LONDON CONFIDENTIAL - MARK BILLINGHAM INTERVIEW

Mark Billingham did not on the face of it seem the kind of man who would become a master of dark crime - he's a stand up comedian with a background in Children's TV. And yet readers in the know clamour to buy his Tom Thorne novels. And it's a very real possibility that the books will be filmed as a major television series starring David Morrisey as the dour, hard as nails detective.

His debut Sleepyhead(2001) offered a remarkably original twist on the tired serial killer sub-genre. And this was consolidated when the even better follow up Scardey Cat(2002) made an appearance. Since then we've had four more Thorne novels and the stand alone thriller In The Dark (2008).

Mark's novels will never find favour with those who like a more gentle crime among the tea cosies. These novels don't shy away from extreme violence and owe as much to the hardboiled American tradition as they do the British police procedural.

I wonder what it was that turned Mark onto writing in the first place?

"I’ve always written one thing or another – stupid stories when I was at school, bad poetry when I was a student – and I was making a decent living as a TV writer throughout the nineties, but writing the books has really become the only thing that has truly satisified me. I think the impulse goes back to school when I would try to write stories that would make other kids laugh and being asked to come to the front of the class and read them aloud was the BEST feeling in the world. On one level, I think that is more or les what I’m still doing. I love to tell stories and all my favourite writers are, above all else, storytellers>"

When Mark was creating Tom Thorne there were already some wonderful series detectives running around the fictional landscape putting all manner of evil to rights. Did he feel it was a risk to try interesting the public in yet another lone police officer?

"Of course – I’d read pretty much every bit of crime fiction I could get my hands on, which was why, when I sat down to write, a crime novel was the only possibility. I just wanted to write the kind of book I enjoyed reading. Yes, of course it’s hard to distance yourself from the greats that are around already and I think it takes any writer a book or two to find their own voice. That said, we’re all standing on the shoulders of giants. There would not have been a Morse without a Poirot. There would not have been a Rebus without a Marlowe."

He must have kept these greats in mind when creating Thorne. Tell us about this.
"When I am asked to describe Detective Inspector Tom Thorne, I have often said that the reader knows every bit as much about him as I do. And I stand by that. When I created him for the first book – Sleepyhead – I was determined that he should be a character who would never be set in stone, but rather one who would develop, book on book, who would change and grow as we all do, and who, crucially, would be unpredictable. Many authors who write series have created thick dossiers on their protagonists; complex biographies containing everything from family history to inside leg measurement. This may make life easier for the writer in some ways, but to me it seems limiting. As I write each new Thorne novel, I am determined that whatever is happening plot-wise, a new layer of the onion will be peeled away and reveal something about Tom Thorne that is surprising. To me as much as anyone else. This may not always be something that the more conservative reader likes too much, but that can’t be helped. Simply put, if I can remain interested in the character, then hopefully, the reader will stay interested too. The day a character becomes predictable is the day a writer should think about moving on, because the reader certainly will."

The secondary characters in the Tom Thorne books are often given as much room as Thorne himself. Does Mark every worry that they will overshadow the main guy?

"I don’t think so, but I do enjoy moving these secondary characters in and out of focus and trying to develop them. Over a series, it’s nice to play with a large cast of characters and a time will come when Holland or Hendricks or Kitson may take centre stage and be the main character in a book."

Mark's latest novel In The Dark was a departure from the Tom Thorne books; a standalone thriller with a female protagonist. Is he tiring of Thorne's world and feeling confined by the boundaries of the police procedural?

"I didn’t write IN THE DARK because I felt confined, but I did feel it was time to take a break from the series and do something else. I think there is always a danger that a series can become stale and you need to find ways to keep it fresh. For me, this meant stepping away and doing something else. This was a story that could never be Thorne’s, but writing it has meant that I’ve come back to Thorne more fired up than I was when I left him. All that said, I did enjoy writing a novel that was more domestic than the Thorne novels – that was less dependant on police procedure and all that stuff. The next book will probably be another Thorne novel, but I have an idea for a standalone book that I want to write after that."

Just as Chandler used LA as a character in the Marlowe novels Mark does so with London. His detail of the underworld is so authentic feeling that one wonders if he ever ran on the wrong side of the law. Does he have first hand experience of the wrong side of the law?

"Not ‘experience’ as such, but I do have sufficient contacts that I can find out most things. If it seems authentic, I am clearly just about getting away with it."

Where does Mark start? Is it character or plot that drives his books?

"For me it’s all about character. If you can make a reader care – about a cop, a victim, or even a killer – you’re half way there. Of course you also need a kick-ass plot a twist or two and killer dialogue."

Billingham's fan base is growing by the day. What future projects he has lined up to entertain us crime readers?

"The next novel – BLOOD LINE – will be out in August and sees Thorne on familiar ground, hunting and extremely twisted serial killer. I’m also finishing the third in the TRISKELLION trilogy – a series of thrillers for children that I write with my friend Peter Cocks under the pseudonym Will Peterson. The second of those – THE BURNING – will be out in March. Next month the series I made for the Crime and Investigation Network about killer couples will be shown on television, and the documentary I’m making about Patricia Highsmith will be broadcast on Radio 4. I will also be having a major nervous breakdown."

Finally what can you tell us about the long awaited TV version of Tom Thorne?

"

Well – fingers crossed – it’s all happening. We have a broadcaster, an amazing actor in David Morrissey to play Tom Thorne and a wonderful script, so all being well, SLEEPYHEAD will begin filming later this year."

MARK'S BOOKS

Mark Billingham's Books…

When Sleepyhead was published in the UK by Time Warner Books in August 2001, It entered the Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller list and became the biggest selling debut novel of that Summer.

Scaredy Cat is the second Tom Thorne novel. It was nominated for the CWA Gold Dagger and won the 2003 Sherlock Award.

Lazybones is the third in the series of Tom Thorne novels. It won the 2005 Theakston’s Old Peculier Award for Crime Novel Of The Year .

The Burning Girl is the fourth novel to feature Detective Inspector Tom Thorne.

Lifeless is the fifth Tom Thorne novel. It was shortlisted for Crime Thriller Of The Year at the 2006 British Book Awards.

Buried is the sixth novel to feature DI Tom Thorne.

Death Message is the latest novel to feature DI Tom
Thorne.

In The Dark is Mark's first standalone thriller.

NEXT INTERVIEW - MAX ALLAN COLLINS ON THE SPILLANE LEGACY