As promised here is the interview - Part Two. Don't forget to leave your name either here or in yesterday's post in the comments section to take part in a draw for a copy of the paperback edition just published.
I mentioned in my review that on first glance we had the run of the mill characters, a maverick and suspended detective with anger issues, a psychologist who is there to keep him in check before he is allowed back to help solve the murders committed by the American Devil, but was really impressed by the fact that you overcame this hurdle and both Tom and Denise came across as real people, not run of the mill at all. Difficult, but you managed it – how did you do it?
I think I managed it because I like them both very much! Seriously, though, we're all pretty two dimensional when we meet for the first time or when we are known through our jobs or reputations. We get pigeonholed all the time and pigeon hole others without a thought. It's a human way of categorising the world and dealing with lots of new information. So, archetypes aren't necessarily a bad thing - they are the starting point in our recognition of people. I think you can go one of two ways with a character - try to jump right into the middle of their lives and see their uniqueness, idiosyncrasies, their thoughts and their dreams or get to know them slowly. The former is very nice, but for most of us, it takes us a lifetime to get to know the real person, their unique and special character.
I thought about this quite a lot. I think - for me or for my characters - being a cliché or stock character is a defence mechanism. Tom Harper comes across as a stock character when we first meet him, because that's where he's happiest - where you can see the least of him that's possible. I thought it suited Tom better to hold him at a distance, let him show the side he wanted to - the tough guy with the chip on his shoulder.
Part of the story of Tom and Denise, is the way in which Denise humanises this clichéd cop and doesn't let him play out his male fantasies. So, it was an intriguing challenge to set him up as a routine detective and then try to allow the reader to get to know him more slowly. I hope he reveals himself over time. That way, the relationship lasts - I didn't want any one night stands for Tom and his readers. I want the reader to get to know him more closely and that takes time.
Denise was a stock character too, partly because in that kind of role, she needs to put on a front to cope with the men and women she comes across. She's got to close off her personality and learn to spar with the cops of the NYPD. She is a little easier to know than Tom, because she shows emotion - she has her boyfriend, her dog, good memories of her father. As a reader, we can relate to positive emotions as they seem to allow us to know her. However, I think, again, that there's more to her than is immediately apparent. She's more complex than she allows herself to be, and I think, for me, that's down to her level of confidence. She's got huge potential, but doesn't quite believe in herself.
So, in answer, I suppose, I didn't think of it as a hurdle to overcome, but as a routine way in which we meet and get to know people. We flesh them out over time, each incident or event adding to our sense of their character. As with people, certain events and experiences define Tom and Denise, and I wanted the reader to put their characters together as part of the journey.
I am not asking too many questions as I don’t want any answers that could possibly give away any of the plot to any future readers, but I have to ask you how you got the idea of The American Devil, how long it took you to write and just how did you work out the intricate and fiendish plotting? After reading some thrillers/detective stories I am aware that there is the odd loose end remaining unanswered but there is nothing left unexplained in your book. How did you keep track of the plot and all the events?
As a first draft I wrote it in three to four weeks. But that was just to get the heart of the story down on paper. I see things quite visually and the idea of the American Devil came from the character of Mo. I was sitting in a pavement cafe and I saw a man in a red turtleneck crossing the street with a suitcase on wheels. He was big and awkward and looked around too often as he walked. I don't know what it was about him - the size, his nervousness, or the suitcase, but that man set off the idea of a killer walking the streets of a city. The plotlines moved off in every direction from that initial image. But in developing that idea, I read a lot of fiction, I read a lot of true crime, and I tried to think about what it is that is terrifying about the killers I'd read about.
The plotting took some time and many, many packets of those coloured index cards. The wall of half of my living room became a big map of storylines and ideas. It is very hard to keep everything up in the air, but diagrams, maps, index cards and thorough re-reading helped. I was also lucky to have a great agent and a great editor, both of whom pointed out any loose ends. I'm sure that there are things that I missed, but it's kind of you to say that they were, on the whole, all answered.
And finally, when is the next one due to be published and does it feature Tom and Denise again?
Tom Harper and Denise Levene return in April 2011, in '88 Killer'. They are affected deeply by the events of the American Devil, but have to put their personal issues to one side when a new case takes a stranglehold in the city. I hope you enjoy it. More about that book in due course. At the moment, I'm redrafting and redrafting and redrafting...
Good luck to OIiver with the redrafting and I, and I am sure many others, look forward to the next book. My thanks for taking part in this interview and my thanks once again to Headline Books for providing copies for the PRIZE DRAW
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