A G-8 summit forces Roman police detective Nic Costa to investigate a potential terrorist attack in David Hewson's latest thriller. Hewson took the time to talk to ITW.
What sparked the idea for City of Fear?
I want each book to be a little different and choose a focus accordingly. For this one I chose a setting inside of the world of Italian politics, specifically the Quirinale Palace which is the home of the Italian president. Once I'd taken that decision I started to do some research and stumbled upon the real-life conspiracy of Gladio, an offshoot of the Cold War which brought the Mafia directly into Italian politics. Once I had that the story was under way.
Since this is the 8th Nic Costa, how has he grown as a character and has that surprised you?
I think he's grown a lot. He's tougher, less naive, but no less decent and determined. But these are ensemble books really so the characters around him - Teresa Lupo, Gianni Peroni, Leo Falcone - are important too. They've been changed by Costa over the years, and he's been changed by them. In a way the continuing story is of this odd little family they form.
How has ITW changed your life?
ITW has been the most amazing collaborative effort I've seen in my entire career. Most author organizations are inward looking and pretty static. ITW looked outwards from the beginning and seems to reinvent itself every year. The size, the enthusiasm and the scope of ITW is simply astonishing, and the breadth of writers we have as members. Maybe we should change our name to International Storytellers one day -- we seem to represent the spectrum of popular fiction.
How's it changed my life? It's let me listen and talk to so many different authors who've all been willing to share their experiences and wisdom. Take The Chopin Manuscript for example. Were it not for wonderful chance to work alongside people like Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child and so many others in that and The Copper Bracelet, the sequel, I doubt I'd have dared undertake a sweeping political thriller like City of Fear.
What can a reader expect from reading one of your novels?
I write for readers who want absolute absorption from a book. I want to transport you to the locations -- the Quirinale Palace, an underground Etruscan tomb, the back streets of Rome. I want you to see, feel, hear and smell the places I write about, and become a part of them. So maybe my books are more demanding than others. They embrace art and culture and politics, as well as a thrilling story. I've never believed that popular equates with dumb -- the range of fiction published by ITW members shows that's a myth.
Why the title changes for the paperback release of Dante's Numbers (Dante Killings in paperback) and Blue Demon (City of Fear)?
Different countries, different publishers seeing their own markets and wanting to adapt to them. It happens all the time in foreign translations. We only really notice when it happens in English.
What's next?
Book Nine in the series is finished and will be out in Spring 2011. As ever it's completely different from the one before --very much a Costa solo outing, set in Rome, revolving around a tragedy that happened 500 years ago which comes to affect the present day. It's called The Fallen Angel and is largely set in the area that is now the Roman ghetto.
Since I work a long way in advance the book after that is finished - just - too. That is a solo outing for Teresa Lupo in Venice during the carnival, hunting for a lost relative in a freezing cold February. It's going to be called The Plague Doctor.
So now I'm thinking about the book for 2013 - but I may take a vacation first.
Jeff Ayers is the author of VOYAGES OF IMAGINATION: THE STAR TREK FICTION COMPANION Pocket Books-November 2006. He frequently reviews thrillers for Library Journal and regularly interviews authors for LJ, the Seattle Post-Intellgencer, and Writer Magazine.
