Roger Ellory and His Sock Puppets

As scandals go, revelations that best-selling UK thriller writer R.J. “Roger” Ellory has been “faking his own glowing reviews” (to quote the subhead on a report in The Daily Telegraph) and simultaneously dissing rival wordsmiths online seems like fairly small stuff. He is, after all, only a single abuser of an online-reviewing system that, according to a recent article in The New York Times, has fetched some freelance writers a good deal of dough for their phony critiques and, in the process, brought under suspicion all reader reviews on the Web--whether their subjects are books, restaurants, movies, gardening equipment, cleaning services, or anything else. And he says that his faked or negative reviews are few in number compared to the totality of opinions he’s submitted online.

However, the 47-year-old Ellory has suddenly become the poster boy for the exploitation of a system that contains inadequate safeguards against chicanery of this sort. As The Daily Mail explains:

Novelist R.J. Ellory was forced to make a grovelling apology yesterday after it emerged he had been posting gushing praise of his own work--and attacking others’ novels--under an assumed name on Amazon.

The author, who won the crime novel of the year [award] in 2010, seems to have been using at least two fake identities to rave about his writing on the site.

Posting as ‘Jelly Bean’, he wrote that his novel A Quiet Belief in Angels was ‘one of the most moving books I’ve ever read’.

He continued: ‘It is so beautifully written I felt as though it enabled me to be a part of that era even though that can never actually happen.

'I would highly recommend this book to anyone who really wants to experience a class read.’

He also appears to have been posting as ‘Nicodemus Jones’, who described the same novel as a ‘modern masterpiece’.

Discovery of Ellory’s misbehavior--what’s known in the business as “sock-puppetry,” or the use of an online identity for purposes of deception--was made by Jeremy Duns, a UK spy-fictionist now based in Sweden. Duns, you may recall, was also the person who last year revealed significant plagiarism by Q.R. Markham, author of the debut espionage thriller Assassin of Secrets (which was later removed from store shelves by its publisher). He told the Telegraph that, while he hadn’t been a victim of Ellory’s pseudonymous mischief, he sees sock-puppetry as “pathetic” and worth exposing:

“I have only met Ellory once and this is not a personal attack, but I feel very strongly that fellow authors shouldn’t write reviews about their own ‘magnificent genius’ and slate the work of other hard-working writers without clearly declaring who they are.

“It is not my job to police it, but I think it is important to highlight what is ‘below the belt’ behaviour, which I have no time for.”

The British media say that authors Mark Billingham and Stuart MacBride were two prominent targets of Ellory’s online derision. After giving MacBride’s 2010 DS Logan McRae novel, Dark Blood, only one star on the Amazon UK site, Ellory allegedly wrote: “Unfortunately this is another in the seemingly endless parade of same-old-same-old Police procedurals that seem to abound in the UK.”

(Left) J. Kingston Pierce and Roger Ellory in San Francisco for Bouchercon 2010.

Now, let me say that Roger Ellory is a friend of mine, and I’ve long found him to be a talented, insightful author. He has always been very kind and generous to me, and I look forward to many long years of drinking and story-swapping together at crime-fiction conventions around the world. Even if all the charges made against him in the press are true, I shall not abandon him as a friend.

However, these allegations of serial sock-puppetry are certainly troubling. I claim no inside information as to his motives, but I can only guess that a combination of prankishness and arrogance lies behind Ellory’s deeds. It would have been manipulation of a lesser sort had he sought simply to pump up his own writing through bogus reviews; we all understand--even if we don’t approve--that people cheat the system of online reviewing if they can get away with it. When Ellory extended his abuse to knocking other writers, though, that took his acts to a higher and less excusable level.

After being confronted with questions about his transgressions, Ellory issued a statement saying, in part: “I wholeheartedly regret the lapse of judgment that allowed personal opinions to be disseminated in this way and I would like to apologise to my readers and the writing community.”

For some, it may be too late for mea culpas. Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black and other popular works, is said to have tweeted: “Once you’re found out reviewing yourself glowingly and dissing others your reputation will never ever recover.”

I’m not sure Hill is correct. As I said before, this small-scale, if deliberate attempt to fool readers and perhaps boost book sales seems like a fairly petty scandal. Significantly worse offenses have been overcome by people who were far more in the public eye than Ellory. Perhaps the best he could do is follow the example of another Brit: actor Hugh Grant. After being caught “in the act” with a Hollywood hooker back in 1995, Grant--who was famous at that time for dating gorgeous model-actress Elizabeth Hurley--proceeded to fess up at every opportunity to the idiocy of his actions. By admitting to his misdeeds, rather than trying to duck negative publicity, he retained the support of his fans and earned sympathy from others. Today, most filmgoers probably don’t even remember Grant’s embarrassing affair.

In all likelihood, Ellory’s readers will eventually forgive him his wrongdoings. Though whether other authors forget quite so easily is another question.

I am very sorry that my friend Roger has to go through the public shaming he’s brought upon himself. But I hope he digests the wrongness of his actions, and that the exposure of his abuse of online reviewing stops others from repeating those same errors. We ought to be able to trust that people who pen online reviews do so out of a wish to voice their honest opinions--not out of a nefarious, ethics-free desire to game a fault-ridden system.

READ MORE: “‘I’m Sorry’: Award-winning Crime Novelist Admits Fake Five-star Reviews of His OWN Books,” by Natalie Evans (The Daily Mirror); “A Quiet Belief in Sockpuppets,” by Jedidiah Ayres (Hard-boiled Wonderland); “Women Writers at War Over Fake Book Reviews on Amazon,” by Nick Fagge (The Daily Mail); “Sock Puppetry: Not Just Fun and Games Anymore,” by Jeri Westerson (Getting Medieval); “Fake Reviews Are Just the Start in the Dodgy Art of Publishing Books,” by Terence Blacker (The Independent).

Bullet Points: Christmas Rushed Edition

• A fitting tribute to Ian Fleming: Jamaica’s present Boscobel Airstrip, located in the northeastern parish of Saint Mary and used principally by private jets, will soon be upgraded, expanded, and renamed after the creator of super-spy James Bond. Fleming lived in Saint Mary Parish during his retirement in the late 1950s and early ’60s.

• Patti Abbott has pulled something of a surprise on the followers of her recent round-robin short-fiction challenge. As she explains, “I was originally going to end this challenge myself next week,” but after receiving the 11th installment, from blogger Dan Fleming, “it seemed like the perfect ending. My piece would be redundant at best.” You can catch up on the full run of that progressive story here.

• A very special Christmas episode ... of The Avengers?

• Dragnet pays its own tribute to the holiday.

• I missed this post when it was put up last month, but I think author Ed Gorman’s distinction between detective novelists Ross Macdonald and John D. MacDonald is right on. And judging by the comments attached to his remarks, I’m not alone.

• Have you ever wanted to listen to an interview with acclaimed California writer Don Winslow (The Dawn Patrol, Savages)? Well, this is your chance, as he answers questions from Jeff Rutherford. Listen here.

• Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting) chooses “five great crime novels,” all but one of which I’ve read. (Hat tip to Campaign for the American Reader.)

• Anyone up for a David Goodis memorial? It is scheduled to be held on January 11, 2001--the 40th anniversary of that author’s death--at his graveside in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania?

• From today’s edition of Salon: “Stieg Larsson and Dan Brown novels are riddled with clichés, but for many readers, that’s a feature not a bug.” Really? More here.

• New England author William G. Tapply died of leukemia in July 2009, but Skyhorse Publishing still has one more posthumous novel of his to release. It’s called The Nomination and will reach bookstores in late January of next year.

• It’s not crime fiction, but since the mastermind behind it is crime-fiction blogger Cullen Gallagher (Pulp Serenade), his marathon tribute to the Gold Medal western novels deserves a mention on this page. Authors whose work has so far been considered include Harry Whittington, Donald Hamilton, and Jonas Ward (aka William Ard).

• Another book cover to admire.

• South African writer Roger Smith has been draped in bouquets by international crime fiction authority Peter Rozovsky for his novel Wake Up Dead. I still haven’t gotten around to reading that book (the U.S. paperback version isn’t due out till next month), but we can all get a sense of Smith’s literary style by reading his short story, “Ishmael Toffee,” which has just been posted here.

• No wonder Americans think Republicans are obstructionists and out of touch with current economic realities ...

• A remarkable recap: Do the Math presents an annotated rundown of “all of Donald E. Westlake’s major fiction, his lone book of reportage, and three important essays.”

• Remaindered, the short independent film directed by author-screenwriter Lee Goldberg, which I wrote about in October, “has been chosen as an official selection of the 2011 Derby City Film Festival in Louisville, Kentucky,” according to Goldberg’s blog.

• Roger “R.J. Ellory, author of The Anniversary Man and Saints of New York, answers Declan Burke’s questions about which crime novel he would most like to have written, his most satisfying writing moment, his present reading, and more here.

• The prolific Max Allan Collins is pushing to finish work on another unpublished Mickey Spillane novel, The Consummata, at the same time as he polishes off the preliminary research on Ask Not, his latest Nate Heller detective novel, this one based around the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Find out more here.

• Steve Holland offers a two-part gallery of Ngaio Marsh book covers.

• R.I.P., Richard Holbrooke. The skilled and veteran diplomat, who oversaw negotiations to end the war in Bosnia, was often mentioned as the leading candidate to become Secretary of State under a President Al Gore, and who President Obama appointed as his special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, died Monday night after surgery to repair a tear to his aorta. He was 69 and will be much missed.

The Book You Have to Read: “The Prone Gunman,” by Jean-Patrick Manchette

(Editor’s note: This is the 103rd installment of our ongoing Friday blog series highlighting great but forgotten books. Today’s selection comes from British novelist Roger “R.J.” Ellory, recent winner of the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award and author of The Anniversary Man. Ellory’s next thriller, Saints of New York, is due out in the UK next month, with a U.S. edition slated for release in early 2011.)

The romanticism of anonymity; the banality of violence: here we have the life of Martin Terrier, Jean-Patrick Manchette’s “Prone Gunman.”

Terse, succinct, almost clipped in style, Manchette’s prose walks out across the pages like the swift, almost automatic methods and mannerisms of his protagonist. Manchette opens this 1981 novel with his Frenchman in an English rural setting, the ancient city of Worcester and its surrounding countryside. Terrier, the assassin, waits patiently in an old Bedford van. He carries an Ortgies automatic handgun with a Redfield silencer. He smokes Gauloises. We imagine he looks unremarkable, not because he is, but because this is the way he wants to look. Like no one. A face you see, and then forget.

His mark, a certain Marshal Dubofsky, appears from a house. The mark kisses his wife and hurries to catch a bus. Terrier follows in the Bedford. The mark alights the bus in the center of Worcester. He enters a cinema where they are showing an unremarkable thriller starring Charles Bronson, also a regional black-and-white comedy with Diane Cilento. Terrier waits again until a third character--“a fake redhead dressed in a poppy-red-three-quarter-length coat of acrylic fur, wearing scarlet lipstick, too much mascara, and black plastic boots with very high heels”--exits the cinema and starts to walk. Dubofsky also exits and quickly follows her. We anticipate a rendezvous, a meeting between Dubofsky, a married man, and this woman. Terrier follows them in the van. He overtakes. He exits the vehicle. Dubofsky almost walks into him.

What then happens establishes the clean, uncomplicated, pragmatic, and unemotional attitude that Terrier applies to all his work assignments. What happens then does not need to be detailed here.

And so we meet Manchette’s “Terrier.” Did Manchette choose as such to convey the insistent, aggressive, unrelenting nature of the breed of dog after which his hero is named? Did he begin this book with a view that here he would present us with the most clinical and methodical individual he could imagine, yet engaged in “work” that would ordinarily provoke the most alarming of mental and emotional reactions in any normal human being? Is Terrier deranged, psychotic, homophobic? Who is this man, and why is he this way? How can he do such things with such composed equanimity? Apparently sangfroid and imperturbable, Terrier continues to alarm and unnerve with his utter lack of emotional connection. I cannot help but read this work and think of Frederick Forsyth’s “Jackal,” a man we never get to grips with in any depth. Perhaps here Manchette has given us the back story of all such men, a brief glimpse of the internal world of such characters: men beyond the emotional horizon, men who can not and do not operate within any frame of reference or context that we can seriously comprehend.

Yet this is no catalogue of horrors. Despite the fact that Manchette walks us through the awkward, unreasoning, unquestioning life of Martin Terrier; although he gives us ringside seats to the strange circus that is the existence of this cold-hearted and unremittingly bleak killer, Manchette also gives us a window into the soul of an ultimately broken man. The circular nature of this short and powerful novel, the fact that two relationships--first and foremost, Terrier’s relationship with his own father, and then, perhaps no less important, Terrier’s “ten-year plan” to secure the love of a woman--lie at the very center of this brutal piece, show us that Manchette, a brilliant stylist and wordsmith, was not simply trying to shock, but was also trying to understand, explain, perhaps even rationalize the raison d’être of this vicious little dog of a man, Martin Terrier. The nom de guerre assumed by Terrier for his assignments--Christian--is also ultimately French, perhaps Manchette’s desire to present us with the dichotomies and contradictions that drive such an individual to be who he is, and to do what he does. The methods of self-justification employed by Terrier and his colleagues, the fact that they approach all they do so systematically, the questions that are raised as to the identity of the organization to which these people belong, who they work for, whether they are government-sanctioned or private ... these are all opened, but never fully closed. We never really understand the whys and wherefores, and Manchette--I believe--never intended us to.

Manchette stated that the crime novel was “the great moral literature of our time,” and I concur. Crime, as a genre, encompasses all: romance, politics, culture, social commentary, psychology, history, ethics, morals, philosophy, religion. All subjects and concerns are found addressed in crime fiction. I heard only a week ago that if one cared to look at the hundred most popular classics of the last two centuries, how many of them--strictly speaking--were crime novels? A great deal, the speaker said, and I could do nothing but agree.

Jean-Patrick Manchette died young, only 52 when he passed away in Paris. Born in Marseilles in 1942, he was credited with reinventing and reinvigorating the crime-fiction genre in France. He did not write Maigret. He did not write banal and predictable police procedurals. His stories are violent, existential essays on the human condition, more visceral than cerebral. They are American noir transposed into a harsh, cool, French reality. Three to Kill (translated into English, originally published as Le Petit Bleu de la Côte Ouest) and this volume, The Prone Gunman (published in French as La Position du Tireur Couché) are currently available, and New York Review Books Classics has scheduled the release of a third, Fatale, in 2011.

Manchette left us with a punishing look into a brutal world. It is not easy reading, but then we do not read crime fiction to be transported into some comforting reality. We read crime fiction for a thousand different reasons, all as valid as one another, but none more important than the need to experience by proxy those lives that we otherwise never could.

Terrier’s is a cruel life, and that cruelty he delivers to others in equal measure. A window is opened into his world, and through that window we see what he is. It is not a pleasant view. It is dark and unforgiving. And what becomes of Terrier? Well, it has been said that ultimately one becomes that which one fears the most. Justice, in a strange trick of irony, awaits him, and--as with all things he undertakes--he methodically and systematically meets his schedule.

Barking Up the Right Tree

A rather amusing, coincidental, even surreal event took place during last month’s Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Britain--one that might have deserved this soundtrack.

In company with novelist Roger “R.J.” Ellory (The Anniversary Man), I drove to the famous Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate, in Northern England, on the convention’s opening day, Thursday, July 22. Although Roger was not scheduled to participate in any panel discussions, he wanted to attend the Harrogate festival because he had been nominated for the Crime Writers Association’s Dagger in the Library award (given to authors for a body of work, rather than an individual title). His 2008 novel, A Simple Act of Violence, had also been shortlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award. He said on our way down, though, that he had little chance of winning either commendation, but especially not the Crime Novel of the Year as that shortlist of nominees featured many strong competitors.

(Right) Sharon Canavar, R.J. Ellory, and Simon Theakston at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival.

I tried to reassure him, pointing out that while 80 percent of the vote for the Crime Novel of the Year Award was weighted toward the opinions of a judging panel, the general reading public controlled the remaining 20 percent--and it’s been my experience, when it comes to such literary prizes, that no one knows anything until the winning envelope is opened. But Roger dismissed my eternal optimism, telling me to forget about the awards and just have some good laughs over this weekend. The Harrogate festival is always enjoyable, and I’d prepared to make the most of it, bringing along a liter of gin to keep us fresh.

After unpacking in the hotel room we’d chosen to share, and tipping back a couple of libations, we set off on foot toward the convention hotel. On our way, Roger felt peckish, so we tried to hunt down a cheeseburger, in the course of which we bumped into broadcast journalist Mark Lawson, who was to present that evening’s awards. Lawson is a great champion for crime fiction, and he and his BBC radio show, Front Row, have been permanent fixtures of the Harrogate festival since its start in 2003. Roger hadn’t met him yet, so I did the introductions, and then Lawson wished us luck both in our search for sustenance and in Roger’s pursuit of the Crime Novel of the Year Award.

It turned out that all of the restaurants on our way were closed, so we had to settle for drinks at the convention hotel, when we finally reached it. Afterward, we located the Harrogate opening night party, and then found seats in the hotel’s grand hall for the awards ceremony.

This year’s festival was officially opened by Harrogate operations director Sharon Canavar. Principal sponsor Simon Theakston delivered his own welcome, and incited a huge and appreciative cheer when he announced that his company, Theakston Brewery, will be extending its support of the Harrogate convention for another five years.

Without further ado, Mark Lawson then welcomed onto the stage the authors whose works had been shortlisted for the 2010 Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award. The first funny moment came when “Tania Carver” walked up to shake hands with Lawson. It was The Rap Sheet that broke the news last month that Carver, who wrote 2009’s The Surrogate, is actually two people--husband-and-wife wordsmiths Linda and Martyn Waites using a pseudonym.

Before he opened a golden envelope containing the winner’s name, Lawson asked his audience to remember recent news stories about Paul, the German psychic octopus that had successfully predicted the results of this year’s World Cup championship. Lawson went on to wonder aloud whether his own family’s pet dog, “Mystic Fred,” might possess

similar supernatural powers. He then showed on a big screen photographs of Fred sniffing around copies of all the Crime Novel of the Year contenders. Lawson finally said that the book Fred thought would win was ... and he brought up a photo of the dog sniffing at Roger Ellory’s A Simple Act of Violence. After explaining that he hadn’t sat on the judging panel, so really had no clue as to who the winner might be, Lawson tore open the envelope and exclaimed, “The winner is Roger Ellory, also known as R.J. Ellory, which is most surreal as I bumped into Roger an hour ago, while he and Ali where hunting down a cheeseburger.” Lawson then pulled out a mobile phone, explaining, “Now I must phone home and see if Mystic Fred can tell us next week’s lottery numbers ...”

A huge round of applause followed that statement. Roger stepped onto the stage to accept his award, visibly shocked to have won. I managed to capture--on video--the end of his acceptance speech, which was very good considering that he was totally unprepared. (That video has been embedded above, left.) In his own remarks, Simon Theakston called A Simple Act of Violence “a most impressive, fascinating and surprising book, and a worthy winner.” He added that “each page seems to bring about a new twist and take you deeper into a world that could only have come from a true master of crime fiction.”

Following this presentation, Roger and I went around to congratulate the other shortlisted authors. I also cornered Mark Lawson, who admitted to being shocked that his dog guessed the winning novel. (In an aside, Roger said to me that he wished to send Mystic Fred a thank-you of sorts, so I gave him Lawson’s address. Subsequently, Lawson’s wife sent Roger a photograph, displayed at right, showing that the dog received his well-deserved gift hamper.)

Later that night, after he had absorbed his unexpected win, Roger remembered to pass me an advance reading copy of his next novel, Saints of New York (Orion), which is due out in Britain this September (with a U.S. edition slated for publication in February 2011). Based on this author’s success so far, it’s to be expected that Saints will collect fans, as well. The book’s publisher synopsizes its plot this way:

The death of a young heroin dealer causes no great concern for NYPD Detective Frank Parrish--Danny Lange is just another casualty of the drug war. But when Danny’s teenage sister winds up dead, questions are raised that have no clear answers. Parrish, already under investigation by Internal Affairs for repeatedly challenging his superiors, is committed to daily interviews with a Police Department counselor. As the homicides continue--and a disturbing pattern emerges--Frank tries desperately to make some sense of the deaths, while battling with his own demons. Trying to live up to the reputation of his father, John--not only a legendary NYPD detective, but also one of the original “Saints of New York,” the men charged with the responsibility of ridding New York of the final vestiges of Mafia control in the 1980s--Parrish struggles to come to terms with the broken pieces of his own life. But, as the murders escalate, he must discover the truth behind them before there are further innocent victims. Dark and intense, Saints of New York is a novel of corruption and redemption, of the relentless persistence required to find the truth, and of one man’s search for meaning amidst the ghosts of his own conscience.

I’ll surely have a chance to read and digest Roger Ellory’s new book well in advance of our next trip together, when we fly to San Francisco for Bouchercon in October. It doesn’t take Mystic Fred to predict that we will have a good time there, too. See you at the bar!

(Photo of Mystic Fred with Roger Ellory’s thank-you basket © 2010 Sarah Lawson. Photo of Sharon Canavar, R.J. Ellory, and Simon Theakston with the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award © 2010 Ali Karim.)

READ MORE: “Harrogate: Liver Poached in Wine But No Fava Beans,” by Mark Billingham (BookBrunch).

“Violence” Brings Victory

British thriller writer R.J. “Roger” Ellory has won the 2010 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award for his book A Simple Act of Violence, beating a field of seven other distinguished authors.

As a press release explains, “The Birmingham-born author was presented the prize by broadcaster and regular festival-goer Mark Lawson at the opening night party (Thursday 22nd July) of the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate [England]. He receives a £3,000 cash prize, as well as a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by Theakstons Old Peculier.”

Simon Theakston, the executive director of T&R Theakston, said: “The standard of the shortlist was particularly high this year and our decision was a tough one. However, R.J. Ellory’s A Simple Act of Violence is a most impressive, fascinating, and surprising book and a worthy winner of this year’s Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. A fast-paced thriller, each page seems to bring about a new twist and take you deeper into a world that could only have come from a true master of crime fiction.”

The shortlist of nominees for this commendation can be found here. The original longlist of 20 competitors is posted here.

During the same ceremony, Reginald Hill (The Woodcutter) was given the inaugural Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award.

READ MORE: “R.J. Ellory Wins Crime Novel of the Year Award,” by Alison Flood (The Guardian); “Harrogate,” by Dan Waddell (Murder Is Everywhere).

Roger vs. the Volcano

British author Roger “R.J.” Ellory called me yesterday from Birmingham Airport, very happy to hear that his flight to Canada would be taking off in defiance of that unpronounceable Icelandic volcano, which is again disrupting European air travel.

Ellory was en route to Montreal, Canada, where he is to receive the Quebec Booksellers’ Prize for his fifth novel, A Quiet Belief in Angels. Then he’s away to France, where readers seem to have taken a particular liking to his brand of crime fiction. (It was in France that he was presented last year with the Nouvel Observateur Crime Fiction Prize.) I am so pleased for Ellory, as his tale of rejections, publication, mid-list worries, and final transformation into an international award winner should give hope to all determined scribes.

Funny, it seems like only yesterday that I was heralding his early authorial efforts and getting into a spot of bother with him during our visit to Bouchercon Baltimore in 2008.

Ellory and I are planning to defy the volcano again this fall, when we jet west to Bouchercon in San Francisco. It will be a time for me to see old friends and to make some new acquaintances, and an opportunity for Ellory to publicize not only A Quiet Belief in Angels, but also his newest work, The Anniversary Man, which Overlook Press has slated for a June release in the States.

The Business of Reading

We hear much these days about business leaders focusing on the global economic downturn, but little about what they read for inspiration. So it was surprising to see BBC News’ report today on what books corporate heavyweights have readily at hand. As it turns out, James Smith, chairman of the Anglo-Dutch petroleum giant Shell UK, has been enjoying British thriller writer Roger Jon “R.J.” Ellory’s new book in the States, A Quiet Belief in Angels. Smith talks briefly about that novel here.

It will be interesting to see whether his recommendation has any impact on Ellory’s bookstore sales. Years ago, I remember, Shell was known for its slogan, “You Can Be Sure of Shell.” If enough readers believe they can also be sure of it’s current chairman’s reading tastes, that could be good for the West Midlands author.

By the way, Ellory just returned home to England after an extensive U.S. tour, promoting A Quiet Belief in Angels, which is published by Overlook Press. That followed the author’s attendance at Bouchercon 2009 in Indianapolis, during which he and I sucked back a few beers and talked about the present rich offerings in crime and thriller fiction. I’m so pleased that Ellory has stuck with the writing game, despite the struggles he has faced over the years. His determination seems to have paid off. Not only is Quiet Belief making believers of American readers, but his latest thriller, The Anniversary Man, is cementing his reputation among UK fans.

If you’re unfamiliar with R.J. Ellory’s work, check out this video in which he describes the plot and twists in A Quiet Belief in Angels:

All’s Fair in London, Part II

(Editor’s note: This is the concluding segment of Ali Karim’s report on last week’s London Book Fair. Part I can be found here.)

R.J. Ellory promotes his next novel at the London Book Fair

After a rather hectic introduction to the 2009 London Book Fair, it was nice to sit down for a while and interview rising-star British novelist Roger Jon “R.J.” Ellory. We traveled together to last fall’s Bouchercon convention in Baltimore, but I have seen less of him since our adventures in America. So, over cups of coffee in the Orion Suite at LBF, we did a bit of catching up. I asked Ellory about a number of book deals that have kept him busy (and put an end to his more lean period), a possible filming of his most recent novel, the challenges of balancing his writing with promotional efforts, and his forthcoming book, a serial-killer yarn called The Anniversary Man.

Ali Karim: A lot has happened since last fall’s Bouchercon in Baltimore. Do you have any update on the American release of your 2007 novel, A Quiet Belief in Angels?

Roger Jon Ellory: Yes, a great deal has been happening, and not just to do with A Quiet Belief in Angels. The U.S. release of AQBIA is slated for September this year, and a tremendous amount of work has been done by the publisher, Overlook, to make sure that it receives as much promotion and publicity as possible. Obviously, stateside, it is an entirely different world, and what might be considered a significant success here is a drop in the ocean in America. My publisher, Peter Mayer, has spent a great deal of time and energy getting proof copies into the hands of established authors, and already we have received very positive comments from James Patterson, Clive Cussler, and Michael Connelly. We expect a good deal more reviews and responses, and I know that Overlook will use them to create word-of-mouth buzz about the book. It is a very exciting prospect for me--an English author launching into an American market with a book set in America--and I am eagerly anticipating the reaction it will get.

AK: How do you get on with Peter Mayer and Overlook Press?

RJE: Peter Mayer is an institution. He was head of Penguin for many, many years and has the most extraordinary wealth of experience. Overlook is a small firm, and I wanted to be published by Overlook for that specific reason. My UK publisher, Orion, possesses a philosophy that is very much geared towards the creation of an author’s career, not just the success of one book, and Overlook has precisely the same ethos. I feel profoundly fortunate to have been contracted by Peter, and I believe we have a long and successful career to look forward to together. My American editor, Aaron Schlecter, and my publicist, Jack Lamplough, are great people, and I am amazed at what they have already managed to create.

AK: And what about your backlist? Is Overlook planning to bring your remarkable older books to U.S. readers as well?

RJE: Yes, they are. I think the plan is to publish A Quiet Belief in Angels in September, A Simple Act of Violence in 2010, The Anniversary Man in 2011, and then go back to Candlemoth, Ghostheart, A Quiet Vendetta, and City of Lies for forthcoming years. I say that, but who knows? I am currently working on the UK release for 2011, having completed the novel for 2010, so Overlook may decide to do those first.

AK: We hear that you were in Washington, D.C., in January, around the time of Barack Obama’s inauguration as the 44th president of the United States. Tell us about your visit.

RJE: A year or so ago I did a small piece for BBC Midlands called “Write Around the Midlands.” Oddly enough, Lee Child, who I met with you last year at Bouchercon, has just done the same interview for the same series. The producer and I got along great, and she said she would try and get a slot to fill in the BBC current-affairs program Inside Out. Well, the opportunity arose, and myself, my UK editor, Jon Wood, and three guys from the BBC went out to Washington for a week. We went a few days after Obama’s inauguration, and I interviewed Walter Pincus, a veteran reporter from The Washington Post, a man who won a Pulitzer for his coverage of 9/11; also Brad Garrett, ex-FBI, and a man referred to as “Dr. Death,” as there is no murder case in D.C. in the last 20 years that he doesn’t know about; also June Boyle, ex-Virginia PD Homicide, a remarkable detective who secured the arrest and confession of Lee Boyd Malvo, the younger of the two Washington snipers in the Beltway sniper case a few years ago. Finally, I interviewed a remarkable young woman in the D.C. projects who had spent 10 years on crack and heroin, and also Patrick Anderson, fiction reviewer for the Post. We did six hours of interviews--a truly amazing experience, and some of the footage was aired in the program Inside Out back at the start of March. The Washington trip with the BBC ranks alongside the Georgia trip we made with Channel 4 as one of the most memorable and important experiences of my life.

AK: We also hear that you have become popular in Europe.

RJE: A Quiet Belief in Angels has been contracted for translation into 19 languages. Many of those languages are European and Eastern European. Only a few of them have been released, most notably the French version (entitled Seul le Silence). The book was already a great success, and then I learned that it had been shortlisted for a major literary award called Prix Roman Noir Du Nouvel Observateur. Believe it or not, I was shortlisted alongside Dennis Lehane, Don Winslow, James Lee Burke, and Carl Hiaasen, and I won the award! I had to go to France at the end of March and receive the award, and I did my speech in French! I also went to the Quais du Polar Festival in Lyon and did an event with Lawrence Block and Jason Starr, both of whom I had previously met at Bouchercon Baltimore. Crime fiction as a genre is remarkably popular in France, and I am very, very pleased to be involved in it. I have a great French publisher, again a very small and very committed company, and they have done wonders. The book has also just been released in Holland, also Brazil, and I am awaiting releases in the other 15 or so countries over the next six to nine months.

AK: And what’s this about a French film project?

RJE: Well, I received an e-mail some weeks ago from a French film director called Olivier Dahan. He was the man who wrote and directed the Oscar-winning film La Vie En Rose. He had read the French translation of A Quiet Belief in Angels, and he wrote to me and asked whether I would be interested in writing a screenplay for him. I went to Paris to meet with him, and we got along great. We had a very definite agreement on how a film could be made of the book. I left Paris with the feeling that it might come off. A few weeks later I got word that the production company, Legende Films, was ready to go ahead, and last week I signed the contracts to write the screenplay for the film. That is what I am working on at the moment.

AK: A Simple Act of Violence (2008) has been garnering great reviews, and is just out in paperback in the UK. Like much of your work, that novel delves rather cynically into the dark side of the security services. What’s the source of your fascination with the shadows behind U.S. politics?

RJE: Well, A Simple Act of Violence really came out of my experiences with A Quiet Vendetta [2005]. The Mafia was an easy target, so to speak, but once I completed it I started to think about the legitimate and state-sanctioned organizations that were involved in the same kind of activities as the Mafia. Obviously, my attention turned to the CIA, and there were so many different things I could write about regarding internal corruption, assassination squads, military coups, and Christ knows what else, that it just became a matter of deciding which war, which assassination, which area of corruption I was going to use as a backdrop for the book. I used the war in Nicaragua for a number of reasons--because it was a war, because there was so much sanctioned assassination, because you had this vast cocaine-smuggling machine going on in the background that was being used to fund this illegal war, and finally because I had a great love for the Oliver Stone film Salvador, and I felt that the film really did get across the idea that the USA military intelligence machine had waded in there without thinking, and the result was quite disastrous for everyone concerned. I wanted to write a contemporary conspiracy thriller, but in the background I wanted this huge canvas of a war. It’s interesting, but I have received a lot of e-mails from U.S. readers asking about my research, my viewpoint, how the book came about, with the common theme that here was something that was going on around them--the whole Oliver North/John Poindexter scandal--and yet they didn’t really have even a small part of the truth of what was taking place in Central America.

AK: Balancing the harder edges and disturbing aspects of your narrative, though, there is a gentle humor and a humanity. What’s your take on the usefulness of humor in crime and thriller fiction?

RJE: I think the books that really work are the ones where your protagonist manages to be human. Humor is most definitely a human characteristic, and this black edge of humor that defines so many P.I.s--people like Harry Bosch, Kenzie and Gennaro, Pike and Cole, Strange and Quinn, Rebus, Jack Reacher, Marlowe, all the classic detectives--is the thing that endears them to us. It makes them more like us, and that gives us a feeling of real-ness and equality. I have always said that the books that really connect are the ones that don’t only entertain, they evoke an emotion, and humor is one of the ways in which authors make their characters real people, and thus make you feel for them. I think the great authors do it without thinking and without planning. Their characters are so real in their own minds that they just come out that way.

AK: Some of the imagery in your work remains burnt in my mind due to the disturbing nature of your imagination. So tell us, Roger, why is your mind so dark at the edges?

RJE: Again, it comes back to evoking an emotion. I think the very worst kind of criticism you could level at a book is the “ho-hum, heard it all before” response. I would much rather have someone hate a book I had written than feel nothing at all. The thing that’s important to me is not that someone remembers the title, the names of the characters, the intricacies of the plot twists, but that they just simply remember how the book made them feel. Criminals and murderers can and do carry out some dreadful atrocities, and if I’m going to write about them I feel I possess a responsibility to make them as realistic as possible.

AK: What have you been up to at the London Book Fair? And is this the first year you’ve attended this event?

RJE: It’s not my first year, no. I went two years ago and met some of the publishers who were going to be working on the translations of Quiet Belief. Now, two years later, I am back here meeting the same publishers, and they are just beginning to release those books. I met the German, Dutch, Portuguese, and Brazilian publishers (and Brazil has produced the most remarkable cover!), and I also had meetings with the organizer of the Dubai [International Arts and] Literary Festival, and spoke to people about the possibility of going to Finland and Norway. It was a very busy three days, and extraordinarily worthwhile. The thing that I think it’s easy to forget is that no matter the country, your book is as important to them as it is to you, and they work so very, very hard to make it a success.

AK: Do you have any advice for writers trying desperately to break free of the “mid-list” purgatory?

RJE: Yes, get out there and do events. Libraries, bookstores, signings, readings, festivals. Speak to the reader development managers in the different [UK] county councils and make yourself available for library talks. Don’t expect to be paid, but do it anyway. Last year I did over a hundred public events, and I know for a fact that the people I met and the communication lines I established have paid off big-time. I cannot stress this enough. Reaching the public, speaking to your existing readers and potential readers is vital, vital, vital.

AK: I understand that your next book, The Anniversary Man, is a rather dark serial-killer opus. Can you tell us a bit more about what we are likely to expect? And when is that book due for release?

RJE: Current date for release [in the UK] is September 3, 2009. I wanted to write a novel about the serial killer to end all serial killers. I created a killer who replicates some of the most famous serial killings in U.S. history, and carries them out on the anniversary of their original occurrences. I feature everyone from Arthur Shawcross to John Wayne Gacy to the Sunset Slayers to Zodiac to the Amityville Horror killer. The story deals with a somewhat autistic serial-killing survivor, a man who knows more about serial killers than most people in the FBI, and his work with a New York homicide detective in their efforts to secure the identification and arrest of this “Anniversary Man.”

AK: Many of your novels feature psychopaths and the occasional serial killer. Where does this interest of yours come from?

RJE: I think it comes from a really deep desire to understand the human psyche. I think all of us are intrigued by what it is that prompts an individual to do terrible things--from Hitler and Idi Amin to Ted Bundy. Why do people do these things? Why are they different? I think writing about it goes some way towards appreciating a viewpoint, trying to make sense of it, trying to shed some light on this terrible darkness.

AK: And that’s the reason why serial killers appeal to so many other readers these days?

RJE: I think it comes back to the emotional impact. People like to be thrilled, excited, horrified, intrigued, mystified. I think that serial killing is perhaps the most not-understood of all criminal actions. It isn’t like theft. You can see why someone would steal: they want something they haven’t got. It isn’t like killing someone out of rage, jealousy, passion, hatred, revenge, or anything else. Serial killers kill people because ... well, why do they kill people? Not just one or two, but three or 12 or 50. What is it that motivates that level of destructive need? It is said that you can never rationalize irrationality, but everyone considers themselves rational. What is that rationale for John Wayne Gacy or the Zodiac? What problem are they solving? What reality do they exist in that makes this kind of behavior necessary? That’s what fascinates me, and I think that’s what fascinates a lot of other people who read crime fiction.

AK: It seems you’ve joined the International Thriller Writers association. Does this mean you’re planning to attend ThrillerFest 2009 in New York this summer?

RJE: Yes, I am. I feel it is very important now to get over to the U.S. as much as I can. I plan to do ThrillerFest, and I will also be at Bouchercon in Indianapolis [in October].

AK: I know we had a great time at Bouchercon in Baltimore. But can you give us any particular personal highlights?

RJE: It’s the people, you know? It’s meeting people like Harlan Coben and Lawrence Block, Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos. It’s meeting the people that you respect and admire, the people that have worked so damned hard and earned every ounce of the following that they’ve got. It was an amazing experience, and then when you add in the visit we made to Edgar Allan Poe’s grave, and the clam chowder we shared with [Deadly Pleasures editor] George Easter, and the great beer, and Jeff and Jodi Pierce, and how remarkably generous and supportive Lee Child was when I talked to him about finding a U.S. publisher ... all these things and more. You know better than anyone, ’cause you were with me all the way!

AK: How do you manage to turn in a manuscript annually, while balancing the associated activity imposed on your work, such as book promotion, tours, e-mails, blogs, et al.?

RJE: I have always worked hard. Not working doesn’t suit me. I work before I leave for events. I work when I get home. I work at weekends. I set myself a daily target for how much I write, and I do my utmost to meet it. I think some authors just love the writing process itself, and some [others] are relieved when they’ve managed to get some work done. I am the former, most definitely. I just love the action of writing, and I lose myself in it.

AK: How do your agent, Euan Thorneycroft, and your publisher, Jon Wood, view your success? After all, they had faith in your work during the lean years when things were considerably harder.

RJE: Well, Jon said to me in our very first meeting, “We don’t buy books, we buy authors.” I have been fortunate to be supported by a great agent and a great editor, and all the success that is occurring now simply vindicates and validates all the tremendously hard work we have all put into it. Sometimes they have told me to slow down, and then they stop dead in their tracks, and they say, “No, go on and do what you’ve been doing,” as they know that the events and the traveling and long hours and the libraries and bookstores have all started to pay off. I feel very fortunate to have them both, and I think of them as family.

AK: What does today’s worsening economic situation mean to publishing and to the world of fiction-writing?

RJE: Well, that’s a question. I think we will see a slowdown in the number of books published, and perhaps publishers will become more discerning about what they publish. In the last recession, people did in fact read more, but in the last recession we didn’t have all the audio-visual distractions we have now. It will be interesting to see what occurs, but I am confident that we can ride through this relatively quickly. Again, as I have said so many times before (and as [Benjamin] Disraeli said), “Success is dependent upon constancy of purpose.” So I don’t think as-yet-unpublished authors should lose heart. Work hard, write hard, send those books out. Books are still going to be published in their hundreds, and crime fiction is fantastically healthy as a genre.

Bob Hoskins Would Be Proud

As I mentioned before, I had a fine lunch recently with author Richard Montanari at Soho House in London. What I forgot to say in that post was that, since I was traveling by train, I allowed myself to quaff a bit more wine during the meal than I would normally have done. Which made me even more loquacious than normal. Well, it seems that Liz Thomson of Bookbrunch had her notebook out during the lunch, and she later wrote about one of the escapades Roger Jon “R.J.” Ellory and yours truly had while we were visiting Baltimore last fall for Bouchercon. In her words:

Montanari had not set foot in London for more than 30 years, having last been here on a student exchange to the LSE. “I can’t remember if I did any work,” he said, though he recalled going to lots of gigs, not least by the Groundhogs, whom most people round the table were too young to remember. On this trip, his publisher Kate Elton and publicist Emma Finnigan kept him too busy to go gigging--the closest he came was a stop outside the celebrated 100 Club in Oxford Street. But let no one say he didn’t see the sights--Welwyn Garden City to meet the Tesco crew and Leeds to see Asda.

Still, it will all be worth it--his combined sales are fast approaching the million mark, so, with a little push and a fair wind, Play Dead and the new one, The Devil’s Garden, due in August, will push him through the barrier.

Meanwhile, Karim revealed that a life in crime books gives you an attitude: in Baltimore for the Bouchercon crimefest, he and a friend wandered off-piste after a few beers too many and found themselves on the wrong side of the tracks in the murder capital of America. No sooner had they realised their mistake when some tough-looking dudes rounded a corner ... and fled in the face of what they thought was trouble.

The full story of how Ellory and I survived our encounter in one of Baltimore’s more dodgy districts is contained in Part II of a report I wrote for my personal blog, Existentialist Man:

Particularly pleasant were the St. Martin’s cocktail party, Meet the Brits, and Lee Child’s annual Jack Reacher bash in an Irish bar called Lucy’s. This was a real buzzing event, but in a rather ropey area of town, that caused an issue when Roger and I made our way back to the hotel through ‘The Hood’.

It was a rather frightening experience, but thanks to [our] reading so many thrillers, and both knowing lines from the classic London gangster movie--The Long Good Friday--Roger and I put on our grimmest Jack Reacher whiplash smiles and spoke loudly in tough faux London gangster accents. That was enough for the hooded Baltimore men to part the pavement and cross the road to allow us through.

Without sounding jingoistic, as tough as American gangsters are; there’s nothing scarier than a British baddie to really put the fear of God into an American baddie. Reading a lot of thrillers and crime fiction can have its upsides. However, I must warn you, that snarling in a loud cockney accent on the streets of Baltimore is not really recommended unless you are prepared to imitate lines from ... The Long Good Friday. So I whispered the plan to Roger, and then nudged him as the thugs approached, to get him into character and into cockney ...

Ali - “Notice anything unusual? Different Nobbers, or the usual Wifflers?”

Roger - “It was a good night. Nothing unusual.”

Ali - “Nothing unusual, he says! Eric’s been blown to smithereens, Colin’s been carved up, and I’ve got a bomb in my bloody casino, and you say nothing unusual?”

Roger - “When was this, then?”

Ali - “When was this then? When was this then? Is that all you can say, you fucking Nobber! I’m glad I found out in time just what a partnership with a wanker like you would’ve been. A sleeping partner’s one thing, but you’re in a fucking coma! No wonder you got an energy crisis your side of the water--‘The Mafia, I shit ’em!’ The world’s full of Wifflers!”

The Baltimore hoods just moved away crossing the street, while Roger did his best to keep a straight face as I trembled with fear (but the hoods assumed it was with anger). ...

When we got back to the hotel, intact but shaking, Roger and I drank hits of Scotch on the rocks to reduce the leg trembles.

Remember, don’t try these tactics at home.

A Clustering in Cambridge

R.J. Ellory at Heffers’ “Bodies in the Bookstore” event.

One of the most quintessentially British crime-fiction events is “Bodies in the Bookstore,” an annual occasion at the Heffers shop on Trinity Street in Cambridge. This event is organized by manager Richard Reynolds, who is among of the most knowledgeable genre booksellers in the UK--so knowledgeable, in fact, that he’s also a judge for the Crime Writers’ Association’s Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award. There are many other crime-fiction-related happenings scheduled at Heffers every year, but “Bodies in the Bookstore” is definitely the highlight for me.

Despite Heffers having been taken over by corporate bookseller Blackwell, this event continues to grow in importance, and has now been running close to two decades. It attracts more than 40 big-name crime and thriller writers each year (from Europe as well as America), who descend upon the historic university city of Cambridge on a July evening to sign their books, sample wines and cheeses, and mingle with appreciative fans. It is akin to a mini-convention, though there are no readings or panel discussions.

I have missed the last two “Bodies” events, due to my attending ThrillerFest in both 2006 and 2007. This year, though, I didn’t go to New York City, but instead made the drive last week to Cambridge.

Cambridge is not a car-friendly town, as many of its streets are paved for pedestrian and bicycle use only. So, after depositing my vehicle in a nearby car-park, I walked to Heffers, enjoying the sun on my face, and met up with Shots editor Mike Stotter, who had grabbed a train from London. Inside the bookshop we encountered manager Reynolds, who said (not surprisingly) that he had a terrific assortment of writers lined up for the evening. More remarkable, I thought, was the wealth of readers who’d come for this event, hoping to have their books signed, and the private book dealers who arrived in force, clutching hold-alls of first editions.

The evening’s delights were many. I finally had a chance to meet two of The Rap Sheet’s guest bloggers, Patrick Lennon (Steel Witches) and R.N. “Roger” Morris (A Vengeful Longing), who turned out to be as interesting in reality as they are on the blogosphere. I also managed to snatch up (on my wife’s behalf) a copy of Mike Ripley’s latest novel, Angels Unaware, signed by the great man himself. Another treat was meeting Chelsea Cain, an American writer who was over in the UK promoting her second novel, Sweetheart. I even managed to grab a photo of Ms. Cain with Tom Cain (no relation), who’d come out of hiding to promote The Survivor, his blistering new follow-up to 2007’s The Accident Man. (That photo can be seen at right.)

However, the night’s real treat was seeing my dear friend Roger Jon Ellory, whose work I have read avidly since the publication of his debut novel, Candlemoth (2003). As his Richard & Judy-nominated novel, A Quiet Belief in Angels, has recently been nominated for a Barry Award, with the winners to be announced during Bouchercon in mid-October, I nagged Ellory about going to Baltimore, Maryland, for the festivities. Now, Ellory is a shy guy, who despite having been a great speaker at British library readings, isn’t really a convention-goer; his first such get-together, in fact, was this year’s Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. So it took some persuading, but he finally relented, and we agreed to travel to Baltimore together. I am so pleased, as this will guarantee me enjoyable company for the long flight from London to author Laura Lippman’s hometown. Ellory also informed me that interest in a U.S. release of A Quiet Belief in Angels is being mooted, so a trip to Bouchercon can only help the cause.

After taking a few more photographs of the gathering at Heffers, I declined suggestions that I go out for dinner and instead bid Stotter good-night and headed home. I needed to pack for Harrogate.

(Details of Ali Karim’s experiences at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival are expected to follow later this week.)

A Quiet Belief in Himself

Left to right: Literary agent Euan Thorneycroft, author Roger Jon Ellory, and Shots editor Mike Stotter

One writer I have followed since the publication of his debut novel, Candlemoth, is Roger Jon Ellory. Candlemoth even made January Magazine’s list of gift-book choices for 2003. Getting his first novel into print, though, was a tortuous tale that Ellory recounted in an interview I conducted with him in Cambridge, England, during the summer of 2003:

In the latter part of 2001 I sent a copy of Candlemoth to a company. Somebody read it, liked it, but didn’t feel it was for them. They wrote me a letter saying as much but the letter never arrived. In February of 2002 I called this person and asked if they’d ever read it. They said they had and had sent me a letter. I said the letter never came. They went off and got a copy of it and read it to me over the phone. Coincidentally, a colleague of theirs had just moved to Weidenfeld and Nicholson, an imprint of [British publisher] Orion, and they asked me to send another copy of the script so they could forward it to them and see if they were interested. I sent another copy, the editor at Weidenfeld read it and passed it onto Jon Wood at Orion. Jon then called me three or four times, but couldn’t reach me. Finally, we spoke and he said he was interested in pursuing it and wanted me to make a few changes. I made the changes, and then Jon worked relentlessly until June, when it was finally signed by Orion. That was the beginning of my relationship with Orion, and then in the early part of 2003, before Candlemoth was released, I was signed up to another two-book contract, the first of those books being Ghostheart. Basically, it came down to Jon Wood. Without his persistence it would never have got signed. He liked it enough to fight for it.

All that hard, frustrating work paid off for Ellory, though, when the British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) nominated Candlemoth for its 2003 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award--certainly a remarkable achievement for a debut novel (even if it ultimately lost the award to Dan Fesperman’s The Small Boat of Great Sorrows).

Since then, the now 42-year-old Ellory has kept to a highly disciplined, one-book-a-year schedule, turning out Ghostheart (2004), A Quiet Vendetta (2005), City of Lies (2006), and A Quiet Belief in Angels (2007). Yet despite very favorable reviews of his fiction, and his being nominated a second time for the CWA Steel Dagger Award for City of Lies, his books still haven’t made a mark on the bestseller lists. Go figure. Equally puzzling is the fact that he has yet to secure a U.S. publishing deal.

However, he finally got a major break late last year, when A Quiet Belief in Angels was selected by British daytime TV show hosts Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan as one of their 2008 book club reads. Being chosen “a Richard & Judy book” means huge exposure--just ask previously anointed one Simon Kernick (Relentless)--and is the UK equivalent of a work being tapped for Oprah Winfrey’s TV book club. With well over 200,000 copies of his fifth novel now having been sold, and fifth print run of Quiet Belief in the offing, Ellory seems finally to have broken out of that uncomfortable realm known as mid-list purgatory.

Having long thought that he was much better than his book sales indicated, I was delighted to celebrate Roger Ellory’s success during Orion’s recent author party at the Royal Opera House in London’s Convent Garden. In between accepting offers of congratulations and greeting friends, he talked with me about his latest novel, his new faith in the future of his writing, and why he continues to set his stories in America, rather than the UK.

Ali Karim: So, Roger, how do you feel, now that A Quiet Belief in Angels has been picked up by Richard & Judy?

Roger Jon Ellory: It has been unimaginable. Truly! To put it in perspective, the paperback print run for my last novel, City of Lies, was something in the region of 7,500 copies. Yesterday, I received a call to say that another print run of A Quiet Belief in Angels had been authorized, which now brings the total number of copies in circulation to 221,000. I know how tough it can be to break into this fiction-writing business; wasn’t it Hemingway who said that in comparison to writing fiction, horse racing and playing poker were sensible business ventures?

For me it was always about the writing. In the summer of last year, I secured another publishing contract, but it was not without a couple of weeks of nervousness about whether or not I was selling sufficient books to actually warrant being granted another contract. The worst thing for me would have been to have known what it was like to be writing for publication, and then because of low sales, be in a situation where I then could not get published. Luckily, Orion Publishing are very definitely of the viewpoint that they believe in and support what I am doing. And then later on, when we got the Richard & Judy selection, it kind of vindicated and justified all the tremendous support and encouragement they have given me over the last five years. The Richard & Judy selection has at least given me confidence in the fact that I can see a career ahead of me. So, in simple terms, being selected has made it possible for me to continue doing what I love.

AK: For those readers who haven’t enjoyed it yet, tell us a little about Quiet Belief.

RJE: The book starts in 1939 with a central character called Joseph Vaughan at 12 years old. He grows up in a small rural farming community in Georgia, USA, called Augusta Falls, and is witness to the devastating effect of a series of child murders that occur within the surrounding area over the subsequent decade--so much so that he and his friends band together in an effort to do something to stop the killings from taking place. The book spans 50 years of his life, and throughout the entirety of these five decades, he is determined to identify and bring to justice the perpetrator of these crimes. I wrote the novel for a simple reason: to once again put an ordinary individual in an extraordinary situation, and at the same time highlight the sheer indomitability of the human spirit. It has always amazed me the degree to which a human being can rebound from loss or tragedy. The central character of A Quiet Belief in Angels loses everything, and yet survives. I wanted to tell his story--a story about childhood, about the way children deal with things that they should never have to deal with, how their means and methods of coping are so very different from adults’. I also wanted to remind myself of the sheer magic of the written word, and how such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird enchanted me as a child, and somehow helped me deal with whatever happened personally.

AK: What does the Richard & Judy pick mean to you in practical terms, as a writer?

RJE: Interesting question, because huge book sales do not necessarily always follow through with continued success. But I feel confident that with the quality of my previous books, and the books I have now completed, I am assured at least a far greater degree of future. It opens up the very real possibility that I will now continue to be published for many years to come. That is all I have ever wanted, and to that degree it has given me a tremendous amount of certainty and security that previously was not there.

AK: Which of your books do you consider your favorite, and why?

RJE: That’s really an impossible question to answer! I love all of them for very different reasons: Candlemoth, because it was the first, and it was a story that was very close to my heart; Ghostheart, simply because it was a challenge to write an entire novel from a female perspective; A Quiet Vendetta, because it was big and brave and it demanded the most amazing amount of research; and City of Lies, because it was faster-paced, scripted more like a movie than a book. And then we have A Quiet Belief in Angels, which--for me--was possibly the most emotionally demanding book I have written, but still manages to evoke an effect on me, despite the fact that it has been completed for so long. My answer to that question, “What is your favorite book?” is always “The one I’m doing now ...”

AK: Do you find that the Richard & Judy listing is generating interest in your backlist, as well as your latest novel?

RJE: Yes, it certainly seems that more people are picking up on the earlier books. The first three (published under the byline “Roger Jon Ellory,” as opposed to “R.J. Ellory”) have been repackaged and are being released on March 6th. I am hoping very much that people who have read Quiet Belief will now go and take a look at the first four.

AK: Tell us about your being on the Richard & Judy show.

RJE: Well, it was a remarkable experience, the whole epic experience of going to [the state of] Georgia. It has to rank alongside the most significant experiences of my life. But it was also unsettling in more ways than one.

Located in the southern part of Georgia, with real towns such as Folkston and Kingsland around it, Augusta Falls was a fictional town created as the backdrop for A Quiet Belief in Angels. Despite having visited the United States only briefly, and never having set foot in Georgia itself, I found myself walking in the footsteps of my protagonist and central character, Joseph Vaughan. As a result of Quiet Belief being selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club 2008, I was given this once-in-a lifetime opportunity to see and experience a world I perhaps would otherwise never have done. I actually wrote a travelogue about it, and took a lot of photographs.

AK: You have recently been out and about, promoting your work. Can you tell us a little about those events at bookstores and libraries?

RJE: Basically, I am in my element at such events, however large or small. The reality of writing is that it tends to be a very individual and insular activity, and once a book is complete you might receive an e-mail to say that so-and-so copies have been printed, or such-and-such a book is now being translated into a foreign language, but it is only at readings, signings, library talks and suchlike that you actually get to connect with people who have really read the book. And it is a great experience to meet people who actually give a damn about a book, so much so that they disagree, argue, express their very individual viewpoints to one another about which they like and which they don’t. It is very rejuvenating to get some honest feedback!

AK: What is it about American culture and landscape that provokes you to set your tales on the other side of the Atlantic?

RJE: Being English, I have often been asked, “Why America? Why do all your books take place in the United States?” I think this has something to do with the vast “inflow” of American-orientated film and TV that assaulted my generation [when we were] children. Everything was Kojak, Hawaii Five-O, Starsky & Hutch; and though I was exposed to these things in my formative years, I also feel a degree of necessity to place my work in the U.S. The subject matter (the death penalty, the mafia, serial killings, etc.) are, on the whole, subjects which pertain only to [the United States], and therefore--simply because of my own fascination with these areas--I have “painted myself into a corner” as far as setting is concerned. Someone once said to me that there were two types of novels. There were those that you read simply because some mystery was created and you had to find out what happened. The second kind of novel was one where you read the book simply for the language itself, the way the author used words, the atmosphere and description. The truly great books are the ones that accomplish both. I think any author wants to write great novels. I don’t think anyone--in their heart of hearts--writes because it’s a sensible choice of profession, or for financial gain. I certainly don’t! I just love to write, and whereas the subject matter that I want to write about takes me to the States, it is nevertheless more important to me to write something that can move someone emotionally, perhaps change a view about life, and at the same time to try and write it as beautifully as I can.

AK: And how do American readers react to your work?

RJE: Honest answer? They don’t! I do not have a U.S. publishing contract, and on the whole I am not distributed [there]. I have recently answered about three dozen e-mails from American readers, asking where they can get my books from. I actually have them send me their address and I stick one in the post to save them the hassle.

AK: You revamped your Web site recently, adding a blog called The Ellory Journal. Considering how busy you are already, why go to that extra effort?

RJE: Because there were quite a lot of things that I wanted to say that didn’t have a place in a book. I started it because I would receive letters from my publisher, also e-mails through the site, asking me what I thought about this, that, or the other. I started the blog in answer to those requests for other info, and I try to do at least one article a month. It feels important now to have that other avenue, where I can be in touch with people about all manner of things, not just what I’m doing as an author.

AK: And what are you working on currently?

RJE: I have completed two more books, one for August 2008, one for August 2009. I have started working on No. 8, for publication in the autumn of 2010. I like to be ahead of things as best I can! The book for this year is a Washington [D.C.]-based thriller that focuses on the long-term effects of the war in Nicaragua, and how certain people who profited greatly from the drugs that came out of Nicaragua have managed to maintain secrecy regarding their criminal actions. It is, in effect, a companion work to A Quiet Vendetta, similar in length, and deals with corruption within the U.S. intelligence community and the lengths people will go to to maintain their vested interests. The one for 2009 has the working title The Anniversary Man, though I doubt very much it will keep that title. It is a fast-paced serial-killer novel, and deals with the investigation of a series of brutal murders carried out by an individual who is replicating some of the most famous serial killings in history, and committing those killings on the anniversary of their original occurrence. I am very pleased and excited with them both, but more than that I am constantly working on expanding the different themes in my books, taking on subjects and styles of story that I think are challenging. I think that’s why I would never write a series about the same character. I enjoy diversity of plot, diversity of style and place, and I feel that it’s healthy for me to continually exercise and challenge my own limitations as a writer.

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Click here to find text and audio extracts from A Quiet Belief in Angels, as well as more information about author Ellory.