Video: ‘Criminal Minds’ Consultant Helping Local Author Take Novel To Next Level

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TUPELO, MISS. (WCBI) – For nearly ten years now, “Criminal Minds” has been one of the most popular shows on CBS.  The show is based on real life cases of FBI profilers and as WCBI’;s Allie Martin reports, a consultant to the show is helping a local author take his crime fighting novel to the television screen.

As a consultant for “Criminal Minds” Jim Clemente spends a lot of time in California, on the set of the drama.   But he was in Northeast Mississippi recently, meeting with fans at Reed’s Gumtree Bookstore.

He was signing copies of his new book, “Without Consent.”

“It’s a fictionalized version of my life, how I went from being a New York City prosecutor to an FBI agent and ultimately an FBI profiler,” Clemente said.

Clemente was also visiting with Merle Temple.  The Tupelo resident has written two novels based on his time fighting the first war on drugs, with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics in the early 1970s.  Temple knew Clemente’s cousin, so he asked the former FBI profiler to take at a look at his manuscript for “A Ghostly Shade of Pale.”

“Merle’s was outstanding,  it’s one of the few I wrote back and said, this is great work, you should definitely finish this book, when you publish it I want to bring you to Hollywood because I want to work on developing either a TV series or film based on your book,” Clemente said.

Now, work is underway on a screenplay and Clemente says any adaptation will be sure to include the author’s Christian beliefs.

“Faith is definitely a driving force for Merle and he certainly believes that that’s what saved his life a number of times and I tend to agree with him, the fact is that he got out of situations that most people would have ended up, six feet under from,” he said.

Temple was able to take Clemente to some of the locations where he faced danger in his crime fighting days.

“I was in DeSoto County with Jim, in Horn Lake, showed him where two contract killers from the Dixie Mafia lured me out to kill me,” Temple said.

Once details are worked out, Clemente believes he will be back in Northeast Mississippi to shoot scenes for a movie, or tv show based on Temple’s book.

Clemente retired from the FBI in 2009.  He was diagnosed with lymphoma, caused by exposure to the World Trade Center rubble pile.

www.jimclemente.com

www.merletemple.com