Terrific interviews: Val McDermid, Peter James, and more...

It's been a fantastic few days for crime fiction fans listening to Radio New Zealand, who in general are often an excellent media outlet here in New Zealand when it comes to giving some 'space' to crime fiction reviews and interviews, with terrific long interviews with 2010 Cartier Diamond Dagger recipient Val McDermid (44mins) and #1 bestselling British crime writer Peter James (30 mins), amongst other crime fiction content.

Fortunately for all of us who weren't able to listen to the interviews live at the time, Radio New Zealand archives these kinds of things online. For those of you who have some time, I heartily recommend having a listen.

On Saturday 28 August, well-known New Zealand radio personality Kim Hill interviewed Val McDermid. It's a truly terrific interview, beginning with McDermid talking about why some people like reading crime fiction - things like "the promise of resolution" and providing "a safe place to be scared", like a rollercoaster - before covering everything from Val McDermid's friendship with Gordon Brown and her thoughts on Tony Blair, to interviewing Moors Murderer Ian Brady's mother as a journalist, to her days at Oxford, thoughts on psychological profiling, and much, much more. You can listen to the full interview here.

On Monday, Jim Mora interviewed Peter James on his Afternoons programme. This too is a great interview, with lots of interesting discussion and insights. The pair cover everything from James' love of cars (and the tragic history of the WWII B-25 Mitchell bomber he used to own), his aim to provide insights into all three aspects in his crime novels - the criminal, the victim, and the police, the horror of rape as a crime, getting the reality of police work into his novels, his in-depth research, the bravery of real-life police, and the original inspiration and impetus for the creation of Roy Grace. You can read the full interview here.

It's another excellent interview, during which, after commenting on how James uses the names of friends (and enemies, he jokes) in his books, Mora asks near the end of the interview whether James would use the name of the first listener to text in, in one of his future books. After saying he'd be delighted to, and that he'll use it in the book he is currently writing (DEAD MAN'S GRIP), the interview continues. When Mora chooses the name of Sarah Papesh, he notes that already (within about 2-3 minutes) they'd had 479 people text in! When I met James that evening in Takapuna (see picture above left), he was simply astonished by the response.

In other good news for Kiwi fans, James mentioned that as he has family in Hamilton, he is considering involving New Zealand in some way in a future Roy Grace case. So keep your eyes peeled for that!

On Tuesday, Kiwi crime writer and Ngaio Marsh Award finalist Vanda Symon, the creator of the excellent Sam Shephard series set in the southern part of the South Island, reviewed the latest novels from two big name British crime writers who have been visiting our shores recently - McDermid's TRICK OF THE DARK and BAD BOY by Peter Robinson - for Mora's Afternoons programme. You can listen to Symon's reviews here.

Along with all the great crime fiction content on Radio New Zealand in the past few days, a couple of weeks ago they also had a reading from THE FALLEN, the local #1 bestseller from young Ben Sanders, and an interesting short interview with Sanders, where he talks about reading Michael Connelly and James Ellroy, and the creation of Sean Devereaux. You can listen to that interview here.

So what do you think of the interviews and reviews? Do you like listening to authors and reviews, as well as reading such features and reviews in the print and online media? Have you read any Val McDermid, Peter James, Peter Robinson, or Vanda symon books? What do you think? Why do you read crime fiction? I'd love to read what you think. Comments welcome.

Peter Robinson on Good Morning (TVNZ)

Some of you may have seen my feature article for the Weekend Herald on Saturday, which highlighted two fantastic British crime writers - Peter James and Peter Robinson. As well as being terrific authors, both of these gentleman were an absolute delight to chat to; funny, down-to-earth, and generous with their time.

I know there are a lot of Peter Robinson fans here in New Zealand, so I thought I would also share this with you; the creator of Inspector Banks appeared on the popular Good Morning show on TVNZ this morning, to talk a bit about his latest novel BAD BOY, and other topics - you can watch his 7mins interview here (note, you'll need Adobe Flash Player 10.1 to watch it).
You can also watch a video trailer for BAD BOY, and another interview with Robinson talking about the writing of this latest Inspector Banks tale, here. Hopefully we will see Robinson down here in New Zealand again soon.

Are you an Inspector Banks fan? What did you think of the interview(s)? Are you going to read BAD BOY (or have already read it)? Thoughts and comments welcome.

A tale of two Peters: my feature on Peter James and Peter Robinson in the Weekend Herald

As I mentioned earlier, the Weekend Herald (New Zealand's biggest newspaper) have now kindly allowed me to republish any articles I have or will write for them, online. So today I am sharing my 1000-word feature on two fantastic British crime writers - Peter James and Peter Robinson. The feature was in the books section of the Canvas magazine (the glossy lifestyle supplement) over the weekend, as both writers are in New Zealand this week.

A tale of two Peters
Two big names in British thriller writing visit New Zealand next week. Craig Sisterson talks to Peter James and Peter Robinson

WHEN PUBLISHER Macmillan approached Peter James in 2001 and asked whether the bestselling British author had ever considered writing a crime novel, the answer was simple. “It was what I’d always wanted to do,” says James, his voice reverberating down the phone line from Nevada, where he’s doing research for his next Roy Grace book before heading downunder to promote his latest, Dead Like You.

James already had twenty years as a published author, and 16 novels - a mixture of spy thrillers and supernatural suspense and horror - under his belt at the time, so switching genres may have seemed an unusual move. But James had “several years of developing relationships with the police”, thanks to research for minor characters in his earlier novels.

“And when I went out to create a new detective, I thought, right, the first thing I have to do is immerse myself utterly in police culture,” adds James, noting that those who work in law enforcement have a different outlook on the everyday world than most people. “I call it a healthy culture of suspicion. But it permeates all their lives.”

In contrast, Peter Robinson dove straight into police procedurals with his debut novel in 1987, introducing the now-beloved Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks to the world in Gallows View. But like James, Robinson too had concentrated on other types of writing before turning to crime; he had penned poetry and short stories.

In fact Robinson studied poetry, completing an MA at the University of Windsor in Canada under Joyce Carol Oates and a PhD at York University. “I found myself getting more interested in form and structure, tightening it up, and going into rhyme, meter, and writing poems that made sense, and even told stories.” At the time “nobody wanted that” from poets, preferring unstructured free verse, and so Robinson turned to prose because he “was telling stories anyway”.

“I’d enjoyed reading crime fiction, so that’s what took me to crime writing,” he says. “I’d read Chandler, Simenon, Macdonald, just about everybody. And it was so great, I thought ‘I want to do this’. Sjöwall and Wahlöö, the Martin Beck books, they were a tremendous influence.” Almost 25 years later Robinson is still writing about Inspector Banks, and this month Bad Boy, the 19th novel in the award-winning Yorkshire-set series, was published in New Zealand.

Both Robinson and James say they first fell in love with mystery stories thanks to Enid Blyton’s Famous Five novels, and each says that Sherlock Holmes is their favourite recurring detective of all time. “He is still the most enduring to me of all the fictional characters ever created,” says James. “He was sort of the pioneer of forensics, and I just think he is such a wonderful character, despite the fact he was completely eccentric.”

Neither James’s Roy Grace nor Robinson’s Alan Banks have anywhere near Holmes’s level of eccentricity, but each has become a popular character in crime fiction, beloved by fans and with a few touches that reflect their creator’s own interests; Banks is a big music fan, while Grace has an interest in the paranormal.

James and Robinson each also show a wonderful touch for setting in their crime novels, with their detectives solving crimes in the authors own childhood backyards - Brighton and Yorkshire respectively. “Setting is really important because if you want to make a crime novel believable, then it needs to be in a context where people who read it can visualise it, they can completely feel it from the way you describe it,” says James. “Then you set the crime against that backdrop and it’s much more real and brings the book alive.”

For James, his hometown of Brighton is perfect for crime novels. “It’s been called the crime capital of England since 1944,” he says with a chuckle. “It started off as a smuggling village in the Middle Ages, and it’s always had this kind of dark criminal undertow.” A combination of easy access and escape routes, with sea ports, Channel Tunnel, rail, and motorway hubs nearby, a conflagration of diverse communities, and the fact it’s “a really nice place to live and work” provides fertile ground for crime - real and fictional.

In Dead Like You a series of rapes in Brighton reactivate a cold case, and readers are given more insight into the character of Roy Grace, as the narrative switches between the present and the past - a time before Grace’s wife Sandy went missing.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I went out to create a new detective, I thought, right, first thing I have to do is immerse myself utterly in police culture.

Peter James

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For Robinson, who now lives in Toronto but still sets his crime novels ‘back home’, Yorkshire is likewise an ideal backdrop. The largest county in England combines pristine countryside with industrial areas (coal, steel, textiles), big cities like Leeds and Bradford with historic towns from Roman times, and a gorgeous coastline. “I think I wanted the best of both worlds,” says Robinson. “I wanted to do things that used the sense of isolation you can get in North Yorkshire, where you can roam the dales for a day without seeing another soul, but I also wanted to be able to bring kind of urban-based crime writing to it.”

Robinson has thrown a lot of tricky situations at Banks over the course of the series, but in Bad Boy he faces his biggest dilemma yet - his daughter Tracy is on the run with a very dangerous man. Although the Chief Inspector’s family life has featured in several of the novels, Robinson says he felt he “hadn’t really said much about his relationship with his daughter for quite a while”, and that inspired Bad Boy.

The first in what could become a series of Banks TV adaptations, Aftermath, is due to screen in Britain next month, with Stephen Tompkinson of Wild at Heart fame in the lead role. “I read the scripts and went to the read-through, and I was on-set about three times while they were filming it,” says Robinson, sounding a little like a proud father. James is also involved in the screen world, having been a film producer for many years. His credits include The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons, and the New Zealand-filmed vampire tale Perfect Creature.

Both authors have visited New Zealand before (James has family in Hamilton), and say they are really looking forward to returning to our shores this coming week. James will be making some public appearances, while Robinson is holidaying around the North Island with his wife.

Bad Boy (Hodder & Stoughton, $38.99)

Dead Like You (Macmillan, $38.99)

Peter James will be appearing at the Takapuna Library at 6:30pm (drinks at 6pm) on Tuesday 31 August. Entry: $5, $2 for Friends of the Library.

Contact Helen Woodhouse on (09) 486 8469 or helenw@shorelibraries.govt.nz

This feature article was first published in the Canvas magazine of the Weekend Herald on Saturday 28 August 2010, and is reprinted here with permission.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So what do you think of my feature article ? Of the Weekend Herald allowing me to share my past and future features for them, with you all here on Crime Watch? Have you read any of the Roy Grace or Alan Banks novels? How important is setting in crime writing? Thoughts and comments welcome.

Peter Robinson, Inspector Banks, and BAD BOY

Phew! I've been on a bit of a run of big-name author interviews lately. Following my recent interview with James Lee Burke (for the article published in last weekend's Canvas magazine), on Friday I interviewed 2010 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger recipient Val McDermid, and yesterday I interviewed multiple Ned Kelly Award winner Michael Robotham - both of who are visiting New Zealand in the coming weeks.

Tonight (in about three hours) I'm interviewing another 'heavy hitter' of the crime fiction world; Peter Robinson, creator of the beloved hero, Inspector Banks. Robinson is also touring Australia and New Zealand in August, in support of his latest Banks novel, BAD BOY, which is about to be released. I will have more about his NZ tour details soon.

In the meantime, here is a bit of a audio-visual quick squiz at BAD BOY. You can watch a little 'teaser trailer' about the latest Banks adventure here:



And here is Robinson himself talking about the background to the story (with some nice footage of the Yorkshire dales setting too):



If there are any questions you desperately want me to ask Peter Robinson, get a comment in quick and I'll do my best to include them.