Strip Jack Naked
For once, I had a fairly easy ride of it because this book was already written.
Originally titled Jack High, for once it was me who came up with the better title, not my publishers! Essentially a chase thriller, Strip Jack Naked was about a gambler who loses big time and decides to flee the consequences. It's also about luck - that mysterious element that a person can acquire, lose and acquire again, with no control over the outcome whatsoever.
Though there are quite a few 'stock' situations in the story, I decided to get around this by making the characters more unconventional - so there's a hit man who's the nicest guy in the world, a ruthless money lender who's obsessed with interior decoration and a Spanish hoodlum who wants to have John Travolta play him in the screen version of his life. (And this several years before Pulp Fiction brought him back into the public eye.) The role of ex bank robber and professional Cockney, Tony Gorman, was definitely written with Bob Hoskins in mind, it's a role he was born to play. He might disagree with me.
Though a lot more straightforward than some of my other titles, it's surprising how many people rank this one as their favourite. Most people enjoy a good chase however and I must confess to a soft spot for many of the characters, particularly The Armenian, a villain who always has his nose in a copy of House Beautiful. Indeed, I liked him so much, he reappeared briefly in a later novel, Burn Down Easy. Recently, several people have pointed out startling similarities between this novel and the film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. A coincidence, I expect...
FACT: in the all-important poker game at the beginning of Strip Jack Naked, the hardback version contains a crucial error. The result is that Jack's adversary manages to win the game with a nonsensical hand of cards. Luckily, it was spotted by a sharp eyed reader who contacted the publisher and the mistake was corrected for the paperback version.
FACT: there was some nervousness shortly after the book was released when it turned out there was a gay road movie on release with the same title. Presumably in that case, the stripping was a good deal more literal than in my book!