I’ve admitted it before and I’ll admit it again. I’m ridiculously squeamish and recoil from reading anything gory. But after reviewing books by writers like Ian Rankin, Peter James and Stuart MacBride over the last few months, I’ve begun to get a taste for crime novels. Why? Because when it comes to writing cleverly-plotted story-lines and razor-sharp dialogue, crime writers are second to none.
Reading a string of Jeffery Deaver’s novels before I interviewed him recently convinced me even more. This is the man, after all, who’s written 26 page-turning thrillers, won a clutch of awards and sold more than 20 million books worldwide. His novel, The Bone Collector, was made into a hugely successful (and very scary) Hollywood movie starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, and earlier this year he was chosen to write the next James Bond novel (it’s out in 2011 and I can’t wait to read it).
Sixty-year-old Deaver may conjure up terrifying scenes in his novels but in person he’s affable and outgoing. And despite his huge success he modestly says he writes first and foremost for his readers. “I’m not here to save the world,” he told me. “I’m here to raise a few social questions certainly, but more importantly, I’m here to make sure that people enjoy what I write.”
His latest book, The Burning Wire, is the ninth of his series featuring quadriplegic forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme. It sees Rhyme on the trail of a merciless killer who hacks into New York’s electricity grid, bringing death, destruction and terror to the city.
Deaver is always on the look-out for ideas to feature in his books and this one struck him when he had some electrical work done at his house in North Carolina.
“I asked the electrician whether I should shut off the mains and he said ‘no, I know what I’m doing.’ Then he pointed to this thick copper insulation wire and said ‘but if I were to touch that and then a radiator I would be dead within a tenth of a second.’ I let the idea percolate for a while and that was the basis for The Burning Wire.”
He’s also keen to stress that his books are never “gruesome.”
“My goal is to give my readers the most intense, emotional experience they can have,” he said. “And by that I mean not only terrify them, which is important, but also tug at their heartstrings.”
He certainly does that.
The Burning Wire by Jeffery Deaver is published by Hodder & Stoughton, price £18.99
