Bron Sibree , The Courier-Mail September 18, 2010
Ask him about the historical story of police corruption that forms the background to his new and eighth novel, Saints of New York, and he'll tell you instead about the nature of obsession and relationships between fathers and sons.
Ask him about the anger that palpably pulses through the book and, for that matter, any one of his novels and he quips, "Well, it's better than beating your kids, isn't it?"
But Ellory cheerily confesses to an enduring sense of ire about political and institutional corruption that seeps into all his novels.
"When you start to look at the upper echelons of political bodies, the medical and psychiatric drug industry, the media, you see a level of corruption and underhanded political contrivance that is just staggering," he says.
"And it's hidden and these are the things that intrigue me. It's a kind of continual aggravation at the back of my mind, indignation and a sense of protest. I don't get on a soapbox but I'm passionate about political intrigue, about factual conspiracies in governments and intelligence communities, and I'm passionate about the psychology of crime."
Add to this his unholy fascination with history and you can understand why he eschews the conventional series crime novel for stand-alone novels. His myriad passions spill over into such diverse, layered and, often lyrical works that they often fall into the literary rather than the crime category. Indeed, along with various crime awards in the US and Britain, Ellory has won three French literary awards for his novels and even upstaged Philip Roth to take out Quebec's 2010 Prix Des Libraires Du Quebec Laureat for A Quiet Vendetta. He delights in telling how he accepted the award, in person and in French.
"They loved it. Not once in the 17 years since that prize has been awarded has an author from outside Quebec gone to receive it in person. But it seems to me if someone really cares that much about your book the least that you can do is go and say thank-you."
There's no denying Saints Of New York sits more firmly in the crime canon than most of his previous novels. It tells the story of detective Frank Parrish, who is obsessed with getting justice for those society forgets, but haunted by his policeman father's corrupt deeds many years before. But it bothers Ellory not a jot what category he or his books fall into.
"I don't even care whether or not people think I'm R.J. Ellory or James Ellroy," he says. "That's kind of irrelevant. I want to write the kind of book that six months later, people don't necessarily remember the details but they can remember how it made them feel. That's the important thing for me."
In writing Saints of New York, he wanted to engender the very same emotions he himself felt during the conversation with the real-life detective whose words inspired the tale.
"A sort of underlying feeling of bleakness."
Ellory can recall the exact moment when the book insinuated itself into his consciousness. He was in the US with the BBC, who were making a documentary about his novel A Simple Act Of Violence. That book was controversial for its exploration of the CIA's role in both the Nicaraguan war and America's ongoing drug war. He says while he was there, "I wanted to spend the day with a working homicide detective". Which is how he ended up in a snow-covered children's playground in Virginia, talking to Detective June Boyle, the lead detective on the Washington sniper case.
" And I think the whole thing just gelled with her saying to me: 'All victims are not created equal'.
"And I thought, 'Yeah'.
"You see these little (newspaper) ads: "Call 1800 lost, this is how my son would look now, he's been missing for 11 years', and it's heartbreaking."
He reveals in Saints of New York that almost one million children go missing in the US each year.
"I wanted people to feel how obsessed this guy (Parrish) was and how determined he was to do whatever was necessary to protect, defend and serve the forgotten victims."
The full piece can be read at Brisbane's Courier Mail.
Footnote:
The Bookman read Saints of New York prior to the author's recent visit to NZ and Australia. A big blockbuster of a novel running to almost 500 pages I found difficult to put down. Ellery's protagonist, NYPD detective Frank Parrish is so wonderfully drawn, and totally believeable that I regret we will not meet him again. However when I suggested this idea to Ellory in Auckland last week he said no, he would be sticking to his past practice of creating new characters for each new novel. I wish he would reconsider that because I could see Parrish becoming a major figure in crime fiction along the lines of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch or Ian Rankins's John Rebus.
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