Sussex author makes crime pay
Above: Peter James
Above: Peter James
Above: Peter James
Above: Image by Martin Beddall®
PETER James is a compulsive storyteller. As he heaves open the door of his secluded home at Beddingham, near Lewes (a 15th century barn conversion with an eye for stripped gables and picture windows straight out of Grand Designs), he bursts into an anecdote.
He has been chosen, he explains, as a potential 'Phone a Friend' victim by a Brighton doctor who is in a studio recording an episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? “We’ve worked out a strategy – he’s going to keep his 50-50 until after phoning me, so if I can at least say, ‘it’s definitely not this or that’, he’s still got a chance left,” he chuckles conspiratorially. “I’m going to have to be on call all day, so apologies if the phone goes off.”
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James’s schoolboy sense of mischief and penchant for digression surfaces repeatedly as he reclines in his study overlooking the South Downs to ruminate on his myriad hobbies and accomplishments. From film-making through ghost-hunting to fast cars (he has owned everything from a 1929 Rolls Royce hearse to a 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish, and scale models of favourite vintages crowd the shelves behind his desk), his interests are nothing if not peripatetic.
Best seller
Then there are the novels. James currently has 12 international bestsellers to his name, translated into 27 languages. His latest,Looking Good Dead, sold more than 35,000 copies in its first month in hardback, landing straight in the Sunday Times Bestseller List at number eight. Out in paperback at the beginning of December, it is the second in a series of gritty thrillers with a paranormal twist featuring Detective Superintendent Roy Grace of Sussex Police. A haunted latter-day Morse, Grace’s grim encounters with the seamy criminal underbelly of Brighton and Hove have seen the range likened favourably to Ian Rankin’s acclaimed Rebus novels (James says he’s “flattered” by the comparison). They’re selling by the bucketload too – a fact that has spurred his publisher, Macmillan, to commission one case novel a year for the foreseeable future Peter James (“they wanted me to do two a year, but I got it down to one,” he jokes)..
Peter James's Website
The official site of Peter James, best-selling British novelist and film producer.
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