Hello, I'm Steve Cavanagh, I'm here in Waterstones Piccadilly this morning
to tell you a little bit about my new book. It's called Twisted, it's a book about
twists, it's a psychological thriller about one of the world's greatest
mystery writers, J.T. LeBeau and the biggest mystery is his identity.
I'm going to talk about three books which inspired Twisted and the first book
we're gonna talk about is by one of my favourite authors Michael Connelly.
And the book is The Black Echo. It's the very first in the Harry Bosch series and
as you can also see it's the big read for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime
Festival this year. This is Michael's first book and introduces Harry
'Hieronymus' Bosch, an LAPD murder detective. The book traces Harry's
history; he was a Vietnam vet and he finds that one of his former colleagues
in arms is found dead in a tunnel off Mulholland Drive and Harry investigates.
I wanted to create a really good police officer
for my new book, psychological thriller, and the touchstone for all great
detectives I think in this modern age is Harry Bosch. The reason he endures so
much and there's so many in the series I think is all down to Michael creating
this character that people love. Why do they love Harry Bosch? I think it's
because, perhaps more than other detectives, Bosch has a lot of heart. He has this saying
'Everybody counts or no one counts' and if you go in now to the Robbery/Homicide
Division in Los Angeles, that is their logo now which they have adopted. So this
is the first in the series; I would strongly recommend you get this book, you
won't be able to put it down. Well the next book I want to talk to you about is
a brilliant psychological thriller by Patricia Highsmith. This is the very
first Ripley novel. It was published I think in 1955 and was nominated for a
number of awards. Patricia Highsmith is one of the greatest suspense novelists
we've ever had she wrote Strangers on a Train,
she worked in movies, but for me this is her finest achievement. The character of
Tom Ripley; we first meet him he's a low-level scam artist and he meets a
factory mogul whose son has moved to Europe and he wants Tom Ripley to go and
meet his son and persuade him to come back into the family business.
What he doesn't know is that Tom Ripley not only is a con artist but is also a
pure psychopath. And the crowning achievement of this novel is Highsmith
gets you to root for a completely amoral character in Tom Ripley and even fall
in love with him. So I think for anyone who loves
psychological thrillers, and they're very big these days, The Talented Mr. Ripley
has to be on your list. The final book I'd like to talk to you about is one of my
favourite novels of all time. It's Misery by Stephen King. Stephen King
is known as a horror writer but really is much more, for me, he is one of the
greatest suspense novelists of all time. And this is probably one of the best
suspense books you'll never read. The tagline is 'Paul Sheldon used to write
for a living, now he's writing to stay alive.' You've probably seen the movie with
Kathy Bates and James Caan; the book is so much better. The book is about a
writer called Paul Sheldon who is sort of trapped writing this Victorian saga
about a character called Mystery Chastain and he wants to be so much more.
He wants to write a crime novel. And he gets waylaid, there's a car accident in
Colorado and he is rescued by his number-one fan: Annie Wilkes. Annie
Wilkes is just a perfect creation, she is the ultimate monster, she is more
frightening than Hannibal Lecter. The novel gets suspense out of so little and
there is a scene where Paul has to bend down and pick up a paper clip. And that
sounds very ordinary but such is King's mastery that it feels you're really
gripping this book. So buy two copies because you'll have torn this one apart
as you're gripping it's so hard. The other copy you give to your friend. So I
probably wouldn't have written Twisted without these three books and I please
urge you to go and buy them all in Waterstones.