The Intel: Peter Lovesey

Peter Lovesey is crime fiction royalty. The author of nearly forty novels – featuring Sergeant Cribb, Peter Diamond and Hen Mallin, among others – he’s been nominated for nearly every award worth having, and in 2000 won the prestigious Cartier Diamond Dagger for his lifetime achievements.

His latest Supt Peter Diamond novel is called Down Among The Dead Men and features the consequences of what happens when a car thief makes off with a stolen BMW. When the police pull him over, a nightmare discovery in the boot earns him a life sentence for murder.

Years later, Diamond finds himself investigating that old case, and his formidable colleague Hen Mallin, and dealing with with spirited schoolgirls and eccentric artists. But more people are going missing…

We’re all kinds of thrilled about this intel – Lovesey is an engaging and generous interviewee. He discusses the evolution of Peter Diamond since his first – and last – appearance 25 years ago and the series’s debt to Ed McBain – and he reveals the one question fans always ask that always makes him uncomfortable….

Tell us about Supt. Peter Diamond… 

When he first appears he is asleep on a trolley outside the post mortem room while an autopsy is going on inside. This helps to establish him as a stubborn yet sensitive man who does his own thing regardless of what is expected. His ample shape suggests a dinosaur luring in a primeval swamp. I wanted to suggest he was one of the old school of detectives, an anachronism in modern policing. He’s overweight and dresses in a raincoat and trilby as if he’s stepped out of one of the black and white movies he loves. I’d know him if I met him, but if he knocked on my door I’d think twice about inviting him in.

Diamond made his first appearance in 1991’s The Last Detective – how has he changed down the years?

As the title implied, that first book was intended to be a one-off. By the end of it Peter Diamond had quit the police. End of, I thought. Unexpectedly it won the Anthony award for best novel (I wasn’t in Toronto and didn’t find out till later, which meant I didn’t even have to make an acceptance speech). Diamond was already middle-aged. When asked if I would write another story with this character I revised my writing plans and did one called Diamond Solitaire, with him getting involved in crime as a civilian. By then I saw he had potential for a series, so The Summons was my way of getting him back into the police. He has now been a detective superintendent at Bath for another twenty-five years. How has he changed? Not at all. Peter Diamond is a portly, middle-aged Peter Pan. He has the gift of eternal middle age.

Down Among The Dead Men features Diamond investigating the disappearance of an art teacher – what was the inspiration for the novel?

They say you should write about what you know. I went to university to study fine art. I would have applied for English, but in those days they insisted everyone studied Latin and I was so abysmal at it that I didn’t even take the exam. The art was my back door route to an English degree. I wrote some essays the English professor saw and after a couple of terms he invited me to switch – with nothing said about Latin. Later I did some teaching in technical colleges. I was wary of writing fiction about art and teaching in case an old colleague recognised herself, but I’ve finally bitten the bullet.

You’ve said your supporting cast of detectives is a nod to Ed McBain – do you have any favourites among Diamond’s colleagues?

Yes, Ed and I shared the same agent and became good friends. Under the name of Evan Hunter he’d written The Blackboard Jungle, so we had teaching in common as well. He was the father of the police procedural novel and his writing doesn’t date, even fifty-eight years on from Cop Hater. I learned a lot from him about handling a team of detectives rather than just the sleuth and his sidekick. Among my characters I liked Julie Hargreaves, but she couldn’t stand Diamond and asked for a transfer.

The main female interest now is Ingeborg Smith, formerly a freelance journalist. I’m hoping she will tough it out with the old curmudgeon. Among the men, there’s John Wigfull, an enemy of Diamond’s who does PR for the police. And I enjoy writing scenes for Leaman, the inspector who does everything by the book and is the eternal fall guy.

DCI Henrietta ‘Hen’ Mallin – who spun off into two of her own books – makes another appearance in Diamond’s life. Do you have any plans to return her to the limelight in another novel?

I like Hen and enjoy making sparks when she works with Diamond. Nothing is planned and she doesn’t have a spot in Another One Goes Tonight, the next book. People sometimes ask if I have another book inside me. I tell them I don’t. It ‘s uncomfortable.

How did you start writing?

Like everybody else, at school. I won a prize at 15 for writing a history of my town . The first book I wrote was about long distance running and the first novel  was also about running and called Wobble To Death. It was used to launch the Macmillan crime list in 1970. Being set in Victorian times, it was different and got me started on a series of eight books that eventually appeared on Granada TV as Cribb, starring Alan Dobie as the detective.

What’s the hardest lesson you ever had to learn about writing?

Never get too excited about the promise of getting onto the big screen. Wobble To Death was optioned by Carl Foreman (of High Noon fame) and The False Inspector Dew by Peter Falk (Columbo). I was lunched by the great men and started counting the days (‘It won’t be long, Peter’) but ultimately neither project went into production.

Who are the authors you admire, and why?

It’s unfair to mention living writers. I still enjoy Ed McBain because he was such an innovator and a stylist. And Donald E. Westlake, whose Dortmunder books are the funniest crime series ever. Who else? Patricia Highsmith, who didn’t invent the inverted crime plot, but made it into high art. And Arthur Conan Doyle, who is undervalued as a comic writer.

Give me some advice about writing…

Always have the next book written (or well under way) before the previous one is published.

What’s next for you?

Another One Goes Tonight is the seventeenth in the Diamond series and appears in July. Number eighteen is under way. I can’t say well under way, but hell, there’s plenty of writing to be done between now and then. This is where I stop answering your questions and get back to work.

***

Down Among the Dead Men by Peter Lovesey is published by Sphere, price £8.99 in paperback.

You can find out more about Peter at his website www.peterlovesey.com

The Intel: Ed Chatterton Reloaded

Crime Thriller Fella is taking a much-needed summer break.  I know, I know – parting is always such sweet sorrow, etcetera – but, hey, we’re going to meet up again right here very soon. However, do keep coming back. Over the last year there’ve been all sorts of reviews and Intel interviews we’ve enjoyed doing, and which you may have missed, you fickle thing.

For example, we loved Ed Chatterton’s excellent procedural Down Among The Dead Men, so we were thrilled when Ed kindly gave us The Intel on his writing process.

Ed is the prize-winning author of more than twenty children’s novels (published under the name Martin Chatterton), and then turned to writing crime novels creating DCI Frank Keane. He was born and brought up in Liverpool, but is a serial traveller and has lived in Florida, Lyon, Australia and London.  A Dark Place to Die was his first crime novel in the DCI Frank Keane series. Down Among the Dead Men is Ed’s second novel in the series and is split between Liverpool, Los Angeles and Australia. He lives in the UK with his wife and two children. To find out more visit his website at www.edchatterton.com

What’s your writing process? What comes first – plot or character?

There’s a great quote from Raymond Chandler which, in essence, said that good books aren’t planned they are distilled. That really chimed with me as almost all my books (I’ve written about 35) start life as a rough idea based around one or two central characters and a couple of loose story possibilities. From there I start writing around a few key early scenes, gradually ‘distilling’ as I go. I always leave the endings unplanned as I believe that this makes the narrative less predictable. If I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen then it should be a surprise to the reader, right? That’s the theory anyway. In practice this means that I rewrite and redraft a lot. I’m continually refining and cutting and chopping until I’m happy. I know this is how a lot of writers work but I think I’m more ruthless than most. I enjoy working with editors and virtually never disagree with suggestions and cuts. Other people can see much more clearly what works and what doesn’t. A good plot should have a strong backbone but shouldn’t be in charge of the characters. Once a character starts doing something to help the plot I think the book starts to become hack work. Characters are the key.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

It varies depending on what I’m working on but usually it would start with getting outside a coffee as quickly as possible. I’d then walk the dog or do something that takes me outside the house before starting work. After that it’s really dull: I just sit down and write. In recent years the rise in importance of social media has put huge time pressures on writers. Sometimes much of my day seems to be taken up with ‘selling’, which can be annoying when I know I’d rather be creating. I usually roughly work office hours, which is something I’ve always done. I’ve been a freelance creative for thirty years full-time and without being disciplined, or having some sort of routine, I’d have been out of work long ago.

Who are the authors or you love, and why?

Most of my kids books have been comedies and I’m a big admirer of good comedy writing. I think it’s by far the hardest type of writing. and I can tell you that writing drama is much easier. I love PG Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh, Kyril Bonfiglioli, SJ Perelman and TV writers like Armando Iannucci, Larry David and Ricky Gervais. The best contemporary comedy writers are working in TV.

In crime fiction my heroes are Elmore Leonard, George Pelecanos and Patricia Highsmith. I love the way that these writers centre their books on character. Reading a good Leonard book you get the feeling that the narrative could move in unexpected directions. These writers also write beautiful dialogue. I don’t read much contemporary British crime fiction, to be honest.

What’s the hardest lesson you ever had to learn about writing?

Quality has no relationship to sales.

How do you deal with feedback?

I find that a cosh to the base of the neck usually does the trick. If the feedback’s from my editor I do listen closely and enjoy the experience. Feedback from readers can be a two-edged sword. Usually people are very positive but I try not to pay attention to reviews, good or bad. Every writer will tell you that in a good review we’ll pick out the one negative comment and dwell on that. I have a particular problem with reviews that pick up on the sexual element of my books. One mainstream reviewer called ‘A Dark Place To Die’ ‘sex-drenched’. It has one sex scene.

How has your own experience influence your writing?

I’m not a huge believer in the ‘write what you know’ thing but I do think that a writer is better for having had some life experience. When I’m writing children’s fiction, less of my own life experience comes into play, while when writing adult crime there’s more scope to bring in things that help the books. I’ve lived in a few countries and travelled a lot and this is probably the main thing that has been an influence. For instance, despite the series being anchored in Liverpool, I like to widen the story out to include places I know well or that have had an impact on me. In the first book (A Dark Place To Die) the story bounces between Australia and Liverpool, echoing what was happening in my life – without the body count and violent drug deals. In this book the story moves from Liverpool to Los Angeles and beyond. Having lived in the US helps enormously.

Another area of influence is knowledge of policing and the criminal world. While I’m not a cop or a criminal I’ve had a fair amount of contact with people on both sides of the fence in one way or another. I like to think this lends authenticity to the characters, many of whom are based on composites of people I’ve met or know. In terms of my career experience I think my background in design and illustration/film helps me to write economically and in a very cinematic way.

Give me some advice about writing…

The flip answer is: don’t start. I hesitate to say that because I know it’s not what aspiring writers want to hear. Sadly though, it’s the truth. Writing is an incredibly tricky road to take and simply writing well won’t help much (although that should be taken for granted.) If you do decide you absolutely have to write, then, for crying out loud do it in the privacy of your own home. And then, if the monstrous thing you produce still demands to be seen, coax it outside and then put it in front of someone with a bit of editorial experience. If you can’t find an amenable one at a publishing house – and you probably won’t – then there are a few decent editors for hire. This is a problem area (I believe) in that there are quite a number of  dubious editorial ‘services’ offered. Ask around and when you have found a good editor listen to them. Keep writing and keep re-drafting. Don’t be precious. The most precious writers – the ones who react least well to suggestions – are often the least experienced. What you think is gold usually turns out to be, at best, copper. Hopefully, if you keep at it for long enough then you may eventually produce something worthwhile. And if you don’t, then put the vile thing you’ve created back into a locked room and throw away the key. It’ll be for the best, in the end.

What’s your best advice for an author looking to get into the marketplace…

Didn’t you read that last bit? No? OK…then I guess that you need to be professional. I did a workshop last year at the State Library of Queensland on this subject. In preparation I asked a few friends and colleagues, all pros, to chip in their advice. There were a variety of responses but, in essence, they could all be boiled down to ‘be professional’.  By that they mean getting the basics right. Spell words correctly. Use decent grammar. Don’t submit ‘gimmicky’ manuscripts in violet-scented hand-made boxes. Have some idea of the market: if your book is a thriller submit it to a company that publishes thrillers, not cookbooks. Go further and try and find out who the publisher already publishes. If your stuff is like something they already publish it may be that they have that market share already ‘covered’. Use any personal contacts you can. Keep writing. Write anything. Write some more. Develop a skin like a rhino. Have a back up plan. Think about how you might sell your book. Do you have a good back story? Can you talk in front of groups of people? If not, you could be in trouble because authors have transmogrified (I’m not sure when, I had my back turned) into stand up comedians and dramatic actors. Perfect your performing monkey skills because you’ll need them. Above all, write something good that you have already shown to other people with critical abilities who have given you feedback that you have then acted upon.

Simple.

What’s next for you?

I’m writing book 3 in the Frank Keane series. I’m about two thirds of the way through. I’m also writing a YA novel called ‘Archangel’ which is about halfway through. That’s a sci-fi thriller based on ‘slavery’ as a theme. I’m also doing a PhD which involves writing a ‘big novel’. Mine is called ‘The Last Slave Ship’ (www.thelastslaveship.blogspot.com.au) and tells the story of the final slaver voyage from Liverpool in 1809, combined with a contemporary narrative involving race-hate crime and civil unrest. I’m working on a film project with an Australian film company writing a movie based around the memoirs of the son of a famous Sydney gangland boss. That should keep me busy.

The Intel: Ed Chatterton

As you know, we love writers here, and we’re keen to learn from them. Earlier in the week we reviewed Ed Chatterton’s excellent new novel Down Among The Dead Men, so it’s kind of a thrill to be able to say that Ed has agreed to answer some questions about his writing process.

What’s your writing process? What comes first – plot or character?

There’s a great quote from Raymond Chandler which, in essence, said that good books aren’t planned they are distilled. That really chimed with me as almost all my books (I’ve written about 35) start life as a rough idea based around one or two central characters and a couple of loose story possibilities. From there I start writing around a few key early scenes, gradually ‘distilling’ as I go. I always leave the endings unplanned as I believe that this makes the narrative less predictable. If I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen then it should be a surprise to the reader, right? That’s the theory anyway. In practice this means that I rewrite and redraft a lot. I’m continually refining and cutting and chopping until I’m happy. I know this is how a lot of writers work but I think I’m more ruthless than most. I enjoy working with editors and virtually never disagree with suggestions and cuts. Other people can see much more clearly what works and what doesn’t. A good plot should have a strong backbone but shouldn’t be in charge of the characters. Once a character starts doing something to help the plot I think the book starts to become hack work. Characters are the key.

Take us through a typical writing day for you?

It varies depending on what I’m working on but usually it would start with getting outside a coffee as quickly as possible. I’d then walk the dog or do something that takes me outside the house before starting work. After that it’s really dull: I just sit down and write. In recent years the rise in importance of social media has put huge time pressures on writers. Sometimes much of my day seems to be taken up with ‘selling’, which can be annoying when I know I’d rather be creating. I usually roughly work office hours, which is something I’ve always done. I’ve been a freelance creative for thirty years full-time and without being disciplined, or having some sort of routine, I’d have been out of work long ago.

Who are the authors or you love, and why?

Most of my kids books have been comedies and I’m a big admirer of good comedy writing. I think it’s by far the hardest type of writing. and I can tell you that writing drama is much easier. I love PG Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh, Kyril Bonfiglioli, SJ Perelman and TV writers like Armando Iannucci, Larry David and Ricky Gervais. The best contemporary comedy writers are working in TV.

In crime fiction my heroes are Elmore Leonard, George Pelecanos and Patricia Highsmith. I love the way that these writers centre their books on character. Reading a good Leonard book you get the feeling that the narrative could move in unexpected directions. These writers also write beautiful dialogue. I don’t read much contemporary British crime fiction, to be honest.

What’s the hardest lesson you ever had to learn about writing?

Quality has no relationship to sales.

How do you deal with feedback?

I find that a cosh to the base of the neck usually does the trick. If the feedback’s from my editor I do listen closely and enjoy the experience. Feedback from readers can be a two-edged sword. Usually people are very positive but I try not to pay attention to reviews, good or bad. Every writer will tell you that in a good review we’ll pick out the one negative comment and dwell on that. I have a particular problem with reviews that pick up on the sexual element of my books. One mainstream reviewer called ‘A Dark Place To Die’ ‘sex-drenched’. It has one sex scene.

How has your own experience influence your writing?

I’m not a huge believer in the ‘write what you know’ thing but I do think that a writer is better for having had some life experience. When I’m writing children’s fiction, less of my own life experience comes into play, while when writing adult crime there’s more scope to bring in things that help the books. I’ve lived in a few countries and travelled a lot and this is probably the main thing that has been an influence. For instance, despite the series being anchored in Liverpool, I like to widen the story out to include places I know well or that have had an impact on me. In the first book (A Dark Place To Die) the story bounces between Australia and Liverpool, echoing what was happening in my life – without the body count and violent drug deals. In this book the story moves from Liverpool to Los Angeles and beyond. Having lived in the US helps enormously.

Another area of influence is knowledge of policing and the criminal world. While I’m not a cop or a criminal I’ve had a fair amount of contact with people on both sides of the fence in one way or another. I like to think this lends authenticity to the characters, many of whom are based on composites of people I’ve met or know. In terms of my career experience I think my background in design and illustration/film helps me to write economically and in a very cinematic way.

Give me some advice about writing…

The flip answer is: don’t start. I hesitate to say that because I know it’s not what aspiring writers want to hear. Sadly though, it’s the truth. Writing is an incredibly tricky road to take and simply writing well won’t help much (although that should be taken for granted.) If you do decide you absolutely have to write, then, for crying out loud do it in the privacy of your own home. And then, if the monstrous thing you produce still demands to be seen, coax it outside and then put it in front of someone with a bit of editorial experience. If you can’t find an amenable one at a publishing house – and you probably won’t – then there are a few decent editors for hire. This is a problem area (I believe) in that there are quite a number of  dubious editorial ‘services’ offered. Ask around and when you have found a good editor listen to them. Keep writing and keep re-drafting. Don’t be precious. The most precious writers – the ones who react least well to suggestions – are often the least experienced. What you think is gold usually turns out to be, at best, copper. Hopefully, if you keep at it for long enough then you may eventually produce something worthwhile. And if you don’t, then put the vile thing you’ve created back into a locked room and throw away the key. It’ll be for the best, in the end.

What’s your best advice for an author looking to get into the marketplace…

Didn’t you read that last bit? No? OK…then I guess that you need to be professional. I did a workshop last year at the State Library of Queensland on this subject. In preparation I asked a few friends and colleagues, all pros, to chip in their advice. There were a variety of responses but, in essence, they could all be boiled down to ‘be professional’.  By that they mean getting the basics right. Spell words correctly. Use decent grammar. Don’t submit ‘gimmicky’ manuscripts in violet-scented hand-made boxes. Have some idea of the market: if your book is a thriller submit it to a company that publishes thrillers, not cookbooks. Go further and try and find out who the publisher already publishes. If your stuff is like something they already publish it may be that they have that market share already ‘covered’. Use any personal contacts you can. Keep writing. Write anything. Write some more. Develop a skin like a rhino. Have a back up plan. Think about how you might sell your book. Do you have a good back story? Can you talk in front of groups of people? If not, you could be in trouble because authors have transmogrified (I’m not sure when, I had my back turned) into stand up comedians and dramatic actors. Perfect your performing monkey skills because you’ll need them. Above all, write something good that you have already shown to other people with critical abilities who have given you feedback that you have then acted upon.

Simple.

What’s next for you?

I’m writing book 3 in the Frank Keane series. I’m about two thirds of the way through. I’m also writing a YA novel called ‘Archangel’ which is about halfway through. That’s a sci-fi thriller based on ‘slavery’ as a theme. I’m also doing a PhD which involves writing a ‘big novel’. Mine is called ‘The Last Slave Ship’ (www.thelastslaveship.blogspot.com.au) and tells the story of the final slaver voyage from Liverpool in 1809, combined with a contemporary narrative involving race-hate crime and civil unrest. I’m working on a film project with an Australian film company writing a movie based around the memoirs of the son of a famous Sydney gangland boss. That should keep me busy.

***

Ed Chatterton is the prize-winning author of more than twenty children’s novels (published under the name Martin Chatterton), and then turned to writing crime novels creating DCI Frank Keane. He was born and brought up in Liverpool, but is a serial traveller and has lived in Florida, Lyon, Australia and London.  A Dark Place to Die was his first crime novel in the DCI Frank Keane series. Down Among the Dead Men is Ed’s second novel in the series and is split between Liverpool, Los Angeles and Australia. He lives in the UK with his wife and two children. To find out more visit his website at www.edchatterton.com

Down Among The Dead Men – Ed Chatterton

So I’m guessing that, if he keeps this up, Ed Chatterton is going to be playing among the top-sellers of the genre. His second novel to feature Liverpool copper DCI Frank Keane is a gripping procedural that delivers menacing thrills.

Here’s the blurb:

At first glance, the bloody crime scene in suburban Liverpool looks like a straightforward murder-suicide – the husband kills the wife and then himself. But what of their missing teenage son, Nicky? Is he their prime suspect or the third victim?

With Nicky’s holiday job on a film being shot in the city bringing unwanted press attention, newly-promoted head of the Merseyside Major Incident Team DCI Frank Keane knows that time is running out to find the boy.

But all too soon the case starts unravelling into one that will test Keane to the limit – and haunt him to his dying day.

There’s a school of thought that prose isn’t important in genre writing if the plot is good enough, but it matters to me, and I found Down Among The Dead Men – written in a pacey present tense – fluid and urgent. The dialogue and characterization are razor-sharp and the set-pieces are gripping. Often dark and disturbing – some of the story takes place in an abandoned subterranean labyrinth beneath Liverpool –  the novel features some wonderfully grim humour, including a tense encounter in a washroom.

The book features a wide variety of well-realised characters, from Keane’s MIT colleagues to scallies, suspicious film-makers, and kingmaker politicians. The narcissistic antagonist is a particularly clever creation. Curiously likeable, he’s a blithe, narcissistic monster.

Keane is a sturdy, empathetic hero. There’s a thin slice of vulnerability running through the old-school Keane and his ex-pat wingman Menno Koopman – men of a certain age, with failed relationships behind them – but Keane is grounded and believable and not  burdened by a bucketload of tiresome idiosyncrasies. On his website, Chatterton entertainingly describes what he didn’t want his protagonist to be when he created the character.

But this is a novel of two halves, Brian. You get the sense that Chatterton is a restless soul. His first Keane novel A Dark Place To Die moved from the grim, rainy streets of Liverpool to Australia, and the second half of this novel takes place in the hard light of Los Angeles.

They say, don’t they, that you should send your novel off in a different direction at about the halfway mark – Down Among The Dead Men almost flips genres, and I felt unhooked following Keane across the ocean. The change of scenery doesn’t faze Chatterton at all, the descriptions of LA are just as vivid as those of Liverpool, but the consequences of Keane’s failure to get his man are amped up to global proportions, and it took a bit of eye-watering determination on the part of this reader to get past this modest copper’s implausible encounters with the US military-industrial complex. Thankfully, the author’s confident writing carried me through the turbulence.

Down Among The Dead Men isn’t for the faint-hearted, there’s some pretty impressive violence in there, but as a writer Chatterton ticks all the right boxes for me. I thought his writing was rock-solid, and it has that indefinable ingredient that separates the men from the boys: a clear voice.

The ending of the novel makes you wonder whether Chatterton is already tiring of Keane. I hope not. I’d like to think he’s only just getting started.

Thank to Midas PR for the review copy of Down Among The Dead Men. I’m excited to say there’ll be an Intel interview with Ed Chatterton later in the week!