Jeffery Deaver was in town recently, and I was able to catch up with him at breakfast.
We've known Jeff for nearly 20 years, since A Maiden's Grave hit the shelves. It was his first novel to be made into a movie, Dead Silence, starring James Garner as FBI agent John Potter. But Jeff's biggest exposure came when Denzel Washington took on the role of Lincoln Rhyme in The Bone Collector in 1999. Since that time Jeff has topped the charts with over 20 books, and he shows no signs of slowing. Next year, he will release his next Lincoln Rhyme novel, The Skin Collector, which promises to re-energize fans of that series.
We discussed his experience working on his James Bond novel, Carte Blanche, and he shared some of the background on that novel, and why he chose not to do another. He won the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Garden of Beasts in 2004 and said in his acceptance speech that the award was special for him because he loved Fleming's James Bond novels when he was growing up. Fleming's estate took notice and gave him the chance to write a Bond novel. He grabbed it and updated Bond into a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. The book was a huge success. He has so many of his own books in the works that taking on another Bond book just isn't in his plans.
We talked about his new novel, October List, which has generated rave reviews for his brilliant craftsmanship. Jeff is an author praised for his willingness to try new things, and October List is an example of his inventiveness. It's a clever, demanding stand-alone that moves backward in time over the span of a three-day weekend, from Sunday evening to early Friday morning.
If any author could pull this off it is Jeff. He has the intelligence and skills to do anything and everything, and his readers have developed a trust that he will be in control and bring everything together in the end, or maybe in the beginning? Deaver talked about the "twists" in his novels that have endeared many a fan, and October List certainly holds true to that process. It is a book "like no other" and once again proves him to be a master of his craft.
It was great to be able to catch up with him, and I looked forward to his next visit.
John
|
|
|
