Years ago when Jeffery Deaver was a young crime writer, a detective friend who worked for the New York Police Department invited him to observe the crime scene of a suspected homicide. Impressed with the diligence of their evidence-gathering, he went back to his agent with a book proposal about a forensic scientist and further suggested turning it into a TV show. ‘To which my agent replied, “Who’s going to want to watch an hour-long show about cops looking through microscopes?” ’ says Deaver. Three years later, CSI – an hour-long show about cops looking through microscopes – launched in the States and rapidly became the most-watched television series in the world. ‘Put it this way,’ adds Deaver, ‘I’m with a different agent now.’
Jeffery Deaver has sold more than 50 million books sold in 150 countries
Luckily, all that research didn’t go to waste. Deaver wrote The Bone Collector in 1997 – his first novel to feature Lincoln Rhyme, a quadriplegic forensic detective who solves murders with the help of his beautiful partner, Amelia Sachs. It was turned into a film with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.
With more than 50 million books sold in 150 countries, Deaver’s success has been enormous, with Rhyme, his most famous creation, also proving his most unusual – a brilliant though bedridden detective who has to rely on intellect alone to outsmart the bad guys. And bad they certainly are. In his latest novel, The Cutting Edge, Rhyme and his now-wife Amelia have to stop a psychotic killer who terrorises couples while they are shopping for their engagement ring. The tale is replete with Deaver’s trademark twists and turns. ‘I wanted to get into the mysticism and aura surrounding diamonds,’ he says, ‘and while the villain is despicable, he nonetheless has this romantic obsession with them too.’
The inspiration for Rhyme came from a variety of sources. ‘I remember seeing a Tom Cruise action film and thinking, “There’s not a soul in the audience who believes he won’t defeat the bad guy,” ’ says Deaver, ‘and I thought, What if I create a hero who’s physically unable to defeat the villain but whose weapon would be his mind? Back in college I had a room-mate who was a paraplegic and I felt uncomfortable when he first wheeled into the dorm room. I wasn’t sure how to acknowledge his condition without being condescending. But by the end, the differences between us ceased to exist. I myself have a condition called Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which gives me facial paralysis, tinnitus and vertigo, so on a smaller level I’m aware of what it feels like to be in combat with your own body. I wanted to write Rhyme with all that in mind.’
Deaver’s 2012 novel, XO, concerned an obsessive fan and, in a case of life imitating art, the American author subsequently became the target of his own stalker. ‘His emails would sometimes number 80 a day,’ he says, ‘and he even sent me a YouTube clip of the shower scene from Psycho. The police have paid him visits and, as I understand it, he’s psychotic, on medication and lives with his mother. It is scary and on one occasion I hired a bodyguard. But then I decided I’m not going to live my life like that.’
Deaver wrote The Bone Collector in 1997 – his first novel to feature Lincoln Rhyme. It was turned into a film with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie
Certainly it’s all a far cry from his former life where Deaver, now 68, had enjoyed an eclectic series of careers as a journalist, lawyer and even folk singer. (‘I wanted to be a singer-songwriter like Paul Simon but I was terrible at the singing part.’) More recently he was asked by the Fleming estate to write a new Bond novel, Carte Blanche (2011).
One downside of his legion of fans is that some of them are a little too invested in his work. ‘My books are in prison libraries,’ he explains, ‘and I was once contacted by a fellow on death row in Texas. He said he loved my latest book and asked me to champion his cause and get him released for a murder he didn’t commit. And then he added that, by way of a thank you, “I’ll teach you the proper way to murder somebody, because you get it all wrong in your book”. Naturally,’ laughs Deaver, ‘I never wrote back.’
‘The Cutting Edge’ by Jeffery Deaver is out now (Hodder & Stoughton). For Deaver’s UK tour events, go to jefferydeaver.com
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