of it. CONFLICTED is a total winner on every level. Great courtroom stuff, great characters, great plot, narrative mega-drive and – in Dave Splatter, P.I. – a stand-alone hero for the ages.”
– Review by New York Times bestselling author/former OMNI Editor-in-Chief Keith Ferrell:
“Steve Eggleston’s Conflicted is a chilling, funny, moving, shocking thriller and Eggleston keeps every one of those elements in balance as he moves his story at a breakneck pace through as delicious a set of complications, re-complications, and surprises as I’ve seen in a long time. Trip Splatter may well be the most unusual and distinctive investigator to be introduced this decade, and eagerly I look forward to his next adventure.”
– Review by Bestselling Author of Bohemian Heart and 1906, James Dalessandro:
“If the law ever produced a more colorful character than Steve Eggleston himself, I’d probably be afraid to meet him. Eggleston has taken that colorful, irreverent personae of his – and an encyclopedic knowledge of the law and the characters who pass through that suspense-filled world – and created a character as colorful and outrageous as his name: Trip Splatter. Conflicted is a roller coaster ride through the dark and twisted world of criminals and those who hunt them.”
“Killer book. I loved every page of it…
CONFLICTED is a total winner on every level.
Great courtroom stuff, great characters, great
plot, narrative mega-drive and – in Dave Splatter,
P.I. – a stand-alone hero for the ages.”— John Lescroart, 17 x New York Times Bestselling
Thriller Author
“Steve Eggleston’s Conflicted is a chilling, funny, moving, shocking thriller
and Eggleston keeps every one of those elements in balance as he moves his
story at a breakneck pace through as delicious a set of complications, recomplications,
and surprises as I’ve seen in a long time. Trip Splatter may
well be the most unusual and distinctive investigator to be introduced this
decade, and eagerly I look forward to his next adventure.”— Keith Ferrell, New York Times Bestselling Author and Former OMNI Editor in Chief
“If the law ever produced a more colorful character than Steve Eggleston
himself, I’d probably be afraid to meet him. Eggleston has taken that
colorful, irreverent personae of his – and an encyclopedic knowledge of the
law and the characters who pass through that suspense-filled world – and
created a character as colorful and outrageous as his name: Trip Splatter.
Conflicted is a roller coaster ride through the dark and twisted world of
criminals and those who hunt them.”— James Dalessandro, Author of Bohemian Heart and 1906
“Conflicted” was my first fiction work, my first legal thriller, and my first detective novel. It took me ten years to evolve the story, and three years and three page-one re-writes to get it to where I wanted to go. In the first draft, the lawyer was the hero and it was written in third-person past tense. That version bored me, so I re-wrote it in present-tense first-person, from the attorney’s point-of-view. I smelled blood, knowing I might have a great book if I could rewrite it again with a killer twist.
I did. The third re-write switched protagonists to the attorney’s best friend with the wild and crazy name of Trip Splatter, who told the story in first-person present-tense progressive from his viewpoint as the attorney’s distinctive and unusual detective and best friend. Only then, in this third draft, did the science of writing become art.
“Conflicted” launched my writing career as it is today, but “Conflicted” almost didn’t get written at all. It started off as a screenplay until my pal, Paul Aratow, producer of “Sheena, Queen of the Jungle,” and founder of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, said, “Stevie, darling, put down the screenplay and write a book. You’re prolific and good and smart and most importantly, only 150 movies get made each year. Stop playing the lottery with your career and make it happen.”
And ladies and gentlemen, that’s the power of books. No one can stop us from writing them, and today, with self-publishing and indie-publishing at its zenith, a book can be released to as wide an audience as the power of your marketing can reach. Some books go viral, some sit on a shelf, but all of them tell a story that needs to be told. When “Conflicted” was finally finished, our mutual friend Peter Miller – the literary lion whom I mention throughout the website – took me on.
With Peter’s gravitas, John Lescroart, 17 x New Times thriller bestseller, agreed to review the book. His highly-praiseworthy review and those of several others, on the wings of Paul’s idea, lifted my writing career to a higher level, making it possible for me to be where I am today. Here are several reviews that make me proud I became a professional writer.