TopShelf March 2023

Upclose & Personal

Peter May

Q: WHAT LED YOU TO WRITING SUSPENSE THRILLERS?

Pure accident. The first of my China books, “ The Firemaker ” was about GM foods gone wrong. I decided the best way to tell the story was through the investigation of a murder. So I created a cop and a pathologist, and the book became a crime thriller. And once you embark on a certain genre, your publisher and your readers expect you to continue with it. So I became a crime writer.

Q: TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW BOOK RELEASE, A WINTER GRAVE.

The trigger for this book was the failure of the climate conference, COP 26 in Scotland in 2021. Just three months after a UN report, compiled by hundreds of climate scientists worldwide, predicted climate catastrophe if we didn’t take drastic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions this decade, the fossil fuel lobbyists won. And the politicians failed in their duty to the world. Angry and frustrated, I decided to write about it. A Winter Grave was the result. However, it’s not about climate change. It’s a classic political thriller set in Scotland. But it takes place thirty years in the future, against the backdrop of a world altered by a changing climate. Readers might be surprised by the direction that takes.

Q: WHAT THEMES WILL READERS FIND IN YOUR NEW BOOK, A WINTER GRAVE?

Political corruption, murder mystery, climate change, and themes of family and redemption.

Q: WHO ARE THE MAIN CHARACTERS AND THEIR PERSONALITIES?

The main characters are a Glasgow cop sent to investigate a murder in the West Highlands of Scotland, and his daughter, the climatologist who discovered the body. Their relationship has been dysfunctional since the death of his wife/her mother, but a catastrophic medical prognosis makes him determined to set things straight with his daughter before his time is up.

Q: IS IT DIFFICULT OR EASY WRITING A TRILOGY?

It is no more difficult or easy than writing any other book - be it part of a series, or a standalone. However, the one thing about writing short or long series is that your main characters are ready made, and each book is a further exploration of them. This can be both a blessing and a curse - a blessing because you don’t have to create new characters, a curse because the more you write the more you have to explore unexpected depths.

Q: WHAT OTHER PROJECTS ARE YOU WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT?

I’m not. I’m taking time out to enjoy some other things in life. If an idea comes to me begging to be written, I will write it. If not, I won’t.

Q: WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO ASPIRING WRITERS IN YOUR GENRE?

My advice to writers, in whatever genre, is just to write, and keep writing - preferably about things of which they have some knowledge.

ABOUT PETER MAY

Peter May is the multi award-winning author of:

◊ the Lewis Trilogy set in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland;

◊ the China Thrillers, featuring Beijing detective Li Yan and American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell;

◊ the Enzo Files, featuring Scottish forensic scientist Enzo MacLeod, which is set in France. The sixth and final Enzo book is Cast Iron (January 2017, Riverrun).

He has also written several standalone books:

◊ I'll Keep You Safe (January 2018, Riverrun)

◊ Entry Island (January 2014, Quercus UK)

◊ Runaway (January 2015, Quercus UK)

◊ Coffin Road (January 2016, Riverrun)

May had a successful career as a television writer, creator, and producer.

One of Scotland's most prolific television dramatists, he garnered more than 1000 credits in 15 years as scriptwriter and script editor on prime-time British television drama. He is the creator of three major television drama series and presided over two of the highest-rated serials in his homeland before quitting television to concentrate on his first love, writing novels.

Born and raised in Scotland he lives in France. His breakthrough as a best-selling author came with The Lewis Trilogy. After being turned down by all the major UK publishers, the first of the The Lewis Trilogy - The Blackhouse - was published in France as L'Ile des Chasseurs d'Oiseaux where it was hailed as "a masterpiece" by the French national newspaper L'Humanité. His novels have a large following in France. The trilogy has won several French literature awards, including one of the world's largest adjudicated readers awards, the Prix Cezam.

The Blackhouse was published in English by the awardwinning Quercus (a relatively young publishing house which did not exist when the book was first presented to British publishers). It went on to become an international best seller, and was shortlisted for both Barry Award and Macavity Award when it was published in the USA.

The Blackhouse won the US Barry Award for Best Mystery Novel at Bouchercon in Albany NY, in 2013.