Silver Street — E. Richard Johnson

I began writing Silver Streak as a form of escape from the boredom of a prison cell, and to see if I could put the reality of the streets and the people I knew into a novel. I entered prison on Christmas Eve 1964 after seven years of moving from city to city, one job ahead of the police. Faced with a long sentence, I began writing as a form of escape, an attempt to give myself a goal and a purpose... After all, crime was something I knew, and from an afternoon on the prison yard I could find enough story ideas to stay busy for a year. In Silver Street I wanted both the criminals and the police to be real, criminals who the reader could understand and police who sometimes found it difficult to live up to the image of their jobs, Being objective with my characters was not difficult; I have known both criminals and cops that I liked and respected.