It’s Enzo days for crime author’s forensic hero
The runaway success of his ‘Lewis Trilogy’ and legal wrangles in the USA forced crime writer Peter May to shelve the final chapter in the ‘Enzo Files’ for five years.
But with the publication of ‘Cast Iron’, finally fans of the pony-tailed, exiled Scots forensic expert can savour the sixth and final chapter in the series as Enzo Macleod tackles the two remaining cold cases set against the backdrop of a heatwave sweeping France.
Award-winning author May visits Perth next Monday as part of a UK tour promoting his latest thriller, which is destined to build on the success of the Hebridean trilogy, the China Thrillers and previous books charting Enzo’s adventures.
Explaining the hiatus, May said: “Enzo was first published in America from around 2006, with a publishing house which had taken my China Thrillers. It all became very complicated but I ended up requiring the services of a New York attorney to sort things out.
“I had actually written ‘The Blackhouse’ in 2005 but it was turned down any number of times before eventually being taken up by a publisher in France.
“It became a best seller there in 2009 and the rights were sold on around the world. Eventually it was sold to the Brits and it came out in the UK.
“The window of opportunity I had for the final Enzo was wiped out by the whole legal stramash. I was also committed to the ‘Lewis Trilogy’ by that time.”
Scots exile May (65), a former reporter and successful television producer and scriptwriter, admitted bringing together the plot strands from previous books had been a challenge.
“I was a little bit apprehensive about it. It had been five or six years since I had written the last one so the first thing I did was sit down a re-read the previous books. It was an interesting voyage of discovery. Most writers don’t re-read their stuff after it has gone to print,” he said.
“I made copious notes of all the threads I had set-up, and the running relationships and storylines. Only then did I sit down to work on the final book. I kept the kernel of the original idea but it developed in quite a different way than I might have written it years earlier.
“It was like getting together with an old friend and picking-up a conversation in mid-sentence. I really enjoyed getting back to Enzo again. He is a character I empathise with. He is a lot like me.
“The series was originally planned to be seven, based on cold cases. That had been determined at an early stage working on Enzo’s background and character.
“His nickname at school had been Magpie because of the white streak through his hair. I had worked on the nursery rhyme theme, one for sorrow, two for joy etc. That was where the seven came from and I planned to use each as a book title.
“But when I got a publisher in America it turned out they had a writer who had already used this idea!”
With the Enzo series wrapped-up in his latest page turner, prolific May is already looking to the future, with a three book commitment to his publishers.
He said: “People hate it when you finish writing a series. Readers get so attached to characters they don’t want to let them go.
“It can be a problem for the writer as well. But in a sense there is only so much mileage you can get from a character and you want to move on and explore other challenges.
“It could have gone on but I knew I wanted to finish at a set point rather than run and run.
“Doing stand alone books you don’t get so attached to characters. With the Lewis Trilogy I was living with the characters over a number of years and finishing was very emotional. It was exactly the same with Enzo.
“I had this long relationship with him. When you get that close to characters it is as if they are real, like old friends or relatives.
“When you know you will never revisit them it is like someone close to had Crime writer Peter May May’s latest book
died. You almost go through a grieving process which can last a few weeks, getting over the sense of loss.”
• *An ‘Evening With Peter May’ is being held by Culture Perth and Kinross at St John’s Kirk, Perth, at 7pm on Monday. Any remaining tickets are available on line from Eventbrite and “Cast Iron” is published by Quercus, priced £18.99.