Richard I Levine is a native New Yorker raised in the shadows of Yankee Stadium. After dabbling in several occupations and a one-year coast to coast wanderlust trip, this one-time volunteer fireman, bartender, and store manager returned to school to become a chiropractor. A twenty-three-year cancer survivor, he’s a strong advocate for the natural healing arts. Levine has four Indy-published novels and his fifth work, To Catch The Setting Sun, is published by The Wild Rose Press and was released in August 2022. In 2006 he wrote, produced and was on-air personality of the Dr. Rich Levine show on Seattle’s KKNW 1150AM and after a twenty-five year practice in Bellevue, Washington, he closed up shop in 2017 and moved to Oahu to pursue a dream of acting and being on Hawaii 5-O. While briefly working as a ghostwriter/community liaison for a local Honolulu City Councilmember, he appeared as a background actor in over twenty-five 5-Os and Magnum P.Is. Richard can be seen in his first co-star role in the Magnum P.I. third season episode “Easy Money”. He presently resides in Hawaii.
Where did you grow up?
I spent my early years in the Bronx, New York. My family lived in an apartment building that faced the right field ticket booths of old Yankee Stadium and to this day, I can clearly remember falling off to sleep on hot summer nights to the voices of Mel Allen and Phil Rizzuto crackling over my transistor radio while the rhythmic cheers from the ballpark accompanied the syncopated beats of the trains as they entered or exited the subway tunnel below us.
When did you begin writing?
I started writing when I was a teen. In high school I began writing song lyrics and took a couple of stabs at storyboarding potential novels but hadn’t been focused enough to resist distraction. However, the desire to take pen to paper had always remained with me. From the time I was a small child, I had always found it difficult to verbally express my thoughts and feelings. I was never one of those people who had the ability to fire off a quick retort in the heat of the moment. The perfect response to any situation would always come to me hours later. Writing always came easy. It was a natural and an enjoyable path for my mind to travel; an easy way to transform my daydreams into a world that others can experience and enjoy. As I got older, creating these worlds and the individuals who inhabit them became the distraction from the noise and nonsense of the real world.
What is this book about?
On the surface, this is a story of a serial killer on Oahu who is targeting young and beautiful native Hawaiian women and the Honolulu Police Detective—ex New Yorker Henry Benjamin—whose wife, Maya, was the first name on the killer’s list. As the story unfolds, we not only try to figure out who the killer is and why he’s targeting and taunting the detective, but who and why certain individuals within the Honolulu municipal hierarchy are making it difficult for Henry Benjamin to succeed in solving the case. Below the surface, this is a multifaceted story of overcoming personal and professional challenges, commitment, dedication, trust, betrayal, corruption, honesty, integrity, and if that wasn’t enough of a smorgasbord (LOL), this is also a love story between two people and their overwhelming attraction and passion for each other.
What inspired you to write it?
As with my other four novels, the ideas come to me from out of nowhere. With To Catch The Setting Sun it was a confluence of several separate, yet simultaneous, sensory experiences that triggered images which ignited the creative foundation for this story. Please allow me to explain. I’ve been involved with acting since my move to Hawaii. In 2018 I was on my way to the set of a Hawaii 5-O episode where, as a background actor, I had been cast as an NCIS agent. On the way to set I began utilizing a technique from acting class; mentally becoming this agent—giving him a name, a history, habits etc. I then imagined myself being uncomfortably hot while driving to an investigation because the car air-conditioner didn’t work properly. So, to make this a real experience I shut mine off, rolled down the windows which then caused a blast of hot air to rush in along with the smell of trash left in piles beside homeless tents along the roadside (the image of paradise that tourists typically don’t see). Then I began to play some instrumental music which happened to be from the John Dumas CD Kohola Dreamtime. It was at that moment when my protagonist, HPD detective Hank Benjamin, came to life. Playing the right background music has always helped to stimulate my imagination. Over the next several weeks I had repeated this whenever I drove to my day job, or to a production set. As I did so, and taking creative license with the events I had experienced and the many people that I had encountered in recent years, a story began to develop in my mind.
How is it similar to other books in its genre? How is it different?
I think that any similarities would be subjective and therefore best left for the reader to decide based upon books they’ve had the pleasure of reading. How would To Catch The Setting Sun be different? Since moving to Hawaii six years ago I have had the amazing good fortune to have had a myriad of first-hand experiences. I have also been blessed to meet and get to know a wide variety of people from police officers, native Hawaiian community leaders, cultural practitioners, politicians and bureaucrats at every level of state and city government. I’ve come to know Oahu from her beautiful sandy beaches that draws tourists from all over the world, to the economically depressed neighborhoods of Honolulu’s inner city. Working for a short time as a legislative aide, community liaison, and ghost writer for a Honolulu City Councilperson and a Hawaii State Senator, I’ve had an insider’s look at many of the pressing issues that are at the forefront across this state and especially here on the island of Oahu. This knowledge and experience provided the seeds that nourished the creative process that gave birth to To Catch The Setting Sun. It was these relationships and personal experiences that allowed me to supplement an already fertile imagination, yielding a realistic story that will be evident to the reader with each turn of the page. As one reviewer says: “The reader is easily drawn into this riveting dark noir crime story with its richly descriptive plot. It is a story that is a tangled web filled with enough drama, secrets, deceit, corruption, motives, suspects, and intriguing twists and turns that definitely keeps the reader guessing until the surprising conclusion…I found myself so caught up on following Henry's investigative pursuit of putting the pieces of the puzzle together and solving the murders, while also learning about the dark side of Oahu that the tourists don't get to see. To Catch The Setting Sun will definitely take the readers on one heck of a thrilling roller coaster ride.”~ Jersey Girl Book Reviews 9/30/22
What is the most important thing readers can learn from your book?
In his song You Don’t Mess Around With Jim, the late Jim
Croce sings:
“You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim”
There are many take aways that readers can learn from any novel, short story, poem, or biopic, and I supposed those things would be dictated by ones’ own awareness, life experience, and view of the world. If there’s something in this book that can be important to any reader than that’s a bonus. My hope is that To Catch The Setting Sun is an entertaining and enjoyable read.
Where can readers purchase a copy?
This book is available in paperback and ebook from Barnes and Noble and Amazon, Kobo, Scribd and on the Apple ibook format.
What is up next for you?
While I begin crafting my next novel, I am continuing my acting
journey and honing my skills as a student at the Z/A Acting School here in
Honolulu. The “Z” is for actor, director, teacher Robert Zimmerman and the “A”
is for actor, director,teacher Peter Allas. Along with the multifaceted artist,
poet, actor, filmmaker, producer, and teacher Jennii Vo Le, Z/A also
regularly holds classes in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
I had embarked on this adventure called acting in 2018 and after appearing in over twenty-five episodes of Hawaii 5-O, Magnum PI, and a few Hallmark movies as a background actor, I was cast in my first co-star role on a third season episode of Magnum PI. After being introduced to Robert and Peter in 2022, and knowing a number of the dedicated and talented actors enrolled at the school, signing up was a no-brainer.
Is there anything you would like to add?
I hope that everyone who reads To Catch The Setting Sun enjoys it as much as I did creating this adventure for our entertainment. Oh yeah, don’t always trust the travel brochures ;-)
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