Former 'Law & Order' Staffer In Jersey City Releases Gritty Novel About Female Filmmaker

HUDSON COUNTY, NJ — Jersey City resident Gene Ritchings has led a life in TV and print, from covering Monmouth County for the Asbury Park Press in the 1970s to serving as the Hudson Reporter's editor in the 2000s before the chain folded. He has also served as a writer and production office coordinator for TV's "Law & Order," and as a theater director.

He's seen enough true stories to last a lifetime, and some of his experiences have been woven into his work.

This month, he released a new novel, "The Reckoning of Adrienne Monet," about a female filmmaker pursued relentlessly by an NYPD detective for the murder of a director she’s been hired to work with.

The back jacket copy describes the book this way: "How far would you go to take back a dream that was stolen from you? Making movies is Adrienne Monet’s whole life ... A complex novel of suspense and moral tension in the spirit of Patricia Highsmith’s ‘Ripley’ novels, The Reckoning of Adrienne
Monet is the harrowing story of one woman’s struggle to recover her career and her identity."

This is a third novel for Ritchings, who has lived all over New Jersey and attended high school in Lakewood and Brick Township.

“My novels are about an injustice committed by the powerful," he said, "and the struggle of characters hurt by that injustice to restore the balance to their life. This latest novel is, I believe, a powerful metaphor for the status of women in American society.”

'Law & Order'

Before writing his recent novels, Ritchings worked for 25 years in various jobs in New York film and TV production, including 10 seasons running the production office for the original version of NBC’s “Law & Order.” In 1995 he co-wrote the Season 5 finale of the show, titled “Pride,” with Ed Zuckerman. He left the series in 2005.

In the early 2000s he also produced and directed three performance films of theater dance choreographed by the modern dance legend Anna Sokolow. He also played the part of a paranoid husband in the independent short film “Home Defense.”

His other novels include “Frankenrocker” (2003) and “Winter in a Summer Town” (2015).

Find out more about "The Reckoning of Adrienne Monet" and buy it here.

Those interested in learning more can email generitchings@gmail.com