Set in New York City, THE ANNIVERSARY MAN is the ultimate killer thriller, chronicling the case of a deranged but highly intelligent murderer who kills on the anniversary dates of famous serial murders from the past. Each subsequent slaying eerily copycats another infamous death--all faithfully replicating precise details of previous homicides. From electrifying start to shocking conclusion, this thriller affirms the genius that is R.J. Ellory. Britain's phenom author has achieved the status of world-class writer.
Ellory fills this crime thriller with intriguing characters. Detective Ray Irving finds himself on the trail of a daring and intelligent killer. Potty-mouthed crime reporter Karen Langley's intuition leads her to danger. And enigmatic crime researcher John Costello, who narrowly escaped a serial killer attack twenty years before, belongs to a group of survivors and could "understand what it is that makes someone do something like this." A quirky person whom Ellory says "has dedicated his life to understanding the history and psychology of mass murder."
Five months before A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS was published in the States, I predicted it to be a mega-bestseller, one that Jonathan Kellerman called a "powerful, evocative novel of great psychological depth." That was Ellory's fifth book, published in England and the first to be published by Overlook Press in the US. "Anniversary Man" is the second and affirms Ellory's title as the crime king. A SIMPLE ACT OF VIOLENCE is an exposé of covert operations, and uncharacteristic Washington greed and corruption during fictional midterm elections, to be released just in time for real midterm elections. Is Ellory saving the best for last?
As "a proud ITW member and attendee at Thrillerfest and Bouchercon who shall continue to carry the standard for International Thriller Writers," Ellory took the time to let The Big Thrill readers know more about his latest title and his fascinating writing career. "The Anniversary Man is about obsession, about needing to find the truth. It's about the worst kind of people the world has to offer, and the way in which those who are affected by such things deal with them, or not. It's about how even the best of us get things wrong. It's a thriller, a mystery, a puzzle, a battle of wills, and a story about real human beings and how they deal with the tremendous stresses occasioned by the horror of seemingly motiveless killings."
Ellory's style melds journalism and crime fiction. "Scenes that make the novel most compelling are that the central character ('The Anniversary Man' himself) is completely unknown until the end, and yet he is the one who controls and dictates all events. One of the highlights is the killer's re-creation and reenactment of the Amityville House killings. When I wrote that section it actually gave me a sleepless night! The other thing is that so many of the killings that take place are precise replicas of famous serial killings perpetrated by people such as Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Zodiac, The Sunset Slayers, et cetera. For those of us who are crime fiction and non-fiction readers, there are many recognizable characters there which make the book seem all the more realistic and unsettling."
As for real-life inspiration for key characters, Ellory said of Detective Irving: "June Boyle was the detective who finally interviewed and secured a confession from Lee Boyd Malvo, the young accomplice to the 'Beltway Sniper.' Despite the fact that she is a tremendously big-hearted person, she is also a police detective. Being a detective is a lifestyle, a vocation, that one can never leave behind. She, of all the people I met, gave me the greatest insight into the mind of characters I chose to write about. June said that 'All victims are not created equal.' When I wrote about Ray Irving in The Anniversary Man, June was always there in the back of my mind. Each central character is actually very lonely. In and amidst all the things that such people have to deal with, there is still the matter of their own humanity and personality to consider, three interesting people who are not easy to forget. What makes the characters give readers a sense of who they are is idiosyncrasies, but realistic ones. I cannot deal with characters who always get things right, because real people are just not like that! Real people make mistakes, they mess things up, they are awkward and act dumb sometimes."
Ellory said of imposing personality into the three key characters: "I don't think an author can get away from writing himself into the characters, at least to some small degree. We absorb so much from life, some good, some bad. We deal with them (or not), we recover, we carry on. Sometimes we get it right, other times not. I wrote this because of a deep and abiding fascination with human character, with the motivation for crime, and the simple fact that serial killing--as the most incomprehensible crime we consider--is also the most fascinating. Serial killers appear to be motivated by something else entirely. It is something that has never been understood, and possibly never will be."
Discussing various aspects of his writing, Ellory revealed facets about himself as complex as his characters. "You will find factual background present in all my work. The factual and historical backdrop is there as a set is for a play or a film, and then the main story happens in front of it. There is an immense amount of forensics and investigative research, but with me there is also the historical, cultural, social, political and personal research that goes into it. As a British writer writing books set in the USA, I take an immense amount of care to make the work as credible and real as possible. I am fortunate in that I love research and finding out about new things!"
Successful authors--particularly Ellory, who "wrote twenty-two novels and went through over a hundred editors to find one who 'got' what I was trying to do"--graciously encourage aspiring writers. "Paul Auster once said that becoming a writer was not a 'career decision' like becoming a doctor or a police officer. You didn't choose it so much as get chosen, and once you accepted the fact that you were not fit for anything else, you had to be prepared to walk a long, hard road for the rest of your days, and I concur with his attitude. I knew from a relatively early age that this wasn't a job, but a vocation. It was something I had to do. I always knew it was simply a matter of persisting. I recall that Disraeli said 'Success is entirely dependent upon constancy of purpose.' This is the right attitude to have. The difference between non-fiction and fiction is that non-fiction's primary purpose is to convey information, whereas the purpose of fiction is to evoke an emotion in the reader. I try not to get too bogged down in the history and facts. I work towards the evocation of an emotional effect. The books that I remember are the books that hooked me emotionally; those books where I identified with the central character, perhaps identified with a conflict they were going through. To engage readers you have to work in that direction."
Ellory said, "The thing that has helped me most in my writing career has been a fundamental belief in my ability to do it. The first person you have to satisfy is yourself. I remind myself of the response Picasso made when asked why--at age eighty--he still worked so many hours a day. 'Because when inspiration finds me,' he replied, 'I want her to find me hard at work.' So turn off the TV, get out the pencils and paper, and break a sweat." When asked what comments from readers he found most rewarding, Ellory responded: "The best ones are 'I felt like I was really there,' and 'When the book was finished I felt like the characters were people I knew.'"
Ellory has "no intention to write a series, because I get to create a new cast of characters, a new history, a new city, new events every time, and that is very exciting to me. What inspires me to write is the sheer rush of beginning a new novel. The rush of creating characters, the compelling nature of working out what will happen next. Most of the real pleasure of writing what I feel is a great line or a great scene."
When given the opportunity to let ITW readers know of his thoughts in general, Ellory had some deep ones, indeed. "Well, the thing that fascinates me is people. What never ceases to amaze me is the indomitability of the human spirit, the things that people are capable of overcoming. For me, writing is not so much about crime itself, but the way in which such events can be used to highlight and illuminate the way people deal with things that are not usual."
When L. Dean Murphy's spinal injury ended his career as a medical research paralegal, he returned to his love of reviewing. The MWA and FWA member now reviews for Bookreporter. His first novel, THE ART OF MURDER, is in its third trimester. TWO BODIES is embryonic. His maxim is "When there's nothing left, write."
