I’ve lived with the book for a year and I already know where it’s weak and where it’s strong. Not because I need to find anything out though. Whilst there’s no arguing with over 100 million sales of his novels worldwide (it has been estimated that every 13 seconds, someone, somewhere in the world buys a Lee Child book), I wonder whether he takes any notice of the critical reception his books receive. That way, the pitch of every story can be radically different'. Reacher isn’t tied to any location, and he also isn’t tied to any particular stratum of investigation, like say a police sergeant in one particular town would be. So once I’d decided that Past Tense was going to be about Reacher’s dad it had to be set in Laconia'.īut besides ensuring such plot continuity, what is the secret to maintaining a compelling character like Reacher over 23 novels? 'The thing that really liberated me was choosing early on to make Reacher rootless. I also mention in an earlier book that Reacher’s father’s perpetual refrain was: "I’m just a plain New Hampshire Yankee”. Which could be the Reacher family motto as nobody says very much. 'I originally picked Laconia simply because it sounds like laconic. It is also, as vigilant readers of Child’s previous novels will know, the birthplace of Reacher’s father. The action takes place in and around the real New Hampshire town of Laconia, which is as far as Reacher gets on his migration south from Maine. No spoilers, but it’s fair to say that Reacher once again proves – as the strapline promises – 'a righteous avenger for our troubled times'. Child’s two parallel strands build the suspense to an almost unbearable degree until they finally converge in the tautest of climaxes. It’s just a motel as far as we know, but the implicit bargain with the reader is - it’s going to be creepy!'. And sure enough, it does break down near a lonely motel in the woods.
'I thought – okay, they’re young, they’re poor, their car is rubbish and it’s going to break down. This led Child to invent Patty and Shorty, a young Canadian couple who are driving south to New York City with something to sell. He can have the most ordinary quotidian thing going on, but you absolutely know that something sinister is going to happen'. 'Stephen King lives in Maine, and so I thought of doing a Stephen King type set-up because he’s so great at them. 'This second strand came from Reacher’s starting location. Once he’d established this beginning, Child asked himself, as he always does, how his first paragraph might dictate the rest of the novel. As the novel opens, summer is coming to an end, birds are beginning to fly south for winter, and Reacher has decided on an epic migration of his own from Maine, to California. Once again, of course, it features taciturn knight errant Jack Reacher as he rights wrongs, dispenses moral justice, and saves innocent lives. The genesis of Child’s 23rd and most recent novel, Past Tense, provides a fascinating example of how a story emerges in this freewheeling way. And that’s exactly what I want to know too: what’s going to happen next? I revel in that ride'.
They’re excited to know what is going to happen next. For me, it’s essential not to have an outline beforehand, because I want to sit down to write with exactly the same level of interest as the reader who sits down to read.
DID LEE CHILDS LIKE THE JACK REACHER FILMS MOVIE
It’s like a movie stuntman who jumps off a high building, hoping the props people are going to get the air bag in position by the time he lands. 'It’s a risk because you’ve got no safety net. With no plan whatsoever when he starts – by tradition, always on 1 September – he likens the process to a high wire act. For the multi-million selling thriller writer Lee Child, the beginning of a new novel is a thrilling business in itself.
0 kommentar(er)
