About
Roger A. Price
Author interview
Who are some of your favourite crime authors?
Many and varied. From Harper Lee to Stephen Leather. John, or Michael Connolly, Lee Child, Mark Billingham and many more. I do try to read new authors’ work in balance with established ones too. As I in turn hope readers will give emerging voices such as me a try.
Do you have any plans to write a new story with different characters, or a different genre entirely?
Spookily you ask this; but yes. In an effort to stretch myself as a writer I am also writing a more traditional crime thriller following the escape from prison of a psychotic murderer who is hell-bent on revenge, and the ensuing chase to stop him. It features all new characters but could have the legs to run into its own series, if received well.
Do you think you will be writing more about these characters? Is this the start of a potential series?
Definitely, in fact I’m currently writing a third in the “Burrows and Lee” series. I keep getting asked via my social media forums when the next one is coming, which is great to hear.
Your latest release, A New Menace, is a sequel to By Their Rules. What made you decide to continue the story?
Having established the wider premise of the arcane Special Projects Unit, I feel that there are many adventures that John Burrows and Jane Lee can explore. Though I hope to write in such a way that the books can be read in any order; each one episodic in its own adventure within the wider premise.
How would you describe your books, and who would you say is their target audience?
Crime thrillers which have a fast-paced narrative that hopefully grips you from the onset and doesn’t let go. Driven by realistic characters that stay with you – even if you’d rather some of the antagonists didn’t. Readers who enjoy thrillers and hard boiled fiction as opposed to the cosy crime tales or mysteries; though as I’ve discovered, these can be of either gender and any age.
You give frequent author talks at libraries. What have been some of your best experiences when meeting readers?
As a relatively new voice, it always amazes me that anyone turns up at all, and if someone in the audience has already read one of my books that is very humbling – and scary; depends if they liked it! Some of my writing can be gritty – though never lurid or gruesome, I prefer the reader’s mind to fill in the blanks, makes it more a bespoke reading experience – but sometimes when a senior citizen comes forward to buy a book I often caution them that my writing can be gritty in parts. On one such occasion with a lady in her late eighties, she looked both ways and then whispered, “The grittier the better!”
Other than your work, what else inspires you?
Everyday situations. I never plot ahead too much, sometimes I let the characters decide, and other times I get ideas when you might least expect it; whilst taking a long soak, followed by a mad grab for a Dictaphone is common example.
How much of your work is based on/inspired by events during your time working for the police?
A lot of my experiences came from the sneaky world of “Covert Policing” so I have to be careful I don’t use real situations in my fiction; but that doesn’t stop me from basing my stories from fact. I do use many real procedures in my writing, but I also make up as many. Fleming used to do this very well in his Bond books; and if it was good enough for him…