Crime write shows character

British author R. J. Ellory has had his share of drama, writes Shane Gilchrist.

Novellist R. J. Ellory is used to leaving his Birmingham home.

Past trips have involved transatlantic flights to the United States, where he has gathered research material on everyone from serial killers to the CIA; other times, he has spent weeks here and there rubbing shoulders with readers and authors alike.

Ellory enjoys both forms of journey.

In fact, the man who submitted more than 20 manuscripts before finally attracting some publishing interest believes it's far better to be signing autographs than being ignored.

He also doesn't believe in luck.

Well, at least not in the sense that something falls into one's lap.

Good fortune is earned through persistence, he insists.

Ellory, whose initials stand for Roger Jon, is on the line from his Birmingham home.

He's just about to pack his bags.

This time, he is headed our way for a series of speaking engagements (including Dunedin on Friday, September 10 - for details, see breakout box) to promote his eighth novel, Saints of New York.

Critics and readers have struggled to pigeonhole Ellory.

Though his books often deal in grisly deeds, they are as much personal dramas as crime novels.

"I sometimes get emails from people saying, 'I really enjoyed your book but it's more a human drama and the crime is secondary'. The thing I find with a lot of crime novels is although the plot may be compelling ... I read about investigators who put all the pieces together and solve the crime but there's not much about the character solving the crime."

Saints of New York is dominated by one character, New York Police Department detective Frank Parish, who ticks more than a few familiar boxes: hard-bitten, hard-drinking, hard-working and with a heart of gold.

Yet Ellory's explanation of his inspiration for Frank is surprising.

"He was actually inspired by a woman, a veteran American investigator.

"I spent about four or five hours sitting in a snow-covered children's playground in Virginia, interviewing her. It was a fascinating account of her experiences, a decade and a-half of the worst things that human beings can become.

"At the end of it, I said, 'Summarise your vocation, your lifestyle because, obviously, it is not a job'.

"She said, 'First and foremost, all victims are not created equal. If you come from this particular side of Washington, I'm going to be one of four or five investigators looking into your homicide. If you come from this other side of Washington, you're going to be one of 15 or 16 investigations being carried out by one person. It depends on your station in life'."

It is a theme that resonates in Saints of New York, which details a series of murders of young women, many of whom are orphans.

Ellory, too, has been through "the system".

Born in Birmingham in 1965, he was orphaned at the age of 7 when his mother, Carole, an actress and dancer, died as a result of a pneumonia epidemic; his father had left before he was born.

In 1973, he was sent to a boarding school.

He remained there until he was 16.

Ellory developed his passion for reading (and thus writing) while at boarding school, "which had a great library - I read all the greats, particularly American writers", including Steinbeck, Faulkner and Whitman.

On leaving school, he returned to Birmingham to live with his maternal grandmother, who died less than a year later.

At 17, Ellory was sent to a detention centre for teenagers for three months after being found guilty of poaching poultry from a monastery.

"An ancient law decreed that was the minimum sentence," he recalls.

On his release, Ellory pursued interests in graphic design, photography and music.

Following the death of the drummer in his band, The Manta Rays, Ellory quit the music scene and devoted himself to reading - and writing.

Starting his first book in November 1987, he completed 22 novels by 1993.

He also accumulated several hundred polite rejection letters from publishers, prompting him to shelve his hopes for eight years.

However, motivated by his grandmother, who urged him not to live a life of "if only", and the events of September 11, 2001, he decided to write again.

"Thousands of people went to work in their offices in New York that morning and never made it home. I had an office job in a freight company. The day after 9/11, I started typing a story on the work computer."

By January 2002, Ellory had completed three books, the second of which he called Candlemoth.

Published by Orion in 2003, Candlemoth was short-listed for the Crime Writers' Association Steel Dagger for Best Thriller in 2003 and has now been translated into German, Dutch and Italian.

Then followed Ghostheart, A Quiet Vendetta and City of Lies in successive years.

His fifth book, A Quiet Belief In Angels, published late in 2006, has been translated into 26 languages and was voted best thriller of 2009 in The Strand magazine.

The book has also been optioned for film, Ellory having recently completed the screenplay.

Ellory then put out A Simple Act of Violence, again securing a nomination for best British crime fiction of 2008, and in late 2009 he completed The Anniversary Man.

Though Saints of New York was published just this week, he already has another, Bad Signs, due for release next year.

Such a prodigious output suggests Ellory is something of a workaholic.

Boasting a modus operandi that demands 40,000 words per month and a completed first draft within three to four months, he does nothing to dismiss such speculation.

"I'm up early, have breakfast, get my son off to school and work from about 8am until lunch, then I resume until about 2pm. I try to get three or four thousand words done a day."

Although Ellory is spreading his wings, circling beyond what he terms the "shadows" by way of forming a rhythm and blues band (he plays guitar and was due to perform a gig last week), he admits his wife sometimes suggests he try something altogether different, particularly when she stumbles across the occasional box full of research material detailing murderers and their various acts.

"Every once in a while, you have to step back and take an objective viewpoint and remind yourself that the vast majority of people are fundamentally good; they are compassionate and understanding and kind," Ellory says.

"There are only a tiny fraction who are truly dangerous.

See him, hear him

British author R. J. Ellory will speak at the following Dunedin venues on Friday, September 10:Mosgiel Library, 3.30pm (free); Dunedin Public Library, 5.30pm (free).

Bookings: email library@dcc.govt.nz or phone (03) 474-3690.

Saints of New York is published by Orion ($38.99, pbk).