1 week Ago By Anna Bonet
Few crime writers come with the credentials of Peter James. He is the author of more than 30 bestselling novels – including 20 consecutive Sunday Times number ones – his books having sold over 21 million copies worldwide and been translated into nearly 40 languages. Best known for his series featuring Brighton-based Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, adapted into the hit ITV drama starring John Simm, he is beloved for his meticulous, gripping plots.
But what does the author read when he’s not devising his own stories? Here, James reveals the five crime novels that have shaped his life and writing...
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle “Despite his enormous output of stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle only actually wrote four Sherlock Holmes novels – and this one is, for me, his masterpiece. What makes it such a thrilling read, and one that continues to thrill on each successive reading, is a combination of the wonderfully eerie moorland setting, and the way Doyle brilliantly teases the reader into believing what we are reading is a ghost story, before the great detective makes his appearance and completely pulls the rug out from underneath us.if(window.
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The essence of many great detective novels is the author very subtly leading the reader down the wrong direction. This immensely accomplished novel is a virtuoso masterclass in misdirection – and all the richer for it.”Penguin Classics, £5.
99Brighton Rock by Graham Greene “Brighton Rock has a personal resonance for me. I grew up in Brighton, and I read the novel for the first time when I was a teenager. When I finished it, I vowed that one day I would try to write a crime novel set in my home town that was 10 per cent as good as this one.
“In my view, this is the novel that changed the face of crime fiction. Though I had always loved Agatha Christie and other crime writers of her era, these books were elegant puzzles which rarely touched on moral issues or aspects of human nature. Brighton Rock opened my eyes to the possibility.
Here we have Pinkie, a nasty boy killer, just 17 years old, a murderer in charge of a gang of middle-aged misfits. Yet he is a devout Catholic, terrified of eternal damnation, and brilliantly conflicted. I don’t think any author has written a better last line – it is one that both shocks, but at the same time makes you smile and punch the air in sadistic delight.
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addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l1"}); }Vintage, £9.99Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard “I don’t know any author who writes as vividly as Elmore Leonard. Above all, he is a genius (just as Graham Greene is, in a different way) at creating utterly vivid characters.
Some of Leonard’s characters could read the telephone directory for 300 pages and you’d still be hooked. “Get Shorty, which I think is his best work, is the darkly satirical story of a loan shark, Chill Palmer, who goes to collect a debt in Hollywood and ends up becoming involved in the movie business. As he deals with bent producers, mobsters and the fragile egos and desperation of both established and aspiring actors, he comes to the conclusion that this whole new world he is now immersed in has a lot of similarities with the old life he has left behind.
And that his style of doing business is the one that gets respect – and results.”W&N, £10.99The Two Faces of January by Patricia Highsmith #color-context-related-article-3622176 {--inews-color-primary: #EDA400;--inews-color-secondary: #FDF6E5;--inews-color-tertiary: #EDA400;} Read Next square BOOKS The best new crime and thriller books to read in April 2025Read More“Highsmith has a terrific eye for characters who both fascinate you and make you squirm because they are just such awful people – and yet you find yourself rooting for them.
This particular novel is my favourite of all her work, I think largely because of its utterly repellent, but strangely compelling and endearing central character – the American conman, Chester MacFarland.“On holiday in Athens, MacFarland and his wife, Colette, befriend a rather louche, amoral fellow American called Rydal Keener, who is somewhat a kindred spirit. After Chester accidentally kills a private detective who is after him, Rydal helps him cover up the crime, drawing himself deeper into the fraying relationship between Chester and Colette.
As the trio flee across Greece, watching the fragile moral façade of each character crumble is like watching a train crash in slow motion.”Virago, £9.99if(window.
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adverts) { window.adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l2"}); }The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris “Just as Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock changed the dynamics of the crime novel back in 1937, Harris’s Silence of the Lambs was another game-changer in 1988.
Up until then, we had traditionally held the notion of good versus evil. But suddenly, in the characters of Hannibal Lecter and Jame Gumb (Buffalo Bill) we had a new notion – bad versus evil.“The story, wracked with tension, tells of young FBI officer Clarice Starling desperately seeking help from an imprisoned killer and cannibal to catch a serial killer (Gumb) before he can murder and skin a senator’s daughter he has captured as his next victim.
Some of the many factors that set this novel in a class of its own are the sheer quality of Harris’s writing, his depth of research and the immensely well-drawn characters. Few fictional villains are a match for the sheer horrific genius of Hannibal Lecter.”Arrow, £9.
99‘One of Us Is Dead’ by Peter James (Pan Books, £9.99) is out now.
