CRIMINALLY GOOD: Interview with author Roger A. Price

1) So, who are you and what have you written?

My name is Roger A. Price a crime fighter turned crime writer. Check out my website, HERE and my blog, HERE.

My first crime thriller in the Burrows and Lee series is ‘By Their Rules’, the second is ‘A New Menace’ which follow the fortunes of retired DS John Burrows and ex-MI5 Intelligence Officer Jane Lee who work outside the law chasing those who are above it.

Incidentally, ‘A New Menace’ has been nominated for this year’s People’s Prize Award, and can be voted for until 15th May via their website, HERE.

My third novel ‘Through a Twisted Prism’ is the first in the Badge and the Pen series which is due out in August 2016 which traces the adventures of DI Vinnie Palmer and TV news reporter Christine Jones.

Both series are contemporary crime thrillers, the former coming more from the covert world while the latter is from a more overt and reactive detective genre.

I have also had a short story – ‘Between the Flakes’ – published in an anthology entitled ‘Snowflakes’ which was published in December 2015. My story is a snapshot of life through the eyes of a heroin addict.

2) Why do you write crime fiction?

They say write about what you know? So after retiring from the police as a detective inspector I thought that was good advice. I know ‘write the wrongs’ rather than ‘right the wrongs’. I also love reading within the genre as well.

3) What informs your crime writing?

I have had many experiences in the real detective world, dealing with all crime, working on many murders, serving on drug squads, the regional and national crime squads and in charge of a covert undercover unit seeing service across the UK, Europe and beyond. I have been commended four times, and my undercover unit received national acclaim. Although I can’t write about these experiences, I can base my fiction from them. They inform and drive my writing.

4) What’s your usual writing routine?

I take my wife to work and when I walk back through the door at 8.30 am I’m walking into my ‘place of work’. I spend a couple of hours in the kitchen dealing with social media, emails and doing other marketing related admin and then I retire to the attic, where I have an office. This is where I do my novel writing, I find the added isolation helps drive my pen. I usually finish for the day around 4 pm unless I have a talk to attend.

5) Which crime book do you wish YOU’D written, and why?

That’s a toughie. So many excellent ones to choose from, it almost seems disingenuous to pick only one. But I’ll go for a relatively newish author Alex Berenson’s ‘Faithful Spy’ which is the first in his John Wells series. I just thought as a début it contained everything an aspiring author would wish. Great plot, tight narrative with well developed characters wrapped up in a roller-coaster of a story.