Sunday 28 April 2013

The Roving Eye Interviews, Stav Sherez


Today's Roving Eye interview is with British crime writer, Stav Sherez. He is the author of the CWA shortlisted The Devil’s Playground and The Black Monastery. His third novel, A Dark Redemption, is out now.


When did you first realise that you wanted to write for a living?

I think that ever since I was nine or ten years old I wanted to be a writer. I'm not sure whether back then I had a concept of doing something 'for a living' but I knew that I wanted to write books like the ones I was reading. As I got older, this hardened into knowing that writing books was the only thing I ever wanted to do.


What made you chose crime fiction?

Actually, it chose me. My first novel, The Devil's Playground, was not written as a crime novel per se but it was sold as such. Crime fiction is something I've always enjoyed as a reader and I quickly realised that the themes I wanted to explore in fiction (violence, how we represent it, idealism turning into tyranny, cults and civil wars) were all central tropes within the crime genre. I also like the purely structural element of crime fiction, the way it seduces the reader, enfolds them in its mystery, makes them scratch their heads then delivers the dénouement. There's something very challenging about the form of crime fiction and readers are very sophisticated at noticing what's good and what's not.
 

What crime novel would you most like to have written?

God, that's a hard and cruel question! But, if I had to choose one, it would probably be James Ellroy's American Tabloid because of its density, complexity, beauty of language and the brilliant characters as well as its tremendous and ambitious scope and its rendering of history as fiction.


Who is your favourite author outside of crime fiction and why?

Another difficult question! Probably Thomas Pynchon. Why? Because he writes books that no other novelist can write. Because they are funny, weird, thrilling, dark, surreal and profound. Because of his sentences. Because you will never view the world in quite the same way again after you've read one of them. And because he was never too afraid or snobbish to use genre tropes and structures in his books.


What’s the earliest memory you have of writing a story?

I don't really have a memory of that. Probably at school. At about age fifteen is when I first remember writing stories for myself and not for class. I was reading a lot of the Beats at that time, William Burroughs especially, and I'm sure everything I wrote back then was highly derivative of them.


If you weren’t a writer, what else could you see yourself doing?

I really couldn't imagine doing anything else. I don't think I'm any good at anything else. If I wasn't a writer, I'd be...nothing.


What is your least favourite part of the writing process?

Each and every part of it! They all have their drawbacks and their pleasures. Probably coming up with the plot, that's one of the hardest and least rewarding. As is writing the first draft when you know pretty much every sentence is rubbish, the plot and characters are rubbish, and that it'll be a long road from here. But maybe the worst is reading through the first draft and realising how much work is needed.


One record and one book to a desert island, what would you take?

Damn, that's a killer. Book would be Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon - not only is it my favourite novel but I don't think that even after 60 or so re-readings I'll still get all of it. One of the few inexhaustible novels of recent times. My favourite album is probably Springsteen's Nebraska but that would be way too depressing to have on a desert island so might instead opt for Dylan's Blonde on Blonde.


With the rise of ebooks and self publishing, what are your thoughts concerning the current state of the literary world?

I don't really have much idea. I don't think anyone does. We're in one of those periods of history where everything is changing and technology dictates the pace of change. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess. But if more people are reading books because of Kindle then that can only be a good thing.


Sum up your latest novel in less than 20 words.

Ten dead nuns in a burned-out convent. One unaccounted for body. Eleven Days before Christmas.


And lastly, just for fun...
Have you read or would you ever consider reading 50 Shades of Grey?

No, I haven't but mainly because I don't like to read sex scenes in any book, whether it's an erotic novel or a normal novel. Give me Henry Miller any day - sex mixed with existential musings mixed with screeds against the encroaching modern horizon.

Thursday 25 April 2013

The Roving Eye Interviews Alex Marwood


Today's Roving Eye interview is with writer and journalist Alex Marwood. Her debut novel, the critically acclaimed psychological thriller, The Wicked Girls, is out now.


When did you first realise that you wanted to write for a living?

Oh, lord, when I was around ten, I think. When I read James Herbert's The Rats. Or maybe the Flambards novels. Or Kurt Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan. I was one of those kids with lax parents and an adult library card, so I didn't read much of the  stuff one was supposed to read until I got to university, which was probably a good thing - for my life as a writer if not for passing exams.

What made you chose crime fiction?

I suppose mainly just because it's what I read most of myself - that and a fair amount of horror. I've always been interested in the things that make us tick, and I sort of feel that one sees these things laid barest when people are in extremis. We're all a couple of inches of rage away from violence, at least some of the time, and one of the ways examining how we control ourselves is by examining how we lose that control.

What crime novel would you most like to have written?

Gone Girl. I've always wanted to do something about narcissistic personality disorder, but I think I'd be very hard-pushed to do it better than Gillian Flynn has done here.

Who is your favourite author outside of crime fiction and why?

Stephen King. I love his use of language; so simple on the surface and so viscerally effective on the subconscious level. I didn't think Pet Semetary had affected me that much, for instance, until I realised I'd been having nightmares for a month after I finished reading it.

Who are you reading right now?

I've always got a lot on the go. At the moment, I'm reading Laura Lippman, Megan Abbot and Alison Gaylin - all brilliant - plus Mary Roach's Spook (on science and the afterlife) and Lawrence Wright's book about Scientology, Going Clear, which, because of the chaotic state of the libel laws in the country, I had to get a friend to send me from America. Oh, and the collected short stories of Elizabeth Taylor in the bathroom.

If you weren’t a writer, what else could you see yourself doing?

I'd probably be dead, simple as that. I've thought about giving it up many times - most writers do, I think - but the thought of life without it filled me with such existential despair that I had to make myself finish another chapter.

What was the last great book that you read?

Gone Girl.

What are your thoughts concerning the current state of the literary world?

That things aren't as dire as the doomsayers would have us believe. That one of the big problems is that publishers have been largely taken over by widget companies who make the fundamental error of thinking that standard 'growth' measurements can be applied to an industry that doesn't fit them and therefore keep believing that perfectly healthy companies are 'failing'. That the really great thing about ebooks is that authors' back catalogues finally stand a chance of being their pension funds. That publishers are going to have to stop playing dog in the manger with our back catalogues, or risk losing the goose that lays the golden egg.

What five words best describe your average day?

Coffee. Facebook. Grumbling. Coffee. Death.

Sum up your latest novel in less than 20 words.

Six bedsits, trouble with the plumbing and quite a lot of deaths. 

And, lastly, just for fun..
Have you read or would you ever consider reading 50 Shades of Grey?

I read the free sample on Amazon. That was plenty. I got the gist.

Tuesday 23 April 2013

The Roving Eye Interviews Tess Gerritsen

Today's Roving Eye interview is with internationally best-selling crime author and creator of Rizzoli and Isles, Tess Gerritsen. Her books, which include The Surgeon, Harvest and recent thriller Keeper of the Bride, have been published in forty countries, and more than 25 million copies have been sold around the world.


When did you first realise that you wanted to write for a living?

I knew I wanted to write when I was seven years old -- I just didn't think I could do it for a living.  In fact, up until I sold my first novel (at age 34) I didn't think I would actually get PAID to write.  I wrote only because I wanted to.  And it wasn't until the success of HARVEST (my first thriller in 1996) that I knew I could earn enough as a writer to support my family.

 
What made you chose crime fiction? 
 
Crime fiction has been my genre of choice from the beginning -- perhaps because, as as child, it was my favorite genre as a reader.  I devoured Nancy Drew mysteries (an American children's novel series featuring an 18-year-old female detective) .  Also, because of an experience with a beloved family friend who went to prison for murder, I've always been driven to explore the hidden personality behind the friendly face.


What crime novel would you most like to have written?
 
There are several!  I wish I'd written "Blue Heaven" by CJ Box.  Or "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn.  Or "Before I Go To Sleep" by SJ Watson.  I'm always encountering books by other authors that make my envious of their skills.

Who is your favourite author outside of crime fiction and why?
 
I'm a huge fan of Michael Pollan, who writes nonfiction about food and botany.  I cannot think of any writer with a more sensual and descriptive style.

 
What’s the earliest memory you have of writing a story?

My first book, which I wrote at age seven, was about my beloved cat who'd just passed away.  It was a biography of "Katie," who tragically passed away after being hit by a car.

If you weren’t a writer, what else could you see yourself doing?
 
If I weren't a writer, I would be either a botanist or an archaeologist.  Maybe a specialist in archaeological botany!

What is your least favorite part of the writing process?
 
My least favorite part of the writing process is the day-to-day grind of churning out the pages.  I know it sounds strange, since I'm a writer, but the actual writing is hard and painful work.  I love dreaming up the plot.  I love imagining the characters.  But the work of creation can make me very frustrated.

One record and one book to a desert island, what would you take?
 
One book?  The Bible, because it is a compendium of so many different stories.  One record? Probably a collection of American hit tunes from the 20's - 40's.  I love old tunes.

With the rise of ebooks and self publishing, what are your thoughts concerning the current state of the literary world?
 
The current state of the literary world?  For a writer -- exciting.  Never have we had so many ways to get our work out to the public.  It's the best time ever to be a storyteller.

Sum up your latest novel in less than 20 words
 
My latest novel (LAST TO DIE): Three orphaned survivors from three different families. What do they have in common -- besides the fact someone wants them dead? 

And, lastly, just for fun..
Have you read or would you ever consider reading 50 Shades of Grey?


Yes, I have read 50 Shades of Grey.  It's on every bestseller list, so I felt I had to!

Saturday 20 April 2013

The Roving Eye Interviews Sophie Hannah

Today's Roving Eye interview is with the international best-selling psychological crime writer, acclaimed poet, short story writer, and children's author, Sophie Hannah. Her novels, which include Little Face, Kind of Cruel and The Other Half Lives, have been published in 24 countries, short-listed for several awards, including, most recently, Kind of Cruel for the 2012 Specsavers National Book Awards Crime Thriller of the Year, and adapted for television.


When did you first realise that you wanted to write for a living?

I've known I wanted to write since I was quite a young child, maybe about age 7 or 8.  I started writing rhyming, metrical poetry and mystery stories at around that age and quickly became addicted to both - and still write both!  I never decided that I wanted to write for a living, or as my 'real job', because I simply assumed it wouldn't be possible. Although I knew some writers made a living from writing, it didn't even occur to me that I might be one of them, and I was actually quite happy with the idea of having a day job to bring in the money and writing in my spare time or when I could sneakily do it at work without anyone noticing! It was only when I wrote my first crime novel, Little Face, and was offered a two-book deal that I realised I no longer had time for a day job and became a full-time writer.
 
What made you chose crime fiction?

On a structural level, I am fascinated by the shapes of plots, puzzles and solutions, the planting of clues, red herrings, and, of course, devastating final twists. I love the architecture of crime fiction - everything has to be perfectly balanced and slotted in at exactly the right point and pitch in order for the whole structure to work.  I love the technical challenge.  I am also a big believer in plot-as-driving-force, and I think crime is the genre that does that best.  I'm fascinated by character, psychology and atmosphere as well, but none of these three wonderful things can do their stuff properly without a brilliant plot underpinning them, in my opinion.  Finally, in crime fiction, people behave terribly badly (murder's a bit out of order, isn't it?) because they are either in unbearable psychological pain, terrified, desperate or out-and-out bonkers, addicted to alcohol or drugs...and this causes great harm to others.  All of this strikes me as a very realistic portrayal of the world and chimes in strongly with my overall world view.  Even though most of us normally don't murder each other, I believe there is a huge amount of pain and desperation lurking beneath the surface of most lives and...it has to be analysed and tackled and written about! We can't just ignore it and write about lovely things.  Well, I can't, anyway.
 
What crime novel would you most like to have written?
 
I would feel it was an intellectual property boundary violation to wish I'd written someone else's book.  But if you're asking what do I think is the best crime novel ever written? Probably A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine.  Another strong contender for the slot would be Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson.

Who is your favourite author outside of crime fiction and why?

Iris Murdoch - because her novels brilliantly convey the chaos and absurdity of human beings.  And, she believes in plot and incident, but also has great depth and many layers, and that extra magic that makes her books so much more than the sum of their parts.  She's the perfect novelist.
 
What’s the earliest memory you have of writing a story?

I wrote a mystery story in which the murder victim turned over a waste paper bin while he was lying on the floor dying.  This was his way of leaving a clue: the murderer's initials were NIB - 'bin' in reverse.  God, I thought I was clever! 

If you weren’t a writer, what else could you see yourself doing?

I would love to be a country singer, but obviously that's ridiculous.  So, more realistically, I'd love to be a psychotherapist.  Except I'm a bit bossy, and a rebel - show me almost any rule and I'll want to break it - so I might occasionally give deliberately crazy advice and try to insist that my clients follow it.  Hmmm... Oh, I know.  I would like to be a defence barrister.  Or a probation officer.  Something to do with giving people a second chance.  One of my driving obsessions - in life and in my writing of crime fiction - is the idea that we cannot divide people into goodies and baddies. We are all a combination of both, and if we are condemned in the round for our bad actions, we then have no incentive to be better people.  I learned this when I went to see my first ever psychotherapist - every time I told her about something unfortunate that I'd done, challenging her to disapprove and condemn me, she just insisted that I was probably lovely and had the best of intentions.  Eventually, I couldn't help but try to become lovelier, because she had such faith in my essential goodness.  Whereas, I guarantee, if she'd said, 'Goodness, what an immoral bitchy slapper you are!', I would have dug in my heels and thought, 'Right - you want bad? I'll show you bad.'  So, although in each of my crime novels, there is a very dramatic (I hope) battle fought between good and evil, those battles take place within each character, not between good characters and bad characters.  In my latest thriller The Carrier, the murderer is undoubtedly a better person, ethically, than the victim, and the question the book asks is 'Who is really guilty here?' Because it's not always the person who's done the visible bad thing who is the guiltiest. 
 
What is your least favourite part of the writing process?

The worry.  Will it be good enough?  Will I get it finished by the deadline?  I'd enjoy writing a whole lot more if I could do it without anxiety.
 
One record and one book to a desert island, what would you take?

Book: The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch, for reasons explained above. Record: Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan. Idiot Wind (from this album) is my all-time favourite song.  Bob Dylan knows a thing or two about complicated relationships.  
 
With the rise of ebooks and self publishing, what are your thoughts concerning the current state of the literary world?

Personally, I prefer paper books and can't see myself ever reading ebooks. You don't have to turn off a paper book for take-off and landing.  I also prefer to read books that someone other than their author has deemed worthy of publication.  (I expect to be hounded, vilified and, after a short period of internet hounding, strung up from a lamp post for that last confession.)  I do make regular exceptions to this policy: if someone I adore beyond reason has self-published an ebook, I will read it.  Same applies in the case of someone I already know is brilliantly clever or funny or insightful because I've read them in another context, or someone who has suffered greatly and might need the support of an extra reader, or a good friend, or someone whose self-published book has been a huge word-of-mouth success...if any of those people self-publishes an ebook, I make an exception to my usual policy. Oh, God, I forgot the most persuasive exceptional case - if anyone who is even vaguely similar to Dr Greg House in any respect self-publishes an ebook - so, actually, I might as well not have a policy because I don't really stick to it.

Sum up your latest novel in less than 20 words.

The Carrier (that doesn't count as two of my words - that's just the title! Nor do these words count.) The love of Gaby Struthers' life has confessed to murdering his wife - but he claims he had no motive.
 
And, lastly, just for fun..
 
Have you read or would you ever consider reading 50 Shades of Grey?

I have, I would again, and here is what I had to say about it: www.sophiehannah.com/fifty-shades-of-grey/
 

Thursday 18 April 2013

The Roving Eye Interviews Lawrence Block


Today’s Roving Eye interview is with American crime writer Lawrence Block, who is best known for his two long-running New York–set series, about  recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. Block was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1994.


When did you first realise that you wanted to write for a living?

I was fifteen, in the eleventh grade—which I'm sure is called something else in the UK. Encouragement from a teacher played a role, but I suspect I'd have got there regardless. Once it occurred to me to write for a living, I never truly entertained the idea of doing anything else. And it wasn't too much longer before I was doing it professionally.

What made you chose crime fiction?

It wasn't a deliberate choice. But in my early years, I found that the stories that most engaged me, and that I found it most satisfying to have written, were under that broad canopy of crime fiction.

What crime novel would you most like to have written?

There are any number of crime novels which I admire extravagantly, but that's not really the question, is it? So I'll say I'd most like to have written The DaVinci Code; authorship of which would have made my accountant very happy.

Who is your favourite author outside of crime fiction and why?

John O'Hara. The lives of his characters are real to me in a way most fictional characters are not.

Who are you reading right now?
 
I've just finished re-reading John Sandford's works.

If you weren’t a writer, what else could you see yourself doing?

Well, I don't think I'd be much good at running a bookstore, or being a detective. So what does that leave? I guess I'd be a hit man.

What was the last great book that you read?

Hmmm. I'd say Thomas Flanagan's Irish trilogy, starting with The Year of the French.

What are your thoughts concerning the current state of the literary world?

I don't know that I think in those terms.  I do believe it's a very exciting time to be a writer.

What five words best describe your average day?

Rats. Here we go again.

Sum up your latest novel in less than 20 words.

Keller, now living comfortably in New Orleans as husband and father, returns to his homicidal profession.

And, lastly, just for fun..
Have you read or would you ever consider reading 50 Shades of Grey?

No.

Tuesday 16 April 2013

The Roving Eye Interviews RJ Ellory


Today’s Roving Eye interview is with acclaimed British crime writer RJ Ellory. His novels have twice been short-listed for the CWA Steel Dagger for Best Thriller (2003’s Candlemoth and 2007’s City of Lies). In 2010 A Simple Act of Violence picked up the top prize of the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the year.

When did you first realise that you wanted to write for a living?

Maybe ‘needed’ is better than ‘wanted’ in this context!  I was always creatively minded, right from an early age.  My primary interests were in the field of art, photography, music, such things as this.  Not until I was twenty-two did I consider the possibility of writing.  I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine about a book he was reading, and he was so enthusiastic!  I thought ‘It would be great to create that kind of an effect’.  That evening – back in November of 1987 – I started writing my first book, and over the next six years I wrote a total of 23 novels.  Once I started I couldn’t stop, and now I think it just took me those first twenty-two years of my life to really discover what I wanted to do.  Now it seems like such a natural part of me and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.  Paul Auster once said that becoming a writer was not a ‘career decision’ like becoming a doctor or a policeman.  You don’t choose it so much as get chosen, and once you accepted the fact that you were not fit for anything else, you had to be prepared to walk a long, hard road for the rest of your days, and I concur with his attitude.  I think writing was sort of inevitable for me, it just took a while for me to find out.

What made you chose crime fiction?

Well, for me, the thing I am interested in is people.  That’s the sum total of my interest.  People.  The situations they get themselves into.  How they deal with them.  How they react.  The decisions they make as a result.  That’s what fascinates me and that’s what I want to write about.  The truth about the crime genre is that it can encompass so very much as far as subject matter is concerned.  A crime thriller can be historical, it can be political, it can be a straight homicide investigation, it can be a conspiracy.  It gives you an enormous canvas, you see.  We all know that the way criminal investigations are portrayed on TV is about as far from the reality as you could imagine.  I spent some time with a homicide detective in Washington in January, and she told me that she would sometimes be working four or five or six homicides simultaneously.  Aside from the fact that such a schedule prohibits any kind of personal life, it also means that the amount of attention that can actually be devoted to one case is very limited.  Homicide investigation is a tough, unforgiving, unrewarding, brutally dark and relentless vocation, and there are very few people capable of doing it.  I think that crime fiction reflects that more honestly than any crime series on TV.  And the thing that never ceases to amaze me is the indomitability of the human spirit, the things that people are capable of overcoming, and the fact that they can then survive beyond that.  For me, writing ‘crime thrillers’ or ‘mysteries’ is not so much about the crime itself, even the investigation, but the way in which such events can be used to highlight and illuminate the way that people deal with things that are not usual.  If there is one common thread throughout my books, though they are all very different stories, it is that we are always dealing with an ordinary person thrown into an extraordinary situation.  That’s the common theme.  That’s the thing that fascinates me.  I suppose I am a romantic at heart, and I try very hard to be in touch with the emotional nature of people and things, and what I am always striving to do is have a reader feel what the characters are feeling, to get an idea that they have spent some time with real people, and to bring about the sense that they were aware of what was going on with that character on many levels.  That, for me, seems key to making a book memorable.  And presenting characters with difficult situations that people ordinarily don’t have to deal with gives you the whole spectrum of human emotions and reactions to write about.

What crime novel would you most like to have written?

Well, even though it is a novel only in the loosest sense of the word (because it is based on true events), that would have to be ‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote.

Who is your favourite author outside of crime fiction and why?

With me, the most important thing about any novel is the emotion it evokes.  As I said, the reason for writing about the subjects I do is simply that such subjects give me the greatest opportunity to write about real people and how they deal with real situations.  I think I write ‘human dramas’, and in those dramas I feel I have sufficient canvas to paint the whole spectrum of human emotions, and this is what captures my attention.  I think the best explanation of the difference between non-fiction and fiction, I feel, is that non- fiction's primary purpose is to convey information, whereas the purpose of fiction is to evoke an emotion in the reader. So when I'm writing I try not to get too bogged down in the history and facts. I work towards the evocation of an emotional effect really, whether it be anger, frustration, love, hate, sympathy etc.  The books that I remember, all the way back to things I read as a child, are the books that hooked me emotionally; those books where I identified with the central character, perhaps identified with a conflict they were going through, an emotional journey they were making.  The first thing I decide when I embark upon a new book is ‘What emotions do I want to create in the reader?’ or ‘When someone has finished this book and they think about it some weeks later, what do I want them to remember…what emotion do I want them to feel when they recall reading the book?’  That’s key for me.  Those are the books that stay with me, and those are the books I am constantly trying to write.  There are a million books that are brilliantly written, but mechanically so.  They are very clever, there are great plot twists, and a brilliant denouement, but if the reader is asked three weeks after reading the book what they thought of it they might have difficulty remembering it.  Why?  Because it was all very objective.  There was no subjective involvement.  The characters weren’t very real, they didn’t experience real situations, or they didn’t react to them the way ordinary people react.  In fact, some of the greatest books ever published, the ones that are now rightfully regarded as classics, are those books that have a very simple storyline, but a very rich and powerful emotional pull.  It’s the emotion that makes them memorable, and it’s the emotion that makes them special.  So, generally speaking, the books that stay with me are the ones that generate that emotional impact, but there is another thing to take into consideration here.  I love language.  I love authors that play with language, that defy the rules of how it’s ‘supposed to be done’, and so I can only answer this question by looking at whose books I possess the greatest number of, or perhaps whose books do I go back and read again and again.  It is nigh impossible to name a favourite author inside or outside of any genre, so I am going to ask you to indulge me and allow me a few.  I love Chandler, Annie Proulx, Cormac McCarthy, Capote of course, and there are more recent novels by the likes of Don Winslow and Daniel Woodrell that really stand head-and-shoulders above other books for me.  It’s a tough question, and you shouldn’t be allowed to ask it!

Who are you reading right now?

I am reading ‘The Cleaner’ by Paul Cleave.  Paul is a great friend of mine, and we were just in France together, and I do like his writing very much.  I love the darkly humorous nature of it, and I think he is a very talented writer.  I am also reading two books by unpublished authors, as I do spend a lot of time trying to help people find agents and publishers, and do what I can to give some advice.  Like all of us, I don’t have anywhere near enough time to read as much as I would like, and there are many books that get left behind.  I have also found that as I have grown older I become less patient with books.  There are so many wonderful books out there that I find myself looking more and more for writers that make me feel like I am a bad writer!

If you weren’t a writer, what else could you see yourself doing?

I would be a professional musician, no doubt about it.  Literature is one half of my creative life, music is the other.  I am still working at the goal of playing professionally, and I do have a band, but I am at an age where you have to take the breaks you can get!


What was the last great book that you read?

Well, for the third time I read ‘Winter’s Bone’ by Daniel Woodrell, which is a truly stunning book.

One record and one book to a desert island, what would you take?

That is another dreadful question.  Oh man, that is so mean!  One book would have to be ‘In Cold Blood’, and one record?  That’s probably a harder question.  In my current mood, probably ‘Gris Gris’ by Dr. John. 

Being an Englishman, what made you chose the USA as the setting for your novels?

I think I grew up with American culture all around me. I grew up watching Starsky and Hutch, Hawaii Five-O, Kojak, all those kinds of things. I loved the atmosphere, the diversity of culture, the fact that every state is entirely different from every other, and there are fifty of them.  The politics fascinated me. America is a new country compared to England, and it just seems to me that there was so much colour and life inherent in its society. I have visited many times now, and I honestly feel like I’m visiting my second home. And I believe that as a non-American there are many things about American culture that I can look at as a spectator. The difficulty with writing about an area that you are very familiar with is that you tend to stop noticing things. You take things for granted. The odd or interesting things about the people and the area cease to be odd and interesting. As an outsider you never lose that viewpoint of seeing things for the first time, and for me that is very important. Also many writers are told to write about the things they are familiar with. I don’t think this is wrong, but I think it is very limiting. I believe you should also write about the things that fascinate you. I think in that way you have a chance to let your passion and enthusiasm for the subject come through in your prose. I also believe that you should challenge yourself with each new book. Take on different and varied subjects. Do not allow yourself to fall into the trap of writing things to a formula. Someone once said to me that there were two types of novels. There were those that you read simply because some mystery was created and you had to find out what happened. The second kind of novel was one where you read the book simply for the language itself, the way the author used words, the atmosphere and description. The truly great books are the ones that accomplish both. I think any author wants to write great novels. I don’t think anyone – in their heart of hearts – writes because it’s a sensible choice of profession, or for financial gain. I just love to write, and though the subject matter that I want to write about takes me to the States, it is nevertheless more important to me to write something that can move someone emotionally, perhaps change a view about life, and at the same time to try and write it as beautifully as I can. I also want to write about subjects – whether they be political conspiracies, serial killings, race relations, political assassinations or FBI and CIA investigations – that could only work in the USA. The kind of novels I want to write just wouldn’t work in small, green, leafy villages where you find Hobbits!

Sum up your latest novel in less than 20 words.

A cross between ‘Angel Heart’ and ‘Apocalypse Now’. A Deep South 1970s murder investigation by a Vietnam veteran Sheriff. 

And, lastly, just for fun..

Have you read or would you ever consider reading 50 Shades of Grey?

I will read anything! I would consider it, of course, and have considered it, just to find out what all the fuss was about.  However, I have a mountain of to-be-read books, and ‘Fifty Shades’ isn’t amongst them, and probably never will be.  That’s not to say that I have already decided what kind of book it is, but given a choice between James Lee Burke and EL James, I’m going to go with the former!