Skip Williams Unleashes a Thrilling New Novel—Sympathy for the Devil
At the center of the storm is Jake, a contract killer with a talent for disappearing and a code that's as sharp as his aim. When a job goes sideways and the hunter becomes the hunted, Jake is forced to navigate a tangled web of mob bosses, double-crosses, and unexpected alliances. But in a world where trust is a luxury and survival is never guaranteed, even the devil himself might deserve a little sympathy.
Blending nonstop action, razor-sharp dialogue, and a cast of unforgettable antiheroes, Sympathy for the Devil is a must-read for fans of gritty crime fiction, fast-paced thrillers, and morally complex characters. Every chapter hums with danger, deception, and the kind of tension that keeps you turning pages long into the night.
What Readers Are Saying:
'A gripping, high-stakes thriller that never lets up—Skip Williams delivers a knockout!'
'A brilliant blend of action, suspense, and raw emotion. Jake is the kind of antihero you can't help but root for.'
'Like a Rolling Stones song in novel form—fast, edgy, and impossible to forget.'
For those who crave the adrenaline rush of Michael Connelly, Don Winslow, or Lee Child, Sympathy for the Devil is the next book you won't be able to put down.
About the Author – Skip Williams
Skip Williams is a storyteller with a knack for crafting fast-paced, immersive thrillers that pull readers into worlds where morality is never black and white. His writing blends sharp wit, deep character development, and relentless suspense, making every novel an unforgettable journey. Whether he's weaving tales of crime, action, or redemption, Skip delivers narratives that keep readers hooked until the very last page. Sympathy for the Devil is his latest work, cementing his place as a rising star in the world of high-stakes thrillers.
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New York Times
a day ago
- New York Times
Rock's Legends Were Messy. You'd Never Know That From Today's Movies.
Like any qualified rock 'n' roll dork, I began consuming the lore around the music early. I was a tenderhearted tween Beatlemaniac when I picked up Albert Goldman's 1988 biography, 'The Lives of John Lennon,' still a landmark of salaciousness. There followed, in some rough order, 'The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones,' by Stanley Booth; 'Hellfire,' Nick Tosches' incendiary character study of Jerry Lee Lewis; and 'Hammer of the Gods,' Stephen Davis's blow-by-blow exegesis of Led Zeppelin. I am strait-laced by disposition, so I was rendered slack jawed by the toxic excesses of rock stardom described in these books, or at least the parts I could grasp well enough to conjure a mental picture. Some things — things you should never Google about Led Zeppelin and mud sharks — remain blissfully outside my ken. I'm strait-laced but not a prude. Over time, I came to understand that sex and drugs and sharks are among the ancillary consequences of taking the world's most gifted, vain and emotionally marginal people, placing them in stressful situations and giving them bottomless expense accounts. Nature simply takes its course. People used to seem endlessly entertained by hearing appalling stories about the results. The feral behavior of even middling musicians was the draw for VH1 programs like 'Behind the Music,' which was light on music but quite detailed about behinds, or '100 Most Shocking Music Moments.' (No. 97 featured Chuck Negron, of Three Dog Night, explaining how a certain part of his body 'exploded' following an exceedingly ambitious surfeit of human contact.) I will admit that I, too, came to relish these tales. I like Mötley Crüe just fine, but I loved Neil Strauss's medium-ironic group history, 'The Dirt,' from 2001 — again, light on music and heavy on dirt, including things you should never Google about Mötley Crüe and burritos. Music documentaries and biopics now feel like a larger part of the entertainment ecosystem than ever, but they've traveled a long distance from that tabloid bonanza. Today's rock historians echo groundbreaking filmmakers like D.A. Pennebaker and the Maysles Brothers, treating rock 'n' roll as serious intellectual business. Early this year, 'A Complete Unknown,' James Mangold's biopic of Bob Dylan, did respectably at the box office, bringing figures like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie into a modern frame. Soon after, in Bernard MacMahon's documentary 'Becoming Led Zeppelin,' you could watch that band coalesce, transforming from an also-ran version of the Yardbirds into a juggernaut whose unique combination of brute force and strange, feminine vulnerability has rendered them an insoluble legend. Yet in both, something seems to be missing. If you, like me, have mentally cataloged the countless forms of bad behavior that marked the Dylan and Zeppelin years these films cover, you find yourself practically jonesing for a scene of rampant chemical intake or at least a television being hurled through a hotel window. Aside from Robert Plant's glancing mention of the ambient feeling of drugs and girls arriving on the scene as Zeppelin's fame grew, a blissful innocent could watch MacMahon's film and believe the individuals on the screen endured the Caligula-like high-water mark of their fame with the quiet dignity of devoted family men. These masses of songs are now blue-chip properties with reputations of their own. It's not that I want to see the nasty stuff for fun; a lot of it is depressing, idiotic, cruel or seriously criminal. The question is what is actually true and how much we care about it. There was a time when we were prepared to hear all sorts of shocking tales, but today's filmmakers seem to be moving expediently in the opposite direction — toward cleaned-up, on-message image-making, the sorts of revised mythologies fans are eager to engage. Consider, for instance, the Disney+ documentary 'The Beach Boys.' The band started off writing songs about surfing and cars, to match contemporary trends, and were photographed in matching striped shirts that, in some crucial way, they were never allowed to take off; they would become emblems of a carefree baby-boomer adolescence, the innocent 'before' in the before-and-after picture of the 1960s. But perhaps more than any other band of the era — an enormously high bar — the Beach Boys' story only got stranger, with problems ranging from the typical (drugs, alcohol, fights, lawsuits) to the infamous (Brian Wilson's yearslong breakdown) to the bizarre (Dennis Wilson's brief acquaintance with Charles Manson, whose song 'Cease to Exist' the band recorded a version of). In 1983, the secretary of the interior, James Watt, banned the group from performing a Fourth of July concert on the Washington Mall, on the basis of their degeneracy. Very little of this is covered in the documentary. By its very nature, it needs to see the Beach Boys the way their fellow Californian Ronald Reagan must have when he moved to restore their annual Washington gig — as a sunny redoubt of wholesome Americana, a totem of nostalgia too sturdy for those details to topple. One simple explanation for today's hagiographies is that everyone involved is eager to cement a musical legacy, not sort through unflattering gossip. The three surviving members of Led Zeppelin are in their 70s and 80s now, fathers and grandfathers; they have, in various ways, assumed an austere dignity. As for filmmakers, looking at some of the band's past behavior through today's eyes must be just as unappetizing. Their films would be expected to devote half their run time to weighty moral investigations; almost inevitably, the music would be subsumed by the outrage. But there is also, increasingly, the question of brand value, the preservation of intellectual property for maximum future profit. 'A Complete Unknown,' for instance, skirts the speedy, druggy side of Dylan's early work; it even massages the particulars of Dylan's personal life such that within the film's love triangle, there is no mention at all of his pregnant soon-to-be-wife, Sara Lownds. My 79-year-old mother, who has excellent taste, loved the film and walked out eager to engage with Dylan's music, despite being more of a show-tunes lady. She might not have been so smitten with a less tidy version of his life. It's not just the artist's reputation that is at stake. In 2020, Dylan sold his catalog of more than 600 songs to Universal Music Group for a reported $300 million. Many other big-ticket acts have cashed in their catalogs in recent years, including Bruce Springsteen (sold to Sony for an estimated $550 million) and Queen (also to Sony, for what is said to be more than $1 billion). These masses of songs are now blue-chip properties with reputations of their own; why tarnish their value with off-brand looks at their creators? There's a quote often attributed to the Illinois senator Everett Dirksen: 'A billion here, and a billion there, pretty soon you're talking real money.' Profit motive, fan service, squeamishness — all are present. On the other hand, I recently worked on a liner-notes project for a beloved band that was notorious for its excesses, to the point where the musicians' sheer will to debasement will always feature in the first two paragraphs of their Wikipedia overview. The more time I spent with their story, though, the less I found their self-destructiveness as interesting as their constructiveness — the factors that made four reprobates hold things together long enough to make a handful of generationally defining albums. Once you've heard about enough toxic behavior, a certain tedium sets in. The familiar pileups of sex and drugs and narcissism start to feel less like a thrill ride and more like a dull narrative cul-de-sac. People don't remember the saxophonist Dexter Gordon for his heroin addiction; they remember him for 'I Can't Get Started.' For even the most debauched of our great musicians, time is on their side. Elizabeth Nelson has written for The New Yorker, The Ringer, Pitchfork and others and is a singer-songwriter for the Paranoid Style, a band based in Washington. She last wrote for the magazine about Tiger Woods and Vanessa Trump. Source photographs for illustration above: Macall Polay/Searchlight Pictures; Michael; Larry Hulst/Michael.
2 days ago
Chad Michael Murray on sharing 'Freakier Friday' with his kids, acting and more
Chad Michael Murray is stepping back into Jake's world in " Freakier Friday." The actor, who played Lindsay Lohan's love interest in the 2003 hit film, "Freaky Friday," returns in the sequel as the heartthrob many remember and love. At the "Freakier Friday" premiere in Hollywood on Tuesday, Murray shared his excitement for the film and called it "incredible." "It's so good," he said. "It might even be better than the first one. It's that good." While he couldn't give much away about what Jake has been up to, Murray's character appears in the trailer on his motorcycle and with Lohan's character, Anna Coleman, in a record shop. Murray teased, "For Jake in particular, I think we're going to be excited to see what he's been pining over for the past 22 years." The actor appeared in many popular teen films and shows of the early 2000s. Following "Freaky Friday," he starred alongside Hilary Duff in the 2004 film "A Cinderella Story," as her love interest, Austin Ames. Murray also played Lucas Scott in " One Tree Hill" from 2003 to 2012, and appeared in "Gilmore Girls," "Dawson's Creek" and more. When asked about what he remembers most about his early days as an actor, Murray said he feels "unbelievable gratitude." "You're so excited, you can't keep yourself composed," he recalled. "You think you made it even though you know you didn't. The fear of failure because you're worried you're gonna go out there and do it wrong, and then how long will it take before they figure out that you can't really do it." He continued, "There's so many feelings, but at the end of the day, I always remember, I always try to remind myself why I became an actor. " "I became an actor because I wanted to go make film and television that would entertain people," he said. "I wanted to get people that moment to step away from whatever was going on in their life and give them that departure." He added, "So I remember that and I smile and I remember my dad's words. My dad always just said, 'Just have fun with it, whatever you're doing, just have fun.'" Murray celebrated the "Freakier Friday" premiere with his family. The actor was all smiles as he shared his carpet moment with his wife, Sarah Roemer, and their son and daughter, who they welcomed in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Absent was their youngest daughter, who they welcomed in 2023. He said that his oldest daughter got a sneak peek of "Freakier Friday" and that she "loves this film." "For the first time ever, we brought them kind of out," he said about his kids' first red carpet moment. "They really wanted to go. They really wanted to be a part of it. I think that this is the perfect place for them to be able to come and witness the lightness and the beauty that can be this industry if you bring light, joy and your goal is to bring smiles and happiness." "That's what this movie's about," he added. Along with Murray and Lohan, the film stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Manny Jacinto, Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons. The upcoming film, directed by Nisha Ganatra, features Lohan and Curtis switching bodies again. This time, Anna now has a daughter of her own, along with a soon-to-be stepdaughter. "Freakier Friday" arrives in theaters on Aug. 8, 2025.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
‘Avatar: Fire and Ash' Trailer to Screen Exclusively in Theaters Before ‘Fantastic Four'
This weekend, theater audiences will get their first look at 'Avatar: Fire and Ash,' but only if they're seeing 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps.' In a post on the official 'Avatar' X account, it was revealed that the first trailer for James Cameron's 'Avatar' threequel will screen exclusively in theaters before showings of Marvel's 'Fantastic Four.' More from Variety 'Fantastic Four' First Reactions Say Film Is One of the 'Best Things Marvel Has Ever Made' With 'Stunning Visuals' and 'Excellent' Performances From Leading Cast John Malkovich's Red Ghost Cut From 'Fantastic Four'; Director Says 'It Was Heartbreaking Not to Include Him' (EXCLUSIVE) 'Fantastic Four,' Assemble: Director Matt Shakman on Casting Marvel's First Family Without Auditions and 'Corporate Pressures' Not Being 'My Burden to Shoulder' 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' is set to hit theaters on Dec. 19. Meanwhile, the fourth and fifth 'Avatar' films are set for Dec. 21, 2029, and Dec. 19, 2031, respectively. The trailer was first revealed exclusively to CinemaCon attendees back in April. The footage returns to the lush world of Pandora and introduces two new Na'vi tribes: The soaring Wind Traders, who traverse the skies on contraptions resembling hot air balloons, and their sworn rivals, the Fire People, who ride on flying beasts. The two clans clash, and one Na'vi is taken out with a flaming arrow. 'We can not live like this, baby,' Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) tells his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) in the trailer. 'We can not live with this hate.' 'Fire and Ash' picks up directly after 'The Way of Water,' which followed Jake and his family as they team with Pandora's water tribe, known as the Metkayina, to fight against the tyrannical Resources Development Administration. The new films see them pinned against the Ash People, who have defected from Jake's Na'vi clan and their nature-worshipping religion. 'Avatar' and 'The Way of Water' both grossed over $2 billion at the worldwide box office, making them the No. 1 and No. 3 most commercially successful films of all time worldwide. If 'Fire and Ash' follows suit, 'Avatar' will be the only franchise to have three films cross the $2 billion threshold. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? Final Emmy Predictions: Talk Series and Scripted Variety - New Blood Looks to Tackle Late Night Staples Solve the daily Crossword
