Patterson taps Minnesotan as protagonist

James Patterson uses a real life Mayo employee as the protagonist in a just published mystery. Her name: Angela Hoot.

He got the idea to use her name in a book because of two things. “One, because she was really good to me. It was a big deal for me to have an operation, you’re sort of dealing with matters of mortality for the first time, so in the context of that, Angela and the people at Mayo made it as easy as it could be,” he said. …

“And then the name — it’s such a terrific, unusual name.”

Had Hoot’s name been, for instance, “Mary Jones,” he might not have chosen to immortalize her this way.

“That’s what makes it fun,” he said. “Hoot — what a great name, don’t you think?”

I normally don’t read a lot of Patterson, but this novel and the one in which Angela Hoot is the protagonist are on deck, I guess.

It’s always good to take in one of these lists. Especially now.