Bill Mesce Jr.

There are two ages in the history of television: before HBO and after HBO. Before the launch of Home Box Office in 1972, the industry had changed little since the birth of broadcast network television in the late 1940s. The arrival of the premium cable channel began a revolution in the business and programming of TV. For the generation that has grown up with the vast array of viewing choices available today, it is almost inconceivable that our ever-expanding media universe began with a few hours of unimpressive programming on a single cable channel. Written by an insider, this is the story of HBO's reconfiguration of television and the company's continual reinvention of itself in a competitive and dynamic industry.

SFPD Sgt. Adam Plantinga, author of 400 Things Cops Know and Police Craft. At a time when New York’s mean streets were their meanest, one NYPD detective at the end of his career takes one last chance to correct a 20-year-old injustice, and another cop at the beginning of his career tries to stop him before a police department already scarred by corruption investigations takes another hit.

In this three-book box set:BOOK 1: THE ADVOCATE1943, England. The unthinkable has a local spotter on the remote English coastline has witnessed American pilots, returning from a bombing run, turning their guns on one of their own. The victim and his plane are downed, and the spotter and his wife are the next targets.What could cause decorated pilots to kill their brothers-in-arms and then viciously attack civilians they were meant to protect? For JAG Major Harry Voss, the investigation will become his personal war, igniting a series of revelations that detonate up the chain of command and threaten his career — and then his life.BOOK 2: OFFICER OF THE COURTJAG Major Harry Voss returns to the UK only to find himself swept up in a murder investigation. Lieutenant Armando Grassi has been shot in the back of the head and it’s up to Voss to figure out the who and the why. There is previous history between Voss and Grassi, having worked a case together that left good men dead, a woman destroyed, and justice undone. Could this case be linked to Grassi’s murder? Accompanied by an eclectic band of soldiers, with the threat of war and danger constantly over their heads, Voss must work together with this crew to survive the investigation — but will they uncover the truth before tensions drive them to the edge?BOOK 3: A COLD AND DISTANT PLACEVoss takes on a case that might be his toughest yet when he finds himself having to defend the boy he practically raised. Dominick Sisto is facing charges for desertion after failing to comply with an order to remain in position under fire. Desperate to prevent Sisto from being sent to military prison, Voss pulls together a last-minute research team to compile a defence. However, when hotshot ADA Leonard Courie seems set to stand in their way, Voss must risk everything or face losing Sisto for good.

On a remote island off the coast of Scotland, an American officer has washed ashore. No one knows what brought him there or how he met his doom, so far from his official post.Major Harry Voss, a lawyer in the Army’s judge Advocate’s office, takes the assignment of finding out who killed Lieutenant Armando Grassi, and why. Harry has worked with the unpopular officer on a case that left good men dead, a woman destroyed, and justice undone. But there is far more to Grassi’s murder than meets the eye. Accompanied by an eclectic band of soldiers, Harry’s investigation will lead him as far as Greenland, taking him from the rear echelons to the front lines in search of the truth. And, as Harry knows, the truth is often the first casualty of war. Amidst the harshest conditions, and with the threat of war and danger constantly over their heads, this motley crew of soldiers must now become a band of brothers in order to survive this investigation - but will they uncover the truth before tensions drive them to the edge?

England, 1943. The unthinkable has happened: a local spotter on the remote English coastline has witnessed American pilots, returning from a bombing run, turning their guns on one of their own. The victim and his plane are downed, and the spotter and his wife are the next targets as the rogue American planes return to strafe their home and their livestock, with such force and purpose that it is a miracle anyone survives. What could cause decorated leaders of men to kill their brother-in-arms and then viciously attack Allied civilians? For JAG Lieutenant Harry Voss, the investigation will become his personal war, igniting a series of revelations that detonate up the chain of command and threaten Harry’s career — and then his life. ‘The Advocate’ is a page-turning look at honor, loyalty, and the secrets that even victory can breed. It probes the age-old question that every serving man and woman fears: In battle, is murder a crime?

1944, Germany. To Raymond Peck, every incoming round of artillery sounds like the finger of God tearing through the firmament to get him. Inexperienced and ignorant of the true atrocities of combat, “green” radio controller Peck, is positioned in a clearing less than 750 yards north-northwest of Hill 399. Hill 399, named because it’s 399m steep, is hell on earth. Attempting to trudge through the Kall Trail and crusade over the hill are the Love, King and Item battalions. With soldiers depleting at an astronomical rate and radio communications interrupted by the heavy fire, the American troops on Hill 399 are in trouble. No air aid comes and no ammunition reinforcements are in sight. For three gruelling days the battalions try to take this hill and now tensions are rising as Lieutenant Sisto, Lieutenant Tully, Colonel Joyce and Colonel Porter erupt into argument. On the last day of attack, Dominick Sisto’s battalion reach the crest of the hill but in front of them lies only death. Over the crackling radio connection that Peck desperately tries to channel, Sisto states he is retreating under Colonel Porter’s orders. But Joyce, an ambitious and self-aggrandising Colonel orders Lieutenant Sisto to remain in position. Sisto doesn’t. And when his battalion reach the bottom of the hill and Colonel Porter remains to be found, Joyce threatens to court martial him. Sisto is placed under arrest for desertion under fire and disobeying a direct order. JAG Lieutenant Harry Voss, a lawyer by trade, positioned in Italy, is visited by pal Colonel Joseph P. Ryan from the Judge Advocate's Bureau on Thanksgiving Day. But their meeting is not a festive one. Colonel Ryan has snuck down from Liege to inform Voss of Sisto’s predicament and draft him as Sisto’s defense team. Voss decides to defend the boy who he had practically raised and pulls together a last minute research team comprising of lawyer Peter Ricks, Andy Thom from Sisto’s battalion, and Eddie Owen, a Scottish journalist. But they have their work cut out for them when Leonard Courie, a hotshot ADA from Cleveland, is chosen as their opposition. Courie’s sly tactics, including moving the council and court to a new location, to Countess D’Audran’s castle, further complicate the case for Sisto’s team and cost them days. At the grand but derelict castle, time is running out as the trial approaches. Harry Voss focuses on the case, Owen greets Sisto on the castle wall and the Countess rides off mysteriously into the dark every night . Will this unlikely team be able to mount a defense in time? Will Sisto’s charges be dismissed or will Joyce be proved triumphant and Sisto be confined to military prison for life?

Bill Mesce Jr’s thrilling Advocate Trilogy is now available in this mustread collection of World War II legal thrillers, featuring Major Harry Voss.The AdvocateEngland, 1943The unthinkable has happened: a local spotter on the remote English coastline has witnessed American pilots, returning from a bombing run, turning their guns on one of their own. The victim and his plane are downed, and the spotter and his wife are the next targets as the rogue American planes return to strafe their home and their livestock, with such force and purpose that it is a miracle anyone survives.What could cause decorated leaders of men to kill their brother-in-arms and then viciously attack Allied civilians?For JAG Major Harry Voss, the investigation will become his personal war, igniting a series of revelations that not only threaten Harry’s career but also his life...Officer of the CourtOn a remote island off the coast of Scotland, an American officer has washed ashore. No one knows what brought him there or how he met his doom. Major Harry Voss, a lawyer in the Army’s judge Advocate’s office, takes the assignment of finding out who killed Lieutenant Armando Grassi, and why. Accompanied by an eclectic band of soldiers, Harry’s investigation will lead him as far as Greenland, taking him from the rear echelons to the front lines in search of the truth.And, as Harry knows, the truth is often the first casualty of war…A Cold and Distant Place1944, GermanyRadio controller Raymond Peck is positioned in a clearing less than 750 yards north-northwest of Hill 399, so names because it’s 399m steep – hell on earth.With soldiers depleting at an astronomical rate and radio communications interrupted by the heavy fire, the American troops on Hill 399 are in trouble. No air aid comes and no ammunition reinforcements are in sight.On the last day of attack, Dominick Sisto’s battalion reach the crest of the hill but in front of them lies only death.JAG Major Harry Voss, a lawyer by trade, positioned in Italy, is informed by Colonel Ryan of Sisto’s predicament and drafts him in as part of a last minute research team comprising of lawyer Peter Ricks, Andy Thom from Sisto’s battalion, and Eddie Owen, a Scottish journalist.Will this unlikely team be able to mount a defense in time?Bill Mesce Jr. lives in New Jersey with his wife and children. He is the author of novels which feature Harry Voss, Officer of the Court

In the critically acclaimed novels The Advocate and Officer of the Court , Bill Mesce Jr. introduced readers to a new hero in the world of military suspense. The Defender is the electrifying tale of Major Harry Voss’s most riveting case a wartime court-martial that could cost an innocent man his life—and cover up another innocent man’s murder.THE DEFENDERThe case against Lieutenant Dominick Sisto is overwhelming. It’s so overwhelming that Major Harry Voss hasn’t been called in to prove him innocent—but to fight for a less severe sentence when the guilty verdict is read. Charged with disobeying a direct order from a commander, Sisto is accused of fleeing in the face of the enemy at a place called the Huertgen Forest. But the more Harry looks into the case, the more he suspects the official story is far from the real one. As Voss is raced to a secluded castle in Wiltz to defend Sisto, the war in Europe escalates and the Allied forces mount an offensive against the Nazis that will reach a climax in the Battle of the Bulge. Summoned personally by an old friend who will preside over the trial, Voss has a personal connection with the accused going back to the neighborhood where he watched the young lieutenant grow up. Still, determined as he is, Voss isn’t sure he’s the right man for the job. He hasn’t defended a criminal case in years and he’s up against an ambitious hotshot JAG prosecutor chosen by the brass to win at any cost.And that cost may well be justice, truth, and the lives of innocent men. For as Voss unravels what really happened on Hill 399, he discovers that Sisto was a hero, not a traitor, and that the one man who can prove it vanished in the blood and chaos of war. As the trial builds to a shattering climax, Harry is driven to visit the Belgian site where the drama unfolded—and it’s there he must find evidence that he’s not just walking the hallowed ground of a battlefield...but the scene of a crime.Evocative, tense, and relentlessly paced, The Defender is a superior military thriller that takes us to a place where loyalty turns into betrayal, allies turn into enemies, and comrades in arms can become cold-blooded killers.From the Hardcover edition.

Dante DiMarchese is a forensic psychologist, an expert in the workings of the criminal mind and the man responsible for putting the Bailey Beach serial killer behind bars. When a soldier home from a tour in Afghanistan is charged with manslaughter, Dante is immediately called on to help. Meanwhile, the Bailey Beach killer is threatening to smear Dante's name, while Dante's persistent ex-brother-in-law ropes him into an inheritance dispute between a still-living father and his family. In the heart of New York, will Dante's unravel the legacies and lies that others have left behind? Can he contain his own deceptions?

At his peak, from the late 1960s through the early 1970s, Sam Peckinpah was hailed as one of the new masters of the Western film, while simultaneously becoming one of the most controversial American directors of the era. In a time of great social turmoil, Peckinpah's on-screen orchestration of physical and emotional violence drew adamant praise for what some considered fearless realism and vehement criticism for what others called tasteless gore and brutal misogyny.Debate over the violence and sexual themes of Peckinpah's films often eclipsed aesthetic appreciation of his work. A favorite target of 1970s feminist critics, feminist social debate, combined with the director's own combative persona usually prevented reasoned evaluation of his films. A prevalent auteurist view did not recognize how Peckinpah was subject to the whims and character of an industry in which he rarely navigated successfully. While the passage of time has muted the initial shock value of his filmed violence, no similar reappraisal has ever dealt with those initial misperceptions of misogyny, and looked to reevaluate his on-screen treatment of women.Peckinpah's Women examines the confluence of factors that worked with, and often against, Peckinpah's cinematic voice to divine a recurring positive theme regarding women in those films that form the heart of his body of his period Westerns.

From across the spectrum of the arts―theater to music, painting to poetry, and everything in between―men and women from the creative front lines share their experiences and insights on the often harsh realities of a life in the arts. Artists on the Art of Survival examines the lives of artists as some continue to struggle to find their place, others have managed to carve out a niche for themselves, and still others have, for a variety of reasons, moved on to something else. By exploring each of these paths of development, the book provides valuable, practical, and spiritual lessons in maintaining and surviving as a working artist.

Of all the creative elements that go into making a movie, probably none is more misunderstood by those outside the industry than the role of the screenwriter. A writer but not an author, indispensable yet utterly disposable, the screenwriter exists in an unwieldy blend of creative and write-to-order mercenary functions. A Screenwriter’s Notebook is one insider’s explanation of the ways screenwriters and screenplays actually work (and don’t work) in moviemaking.

The work examines the evolution of the thriller from the heyday of the Hollywood mogul era in the 1930s when it was primarily bottom-of-the-bill fodder, through its maturity in the World War II years and noir-breeding 1950s, its commercial and critical ascendancy in the 1960s and 1970s, and finally its subsequent box office dominance in the age of the blockbuster.

"The only place in the world that has more information about movies than Bill Mesce is Google, and when Google is stuck, it calls Bill. He loves and understands them: the classics, the disasters, where they have been and where they are headed. He is an incredible writer and takes you into them in a way that opens new understanding of why they are the way they are and how they got that way. The next best thing to going to the movies is to read what Bill Mesce has to say about them." Bill Persky, Five-time Emmy Award-winning writer and director The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Bill Cosby Special, Kate & Allie, and creator of That Girl. "Smart, insightful and often funny, Bill Mesce 's essays are the best reminder I can find in print of why I love movies. Whether one knows the films he writes about well or just a bit, it's a joy to have Bill take you into his world of movies." Josh Sapan, CEO and President, AMC Networks "If you want the hidden story of the men and women who made Hollywood what it is today, the good the bad and the ugly, from an unconventional savant, then Bill Mesce's tour is the book for you." Jeff Bewkes, Chairman and CEO, Time Warner "Bill Mesce's Reel Change is a book that any filmgoer, film lover, or film historian should read. It is full of smart and witty anecdotes and insightful historical commentary about the personal and emotional relationships to the magical and transformative experience that is watching movies." Andrew Goldman VP, HBO/Cinemax Program Planning and Scheduling

There is cinema . . . and there are the movies. This is a book for movie salutes to the once great but now forgotten stars, to the acknowledged behind-the-scenes movers and shakers, and to the movies themselves—the classics major and minor, the overlooked gems, the guiltiest of guilty pleasures. If you’re old enough to remember Saturday matinees or late night fright flicks on your local TV channels—or just wish you were—grab a bag of popcorn, a soft seat, and enjoy the show. This book synopsizes dozens of films, and includes a variety of personal and critical essays written by Bill Mesce, Jr.1: A Night to Remember (1958)Directed by Roy Ward BakerAdapted from Walter Lord’s book by Eric AmblerJames Cameron’s Titanic (1997) might have had better special effects (change that; it had incredible effects), but its gooey teen romance front story pales next to this painstakingly exact adaptation of Walter Lord’s classic account of the tragic 1912 sinking of the opulent ocean liner on her maiden voyage. It’s a stirring and ultimately moving account of grace under pressure, of human hubris and waste, of heroism and infuriating indifference. Cameron caught some of it, but Night is wholly dedicated to it and it still stands as a textbook example of how to do it right.

A collection of interviews with and essays including commentary by authors discussing elements of specific works. Also includes contributions by editors, screenwriters, critics and academics. Participants include bestselling authors Adriana Trigiani and David L. Robbins, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, ROAD TO PERDITION author Max Allan Collins, and five-time Emmy-winner Bill Persky.

Crockett, Texas is the kind of small, sun-baked, insular, backwater town where nothing changes, where Main Street looks much like it did 40 years ago. Everybody knows everybody else, there's so little to do that one of the biggest pastimes is, as one town wag says, "mindin' everybody else's business," and where somebody always has the town's preacher over to dinner on Sunday. But one hot summer day, everything in this unchanging town begins to change when the local Methodist minister, Owen Dawson, shows up in a downtown saloon toting a video camera and talking about making a movie about his life; a movie which, as he describes it, people consider to be a "dirty" movie. By nightfall, Owen's movie has become a media punchline and attracted the attention of L.A. tabloid reporter Rita Scott. And if that's not enough of an eyebrow-raiser, Dawson's wife is missing, her abandoned car found tucked behind a convenience store outside of town. It all falls on the head of local police chief Clyde Thomas, commanded by a raging mayor to keep Crockett from becoming a state-wide dirty joke, led by his own curiosity into what's behind Dawson's odd behavior and his wife's disappearance, and pushed by his battered sense of decency to make it all come out right.

Award-winning novelist, screenwriter and playwright Bill Mesce, Jr. turns, for the first time, to short fiction in a gallery of pieces ranging from the familiar (an encounter at a winter-whipped commuter bus stop in “North”) to the arcane (a lost cavalry patrol in the Civil War-set “Precis”); the sweet (a hopeful tete a tete at Parisian café in “Ad Vivum”) to the bittersweet (a drifter marking time between busses in “Ante Meridiem”); the intimate (an altar boy’s private rebellion in “Crusade”) to the epic (the Vietnam War novella, “Diamond Red”. Mesce's stunning first collection of short fiction grafts sharp images onto a landscape filled with compelling characters, characters who laugh and love and ache. His stories carry and a sense of immediacy, the truth of experience.

This insider's look at the craft of screenwriting explodes some of the popular myths, demonstrating how little relevance the rules have to actual filmmaking.With long experience in film and television, the author provides insightful "how-NOT-to" analyses, with commentary by such veterans as Josh Sapan (CEO of AMC Networks), bestselling author Adriana Trigiani and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi.

It's Li'l Fox's first day of daycare, and she is scared. New place. New friends. New worries.

Boone, Texas is a small town. A quiet town. A town that, on a regular day, doesn’t provide Police Chief Clyde Thomas and his hapless deputy, Patrol Officer Billy Ray Barnes, with a great deal to do. But it is not a regular day when the local preacher decides to go on a very unholy mission…… And that makes it to the front page of the local newspaper, and all tongues around the town are set wagging …… And a national newspaper sends a reporter, Rita Scott, who, on learning that the charred remains of a body have been found, decides to hang around and dig a bit deeper…… And the minister’s wife hasn’t been seen for a while, and an elderly resident of a care home has gone AWOL.… And there’s a gang of hell-raising bikers, wreaking havoc on the local highways.Clyde knows something’s up with the preacher but is stumped as to what and why. As he tries to put the pieces together, he knows it’s a race against time to prevent something terrible from happening…

TIDES is an upcoming book by Bill Mesce, Jr.

CARJACK's screenplay follows a burned-out cop and his guilt-ridden partner over the course of a hot summer night as they track a stolen car as it passes through the hands of a chop shop, stoner stick-up men, Latin America drug runners, and an elaborate smuggling ring comprised of ex-KGB agents.

“The only place in the world that has more information about movies than Bill Mesce is Google, and when Google is stuck, it calls Bill. He loves and understands the classics, the disasters, where they have been and where they are headed. He is incredible writer and takes you into them in a way that opens new understanding of why they are the way they are and how they got that way. The next best thing to going to the movies is to read what Bill Mesce has to say about them.”Bill Persky,Five-time Emmy Award-winning writer and directorThe Dick Van Dyke Show, The Bill Cosby Special ,Kate & Allie , and creator of That Girl .“Smart, insightful and often funny, Bill Mesce’s essays are the best reminder I can find in print of why I love movies. Whether one knows the films he writes about well or just a bit, it’s a joy to have Bill take you into his world of movies.”Josh Sapan,CEO and President, AMC Networks“If you want the hidden story of the men and women who made Hollywood what it is today, the good the bad and the ugly, from an unconventional savant, then Bill Mesce’s tour is the book for you.”Jeff Bewkes,Chairman and CEO, Time Warner“Bill Mesce’s Reel Change is a book that any filmgoer, film lover, or film historian should read. It is full of smart and witty anecdotes and insightful historical commentary about the personal and emotional relationships to the magical and transformative experience that is watching movies.”Andrew GoldmanVP, HBO/CinemaxProgram Planning and SchedulingAdjunct Professor, Tisch School of the Arts,New York University“Mesce’s book is pure, red meat cinema (Blondes! Bond! Peckinpah! Tarantino!), he writes entertainingly and well about the movies and movie makers that got most of us going to the multiplex in the first place.”David BreckmanCo-executive producer of theEmmy-winning crime series, Monk