EX-TV PRODUCER WRITES THRILLER

Former KFVS-TV news producer Anthony Knopps says that on the surface, the serial killer in his new book, "Unsuspecting Viewers," is a nice guy.

"He sees some guy on the street who needs cab fare and he gives it to him," said Knopps, who now works as a news producer for KCTV in Kansas City. "If he needed a meal, he'd buy that, too."

Knopps was in Cape Girardeau Saturday for a book signing at Barnes and Noble Booksellers.

Knopps grew up in the Kansas City area. He worked as a news director in Cape Girardeau's television station, KFVS-12 for five years but left five years ago to work for KCTV.

He spent much of last year writing his book. It wasn't always easy to write six to eight pages every day.

"That's where I came in," said his wife, Camille Knopps, who also serves as vice president of their publishing company, Camelan Publishing. She also helped edit the book.

"I'd go downstairs and read and then tell him to go back and do some more," she said.

If Anthony Knopps is quiet when he first meets you, he seems to open up when asked about the specifics of his book. It's obviously nearly as much his baby as his 2-year-old daughter, Elizabeth.

"The killer is an anti-hero that many of the people who have read it have strong feelings about," Knopps said. "Men relate to him but women just hate him, they want to throw him off a bridge."

That may be because Knopps admits that the killer is a woman-hater who chooses the fairer sex as victims. It all hinges on a grudge against the media.

"He's down on the media," Knopps said. "He's tired of it. He thinks these guys don't know what's going on, why they do what they do. But he's different, too. Something just snaps."

When the killer begins killing current or former members of a TV news staff, it comes close to home for the novel's main character, TV anchor James Roberts.

Somehow, Roberts becomes a suspect in the killing and spends the rest of the novel trying to exonerate himself by finding the real killer, Knopps said.

"It was a fun character to watch evolve," Knopps said of the hero. "The characters ended up driving the book. I sat down every day and thought, 'Where are you guys going to take me today?'"

Despite its grisly undertones, Knopps said he couldn't help but draw from his own experiences as a television news producer while he wrote the book over eight months.

"It's completely fictional," Knopps said. "But people in different newsrooms asked me 'Why'd you put news director Joe in there? That fit him to a tee.'"

But he said it's all coincidence. He said his years in television helped him create real characters that readers could believe in. Every station or newspaper has a stud reporter, a perky anchor, a grizzly old editor, Knopps said.

He calls the book a cross between "Broadcast News" and "Fatal Attraction."

It's fitting that he uses movie analogy to describe his book. A screenplay has been written and the USA Network is considering making a TV movie of "Unsuspecting Viewers."