Q A with Colin Campbell
This week, Midnight Ink sat down with Colin Campbell, author of the Resurrection Man Novels. His latest, Adobe Flats, was released earlier this month.
Midnight Ink: How long have you been writing?
Colin Campbell: I had to think about this because I feel like it�s not been that long but when I look back it�s been quite a while. Darkwater Towers was published in 2000 (Blackie & Co.) and it was the fourth book I�d written. Assume a book a year but 12 months to get it published, then add on the years of practicing with short stories, I reckon about 1994. So, shit. 20 years.
MI: What influence have other authors had on your writing?
CC: We�re all readers first, so the main influence is they made me love reading. A good story told well. Words forming rhythms that painted pictures in my head. Then the pictures started moving so it was like watching a film with added emotion. That�s what they did for me. Then I wanted to do that myself, tell stories.
MI: Who is your favorite mystery sleuth and why?
CC: That�s a hard one. Past or present? And who counts as a mystery sleuth? I grew up reading James Bond and Philip Marlowe. Never really got into Sherlock Holmes, although I liked the old black and white films. Nowadays? On TV I watch Raylan Givens in Justified. I read the Ace Atkins Quinn Colson books. Harry Bosch. But I really like Jack Reacher. Somebody taller than me who doesn�t mince his words. How can you not look up to that?
MI: What was your inspiration for this series?
CC: The seed was my agent, Donna Bagdasarian, suggesting I write something set in America. My early books were UK-based crime. I couldn�t see myself faking an American character as well as Lee Child did so my initial answer was no. Then I remembered being sent across the Pennines to Blackpool when I was in plain clothes. To interview a prisoner then eliminate him from the enquiry. That seemed like a good way to get an English cop to America. Just further than Blackpool that�s all.
MI: Tell us about Jim Grant.
CC: Jim Grant is an ex-West Yorkshire Police officer sent to America as described above. He was in the army but doesn�t like talking about it, claiming he was only a typist. He hates guns and prefers to talk his way out of trouble rather than fight. A dry sense of humor helps diffuse situations, but of course that doesn�t always work. In fact it hardly ever does. He believes in doing what�s right and not necessarily what�s legal. He likes the ladies but isn�t a womanizer. He is employed primarily by the Boston PD but by a higher power that can utilize him across America because they can disown him if the shit hits the fan. It often does but so far they haven�t sacked him.MI: How do the Resurrection Man Novels compare to your past works?
CC: My UK crime novels were very much my tributes to the boys in blue. They dealt with uniform cops on the frontline of British policing. A lot of the stories were based on fact or thinly veiled incidents that I�d dealt with. Jim Grant is more into thriller territory. The stories are bigger and the stakes higher but hopefully with enough authenticity from a police point of view. Less about procedures and more about attitude. What a cop feels about the things he�s dealing with. And more sex than I remember from my uniform days.
MI: If you weren�t a writer, what would you be doing?
CC: Well, I was a cop for 30 years so I guess I�ve already done what I would have done if I weren�t a writer. Retired from that and now living my hobby. I also coach tennis part time so I suppose if I weren�t writing I�d do more hours on court.
MI: Do you have a favorite murder case from a book (either yours or another author�s)?
CC: Not sure I�d call any of them a favorite. The first one I photographed when I was in SOCO (CSI in America) was an old lady who�d been raped and violated before she was killed. That one�s stuck with me. After that I can live without murders in books. It�s the cops I like reading about. If you press me on it, maybe Oddjob being sucked out of the airplane window in Goldfinger. The book. They switched it in the film.
MI: What are your favorite things to do when you�re not writing or working?
CC: I�m getting stuck in a rut here aren�t I? I love playing tennis. And watching movies. Either at the cinema or in my home cinema on blu-ray.
MI: Do you have a favorite recipe?
CC: I can�t cook for toffee. (English expression. Google it.)MI: What is your favorite part about being an Inker?
CC: There is a sense of being part of a community of writers. We spend so much time locked away in a room typing that it�s nice to meet up at conventions and chew the fat. We all have the same doubts. We�ve all struggled to get published. It�s nice to share that. And pat each other on the back.
Adobe Flats, the third Resurrection Man Novel, is available online and in bookstores now!
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