..and this morning I have had to bin the idea. It's almost (but not quite) the equivalent of Kiss sitting around for the weekend thinking up their plans for world domination only to wake up on Monday morning to find that the New York Dolls have done it.
Actually, it's nothing like that at all, but if I may explain: first, you need to know that I chew up crime novels at a frightening speed. There's not many authors that I haven't read and formed an opinion on. One of the biggest holes in my crime author knowledge has always been Peter James, which this weekend I decided to put right. I went out and bought his first Detective Superintendent Roy Grace novel - Dead Simple. It's good. Real good.
And then I discovered the ten ton heavy thing hiding behind the door.
See, I always knew that for D.I. Kang to work as a fantastically rounded character, he had to be damaged in some way, so I damaged him in the most severe way I could think of.
I took away his beloved. Just made her disappear and left him not knowing if she was alive or dead. She was just gone. I've sat on this for a good couple of years now while I've built my backstory and (as you'll have noticed) finally gotten around to pushing out some short stories to bring him to life in the world.
So you can probably imagine the crushing pain I felt last night when I got to the bit (quite early on in the book) where I learn that this is how Grace is damaged. His wife is just gone - and long enough to have her declared legally dead too. That was something I was saving up!
So:
a) I'm really glad the concept works! James has written a stack of Grace novels and he's a damn fine writer as well (I had read some of his other books, just not these D.S. Grace novels).
b) I'm really fucking glad I found out now! Imagine going to an agent/publisher with that one. Pride comes before a fall and all that.
c) It crossed my mind to get in touch with James to see if she had ever been found (I'll obviously get around to this as I go through the novels so no spoilers please) - and if she hadn't, maybe I could twist my Kang story and he could be married to her as well!
d) Better still, maybe she ran away from Grace, then ran away with Kang and is now shacked up with Billingham's Tom Thorne. The ultimate bigamy trail. As a reader and a big fan of crime fiction, I'd think that would be brilliant fun.
Anyway, now I'm left with a hole in my detective's life. Last night I was cross, but hey, these thing happen however unlikely it may seem. I had to read it twice to make sure I hadn't got hold of the wrong end of the stick.
Today, I have found bigger and better ways in which to damage D.I. Kang. He won't thank me for any of it, but readers might.
Mr James, it's been a pleasure working with you - albeit anonymously.
