Ace crime writer Peter James writes from the UK

Above Peter James (right) talks to Bookman Beattie at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival in May this year.

Hello,

Yet again it has been a wonderfully busy month.  The really big news has been the UK launch of the hardback, e-book and audio versions of my 8th Roy Grace novel, Not Dead Yet, as well as the paperback publication of my standalone thriller about "designer babies", Perfect People.

I was gratified to see Not Dead Yet go straight into the official UK bestseller list at No 1, beating American James Patterson - for the second time!  I was also very delighted this week, for the first time ever, to have books in the Hardback Top 10, Paperback Top 10 and Kindle Top 10.  As I write, Not Dead Yet  is No 2 in hardback, Perfect People is No 9 in paperback and No 6 on Kindle!

Also as an added bonus, two weeks ago I scored my first ever Canadian No 1 with Dead Man's Grip!

Within the next few days I will be signing a really exciting TV mini-series deal for Perfect People, and I hope to be able to give you all the details of that in my next newsletter.  Meanwhile work on planning for the movie of Dead Simple is steadily progressing behind the scenes...

I've just returned from a research trip to the USA with my "real life" Roy Grace, former Detective Superintendent Dave Gaylor, where we have been attending a conference and meeting a number of police officers in New Orleans.  It is never any hardship for me to go to New Orleans - one of my favourite cities - I love the French Quarter with its narrow streets and fantastic street-life, its smoking bars and its fabulous food - especially those Louisiana oysters.  The downside?  Erm, I put on rather too much weight!

I'm back in the US on July 9 to attend the wonderful convention of crime and thriller writers, Thrillerfest.   I am doing these three events open to all there (but you have to register for the convention):

• Wednesday 11th.  - CraftFest 4:00pm  I'm talking on the theme "FICTION OR FACT: How Important Is Research?"
• Friday 13th (!) - 4:00pm - I'm Panel Master  for "Does Evil Exist?" My panelists will be Al Giannini, Alma Katsu, Raymond Khouri, Bill Landay, John Lescroart & T Jefferson Parker.  Each of us is going to tell the audience something evil we have done, so it should be - well - evil!
• Saturday 14th - I am the host for the ThrillerMasters' Roundtable - where I will be joined by three giants of the US thriller world - David Morrell, RL Stine and Sandra Brown.  We are going to be talking about a wide range of stuff, including things the public do not know about us....!

Earlier this week I was on UK Breakfast TV.  For those of you who missed it, click here to watch.

Thanks Peter, we look forward to you visiting New Zealand again sometime.