Black Wolf
No sooner was Speak No Evil all wrapped up, than Headline were asking for a follow up.
I had a manuscript called Jack High, but Peter didn't think it was right as a follow-up. Casting around for another idea, I remembered an incident from the very start of my publishing career, when I'd been plagued by countless letters from a sycophantic American fan. I was showing the letters to a friend one day and he remarked that they would probably make the basis for a novel. I thought about it and decided he was absolutely right. The next day, I wrote it up as a brief synopsis, taking the basic idea of a writer being pestered by a 'fan' and exaggerating it. I sent the end product to Peter Lavery. He liked the idea too and commissioned the novel. I'd never worked this way before but had to admit it made a refreshing change, even if the deadline only gave me around six months to deliver a completed manuscript.
Most writers eventually do a story about a writer and I was no exception. (Let's face it, we've already done the research.) In the book, the author, Mark Tyler, is under pressure from his agent to formularise his work. I had some experience of this. A former agent of mine, after the success of Tiger, Tiger had urged me to write Leopard, Leopard, then Jaguar, Jaguar and so on. On the same note, people have often asked me why I don't choose to have continuing lead characters in my books (a police officer or a detective perhaps) and the truth is, I would find that an incredible bore. However, I have occasionally reused a few of the more interesting minor characters... only eagle-eyed readers will have spotted them.
Black Wolf was finished on schedule and was the first of my books to be optioned for a movie. At book signings, people still come up to me and ask me to sign their book, 'To my number one fan,' a direct reference to a scene in the book.
FACT: In this book I took the opportunity to revenge myself on another agent with whom I'd fallen out. I gave him the same Christian name as Mark's fictional agent, Peter Maughan. The poor man suffers one of the most horrifying deaths imaginable; he is tied into a chair, eviscerated with a Stanley knife and his liver is eaten in front of him. Yuck!