It's the birthday of Jeffery Deaver, born May 4th in Chicago. As befitting someone who was born in Chicago, he has been fascinated by crime from a young age. This led him first to a career in journalism, and then to the legal profession.
Fortunately for us, his interest has been used to create over 40 novels as a best selling crime writer, including one of his best known novels, The Bone Collector. One of his biggest inspirations was Ian Fleming, creator of the James Bond novels. He has also credited Alfred Hitchcock, Raymond Chandler, and Agatha Christie as models.
But he hasn't limited himself to the old masters. Some of his work has been inspired by changes in technology, resulting in the frightening novel, The Blue Nowhere, where his protagonist pursues a murderous hacker who kills using the internet.
His most famous hero is Lincoln Rhyme, a quadriplegic detective, who has been described by critics as a modern day "Sherlock Holmes", due to his intellectual skills. This character, along with his partner Amelia Sachs, has appeared in 16 novels, and has a special appeal for his creator.
Although his novels have been described as a "ticking-clock" while the story races to the end, Deaver's writing process is anything but seat-of-the-pants. He spends several months outlining his novel, and can wind up with 200 pages in his outline before he even starts to write Chapter One. Then when he is finished, he rewrites the book as many times as needed to create his award winning novels.
In 2021 he received the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America in recognition of his contributions to the crime writing genre.
Photo Credit: Niko Giovanni Coniglio
"As Hemingway said, there are no great writers, only great rewriters." - Jeffery Deaver
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