James. Peter James. Shaken, Not StirredBritish novelist and film producer Peter James on his new novel 'Dead Simple', genres constricting creativity, occultism and miracles, and his fondness for fast cars and vodka martinis

[Krimi Couch online magazine,   July 2005.
Words: Lars Schafft.]

[original German language transcript of this interview can be found here]

Krimi-Couch: Mr. James, are you married?

Peter James: I was married for 19 years, to a lawyer, Georgina, and divorced in 1999. I currently have a girlfriend, Helen, who is Swedish, and she does Reiki healing - alternative medicine is one of my big interests.

Krimi-Couch: Obviously you had not had a stag night like Michael in your new book 'Dead Simple'?

Peter James: My stag night was not quite as bad as Michael's in 'Dead Simple', but it felt pretty bad at the time! I was taken around several Sussex pubs in a coach, with thirty friends, became extremely drunk on spiked drinks (beer with vodka poured in) then deposited naked, apart from a pair of red socks, on top of a pillar box in the centre of Brighton, at 2am. Then my friends phoned the police and reported it! Very fortunately the police took pity on me, wrapped me in a blanket and drove me home. A luckier fate than Michael's...

Krimi-Couch: Sounds like you have a certain sympathy for the joke the four friends played with Michael?

Peter James: Yes I did have a certain sympathy with the joke the four friends played on Michael, because I think that practical jokes can be very infuriating - at best - and dangerous at worst. One of the stories I used in the novel is true: A friend of mine really was handcuffed to a seat on the overnight express from London to Edinburgh as a stag night prank on the night before his wedding. As a result he found himself in Scotland at 9am and was due to be married in Brighton - 400 miles away, at midday! He was two hours late for his wedding!

'Dead Simple' originally started out as a short story: I had Michael being a very unreliable person and Ashley always chiding him 'You are so unreliable, you probably won't even turn up for your own wedding." The story ended with Michael trapped in the coffin, his friends dead, and Michael thinking to himself "she'll never believe that it is not my fault I did not get to the wedding..."

Krimi-Couch: So what was your motivation to let DSI Roy Grace come into play and make a thriller out of an original short story?

Peter James: The motivation to let DSI Roy Grace come into play and make a thriller out of an original short story was twofold: Firstly, when I wrote the short story I felt it was such a strong idea that I felt it was almost wasted on just a short shory and started thinking whether it could become the basis for a novel.

Then about three years ago my agent was approached by the UK publishers, Macmillan, who asked if I would consider writing a series of crime novels. I had never written a crime novel, although I always loved this genre - I was an avid reader of Sherlock Holmes, as a kid and many crime novel, both British, European and American ever since.

However, I had spent a lot of time with Sussex Police doing research for some of my previous novels, where some police work was involved, and had become totally fascinated by police work, the forensics accompanying it and all other aspects of crime related to it. And I had been fortunate in developing some great relationships with the police - and very importantly, had gained their trust. The real-life Roy Grace is based on a detective in Sussex who I have come to know very well. I have used many aspects of his character and his work - and his interests, including his collection of inkwells in his office! But fortunately for Dave Gaylor, my real-life Roy Grace, his wife did not vanish!

Krimi-Couch: As you are familiar with crime novels in general: Did you think about the genre when starting with 'Dead Simple'? At first sight it looks like one of those British police procedurals, then the coffin-story itself reminds somewhat of Stephen King, the occultism does not really belong to crime novels in narrower sense and finally "Dead Simple" turns into a breathtaking thriller, almost American style. Do you like playing with these categories?

Peter James: Well, this is an interesting question indeed! I hadn't really thought of it in terms of "playing" with these categories: I have always liked British police procedurals but often find them a bit dry and a bit tame. Stephen King is a fantastic writer - he is one of the finest writers of characters in the world, and one of the true masters of "noir" stories. And I do think that great American thriller writers have an energy and ability to grip in their writing that can be quite awesome. So I guess, subconsciously, I tried to combine all these favourite elements into creating the kind of story that I would love to read myself.

Krimi-Couch: You don't care much about genres?

Peter James: I think "genres" have been created by booksellers for their convenience. For instance, take Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - how would you define Hound of The Baskervilles? Crime fiction or horror novel. Similarly, 'Silence Of The Lambs'. Crime fiction or horror novel? Or 'Rosemary's Baby'? In my view good writing is good writing. 'The Shining' by Stephen King is a fantastic book. But is it horror? Mystery? How do you define it? It is a great read, scary at times, poetic. Just great, gripping writing. This is my problem with so-called genres. There is a danger readers who would really enjoy some of the books get put off because it does not fit their "genre".

Krimi-Couch: You are not only author of several novels but also a film producer, e.g. 'The Merchant of Venice' starring Al Pacino and Joseph Fiennes. In the eyes of a "multi media artist": Do you think genres constrict creativity in general?

Peter James: Yes, I really do believe genres can restrict creativity. Great writers, in any genre, are, first and foremost, storytellers. Sure, readers want to know they are getting a great mystery rather than a chick-lit book, or a historical novel, but where is the boundary between police procedural, crime, chiller, horror? I suspect no one really can define it.

Every novel should be taken on its own merits. Is 'Catch-22' any less scary than 'Along Came A Spider'? Is 'Brighton Rock' any less nasty than 'The Long Game'? Genres are arbitrary descriptions. Sure there is a clear boundary between a police procedural and an outright "slasher" novel. But he or she who dares define that boundary is a braver person than me, 'Gunga Din' ...

Krimi-Couch: Speaking of creativity - it has been a few years from your last book to 'Dead Simple' ...

Peter James: Yes, I had a five year gap after writing a novel a year for about eleven years and I think it really did me some good. I was busy making films and also writing scripts - including the one of my novel Possession - so when I returned to writing a novel - 'Dead Simple', I came to it feeling very fresh, and really happy and excited to be at work on a novel again. And I feel that this enthusiasm came through in the book - it is my favourite of all my novels.

Krimi-Couch: What do you like most? Why is 'Dead Simple' better than the others?

Peter James: I am a great believer that the most important thing of all in a novel are the characters. I believe whatever the genre, that people read on in order to find out what happens to characters they get to know and care for. So the most important thing is to create believable sympathetic characters (they don't always have to be good - Hannibal Lecter is a classic example - but engaging.

I feel that in 'Dead Simple' I created a main character, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace who I really like, but also that I managed, (somehow!) to create several smaller characters, such as Davey, who I got very fond of. Also, being buried alive is something that has chilled and fascinated me for years and I think there is that darkness - and timeline - that gives the book a lot of energy. Also, I have long wanted to write a series of crime novels - it is has been been a huge ambition of mine ever since childhood, and 'Dead Simple' has given me the way into this. So I am very grateful to this novel!

Krimi-Couch: Some of your books have been published in Germany a couple of years ago. Is 'Dead Simple' kind of a second attempt to attract German readers? And how important is success in Germany - or even other non English speaking countries - in your eyes?

Peter James: I was really, genuinely surprised by the fantastic reaction I have had from this novel from my German publishers and from all those in Germany who have read the book so far. I never realized that Germany is the most important book market in the world. It is tremendously exciting for me to see my work translated into other languages - and a great feeling to be able to reach out to readers right around the world. I am immensely grateful to you for your kindness and support.

Krimi-Couch: Looking at your biography on your extensive homepage you must be quite a busy man. Where are your priorities? Writing? Producing films? Private life?

Peter James: Writing has always been the most important thing in my life. When I wrote Dead Simple it was my escape into my own private space. I wrote the book every evening from 6.30 to 9.30pm, fuelled by a massive vodka martini with four olives, and either opera or jazz blasting out on my stereo. I have always felt compelled to write, from the age of seven when I began writing stories.

Krimi-Couch: You own a great sports car and you have the British racing drivers license. What is the fascinating point in driving fast cars?

Peter James: From the age of four my mother, who was Austrian, took me skiing and I immediately loved the thrill of speed. I did some ski racing when I was a child, and along with it, I adored fast cars. I cannot really explain my fascination - speed - and I guess the danger that goes with it - is for me a great high. In racing on circuits there is also a tremendous camaraderie between drivers. I think it is important for everyone to take life seriously, but equally, it is important for us all to have a little frivolity - and I guess fast cars is mine!

Krimi-Couch: In contrast to many other novelists the Internet is no foreign terrain for you. Actually you co-founded an ISP. How does being online effect your every day life?

Peter James: I was lucky to discover the amazing wonders of the internet back in 1993. I love the ability to communicate with my readers directly, by email, and the web is the most wonderful resource for research. I can get just about everything I need for my research online - from how a thief can pick a lock, to the effects of sulphuric acid (in my next novel) - it is quite fantastic - and sometimes scary - just what is available to us all with a few clicks of a keyboard. I can hardly remember what life was like before the internet...

Krimi-Couch: Does this direct feedback effect your writing, e.g. the contents of your next novel?

Peter James: I certainly get a sense of what my readers like and don't like. What I do find invaluable are offers of help in research - I have had communications with readers who have helped me on my medical research, on metallurgy, on psychology - that is brilliant. It is also very helpful to know when readers like or do not like a particular character and why not. And I am always pleased when some tiny detail I have got wrong is picked up. In the UK hardback of 'Dead Simple' for instance a reader wrote that I had used "oak" for the coffin on one page and "teak" on the next. This has now been changed for the reprint and future editions!

Krimi-Couch: Would you like to blab something about the next Roy-Grace-Story?

Peter James: Sure: The new novel out next June (in the UK) is called 'Looking Good Dead'. It contains the same police team, with a couple of additional characters - one a really horrible politically incorrect ageing detective who I really enjoyed creating!

The story starts with a young, happily married man on a commuter train to Brighton one evening, travelling home from his office in London. An irritating man sits next to him, talking loudly into his mobile phone. When finally this man gets off, and the train pulls out of the station, my character, Tom Bryce, sees a CD has fallen out of his pocket and is lying on the seat. It has no address on it, so being a good citizen, Tom takes it home and later that evening inserts it into his computer to see if he can find an address to send it to. But when he puts it in, it drives him straight to a web site on which a web cam shows a beautiful young woman in a room, undressing. A man in a balaclava comes in behind her and stabs her brutally to death. Rob thinks he has seen a trailer for a horror movie.

Two days later he sees on the news the butchered body of a young woman has been discovered near Brighton - and he recognises her face. But before he has a chance to do anything he receives an email. It warns him that he has illegally hacked into a private web site and if he goes to the police, the same thing will happen to his wife and two young children as happened to that woman....

Krimi-Couch: How does this fondness for technology in general match up with the interest in supernatural things, occultism and alternative medicine?

Peter James: One of my great heroes, Arthur C. Clarke said that "magic is something for which we don't yet have a scientific explanation". The supernatural fascinates me because it touches areas that science cannot yet reach.

Like telepathy, for instance, which no scientist can explain - yet hunters in Lapland use it ever day to communicate with each other, as to aboriginees in Australia. Ghosts exist, for sure - I have spent over twenty years researching into them, and far too many rational, intelligent people have experienced sightings. But what are they? Something from another time dimension? Imprints in the atmosphere from the past? Or something we are simply not smart enough to comprehend? Is the power of the occult simply mind over matter - or is it the harnessing of something out there, in another dimension. There is no question that some alternative medicines do work - but why do so many doctors and scientists deny it?

I think all of us are a little apprehensive of things we cannot understand - and of course the pharmaceutical industry does not like remedies that can be found in nature - they want their patented products bought. I have a life-long fascination with three big questions: Why are we here? What happened before we were born? What will happen to us after we die? In all of my writings, I revisit these questions constantly.

Krimi-Couch: Mr. James, one last question. Hope you can help me. There is another prominent person called James, rather important for the genre, driving an Aston Martin and having a special preference for vodka martini, too. Can you give me a clue?

Peter James: Well, of course I am shaken by this information... But not stirred.

Krimi-Couch: Mr. James, thank you very much!

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