INTERVIEW WITH STEVE PARKER, AUTHOR OF BRAND-NEW CRIME THRILLER 'SLAUGHTERED AS THEY SLEPT'
Q: Describe your latest book in three words.
A: Exciting, rollercoaster, humorous.
Q: What author, dead or alive, would you like to have dinner with?
A: For me, it would have to be two writers. First, Lee Child. I love his use of short, snappy sentences and in Reacher he has created an iconic character that is a brilliant addition to the Lone Hero tradition. He wanders the land, minding his own business, but finds nothing but trouble by defending the weak and doing the right thing. His first novel, Killing Floor, was ingenious. Wish I’d have thought of that! Second, for brilliant storytelling, drama and excitement, it would have to be the screenwriter Jed Mercurio, he of Line of Duty fame. The man is a master.
Q: Who would you want to play your main character in a film/TV adaptation — and why?
A: I’ve always seen my stories as being more for the small screen. I have two main characters really, Paterson and Clocks. To play Paterson, a wealthy, well-educated, thoughtful man who is going off the rails psychologically, I can see Dan Stevens who played Matthew Crawley on Downton Abbey. Speaks well, good looking and just the right height. For Johnny Clocks, who went off the rails a long time ago, Tom Hardy. Being a Londoner, he’d have no trouble understanding Clocks’s mind-set and humour. Plus, the fact he can play fearless and menacing like no-one else would make him ideal. I can dream, can’t I?
Q: What is the most interesting/unique thing you've had to research for a book?
A: Difficult one to answer. I would have to say it would be for my last one, Dead on Delivery. It touched on the ‘Red Market’ — the trading of human body parts, tissue and organs. The trade is extremely lucrative and tightly controlled by gangs at the higher end of the market. At the lower end, not so much. Here, organs are traded to pay off debts, raise money to feed families and in a number of cases, to pay for their sick children’s healthcare. A truly wicked business.
Q: What are you currently reading and watching?
A: I always have several books on the go at any one time, both fiction and non-fiction. At the moment I’m currently reading Lee Child’s Die Trying, David Baldacci’s Last Man Standing, Ronen Bergman's Rise and Kill First and The Process of Screenwriting by Clive Frayne. On the box, two things. The Last Ship on Amazon. It’s about the only American warship left after a virus wipes out most of the planet and the problems the crew face in bringing a cure to the world. Requires no thinking whatsoever! And, being late to the party, I’ve just started the new series of Happy Valley. Sally Wainwright is another storyteller who can’t put a foot wrong.