Pikes Peak Writers sponsored a "read the book, see the movie" night, Thursday, February 7, 2008, featuring The Bone Collector, a 1999 movie based on the book of the same title, written by the New York Times best-selling author, Jeffery Deaver.

Hosted by the Business of Arts Center in Manitou Springs, a mixed audience of book readers and movie goers stayed for a short question and answer session after the movie, led by PPW's president, Christine Mandeville.

There were differences between the book and the movie. Barb Nickless gave the best eight-word review of a movie, but those of us from PPW, readers as well as writers, had high expectations of seeing a movie that turned out to be more loosely based on the book than we expected.

Deaver's premise of a brilliant quadriplegic cop and a patrol officer cum crime scene investigator features a slowly building relationship between Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia, excellently played by Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. The interaction between healthy, yet vulnerable female and mentally superior but crippled male is interrupted by an occasional heart-stopping fright when the killer strikes and you think, "Oh no. Not that!"

The directors, Phillip Noyce and Jonathan Goldman played a few tricks on their movie audience by changing the physiology of the main character and also by changing the murderous motivation of a completely different serial killer. He even had the 'bad cop', Captain Cheney's character actor don a ski mask to play out the actions of a silent, but lethal villain in order to mislead those of us who had read the book.

According to Chris Mandeville, Deaver says that he is in the business of writing suspense. As an author, Deaver separated himself completely from the making of the movie.

Jeffery Deaver believes his readers want suspense, not gore. His book, The Bone Collector was written as a stand-alone novel, like many of his books. The Bone Collector was published as a single story about a quadriplegic cop, armed only with computers and friends on the force, who forever changes the career direction of a young, female patrol officer, giving him reason to stay alive. But readers loved the symbiotic characters, and demanded more. Being in the business of writing what readers want, Deaver has written a total of eight books to date in this series.

Deaver does all his own research, about eight months worth before he writes his books. He writes between eight and ten hours a day. Chris Mandeville has been in email contact with him to ask such questions.

It is Chris Mandeville's opinion that Deaver writes without agenda or social commentary on the life of a maimed character. All the electronic gadgets in the world can not enable Rhyme to walk on water, rather from his hospital bed, he must use people to perform his legwork.

They say the art of deductive reasoning brings no new facts to light within the conclusion. Deductive reasoning merely rearranges the known data to present a foregone conclusion in a different light. Rhyme is a character who can only manipulate arrangements of fact in order to spotlight a killer. And readers love Rhyme for what he is.

The Business of Arts Center, located at Venue 515 on Manitou Springs Avenue, is a nonprofit, educational center for artists, where workshops are given about the business side of art, similar to PPW's Write Brain workshops for writers to learn about the business of writing. Visitors are invited and encouraged to tour the studios. Their gallery has new exhibits every four to six weeks.

For more information on the Business of Arts Center, please telephone: (719) 685-1861 or visit their website: www.thebac.org.

There is a free movie night held at the Business of Arts Center every month. Craig leads the audience in social discussion at the end of each thought-provoking film.

A Business of Arts staff member, an illiterate movie lover shod in workman's boots with loose rubber soles which he showed to me as he walked this reporter thru a light snow flurry to the car, made the comment that "The killer wanted to get the better of the cop." That pretty much sums up the mystery for this movie, The Bone Collector.

Author Jeffery Deaver will be the keynote speaker at a special, afternoon Pikes Peak Writers Workshop and banquet Saturday, March 1, 2008, at the Colorado Springs Marriott Hotel. The public is welcome, but reservations are required. For more information on this event, visit the Pikes Peak Writers website, www.pikespeakwriters.com.