Desire to thrill overtakes the law

Consider the plot of Jeffery Deaver's latest novel, The Stone Monkey: wheelchair-bound sleuth Lincoln Rhyme has been called in to help the United States Government break a people-smuggling ring.

Their target is a man known only as the Ghost, a murderer and rapist who has made a fortune smuggling Chinese immigrants into the States. Once the Ghost realises the FBI are on to him, he sinks the ship and attempts to kill off any survivors who might know his identity.

Two families make it off the ship and disappear into New York's Chinese community. Rhyme has to find them before the Ghost does. Throw into the mix the politics of the the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, corrupt governments and cultural confusion.

If that sounds like a recipe for the controlled chaos of the plotmaker, consider Deaver's own modus operandi. He starts researching and writing in the office of the Virginia home he shares with his german shepherd dog, Gunner.

When his office gets overtaken by the clutter, he has said, "I end up working in the kitchen. When the kitchen goes, it's up to my bedroom. And so on and so on. I wish I had a bigger house."

He could no doubt afford one. The Stone Monkey is Deaver's 17th novel. He's been nominated for five Edgar Awards; his books make the best-seller lists. And The Bone Collector, another Lincoln Rhyme novel, got the Hollywood treatment with Denzel Washington as Rhyme. The Blue Nowhere and The Devil's Teardrop have recently been optioned.

The Herald/Dymocks literary lunch speaker knew he wanted to write from the age of 11 when he wrote his first "book" - all two chapters of it.

But he was sidelined. First by journalism which led him to law, in a roundabout sort of way. To become a legal correspondent for either the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, he enrolled at law school to gain the background required. He graduated, worked as an attorney for a Wall Street firm but admits he was "a dreadful lawyer". In any case, "writing novels is a lot more fun than practising law".

Deaver has also been a poet and a "not particularly talented" folk singer.

The wispy-haired, rather stern-looking character depicted on his book jackets spends six days a week, 11 months of the year researching and writing.

The chaos is of the fastidious kind. Every character and plot twist, every clue is outlined before he begins writing. He rewrites the entire book 10 to 15 times before it's ready to show to his agent and editor. Then he rewrites all over again. "In all," he's said, "I probably rewrite two dozen times before the book goes to press. As Hemingway said, 'there are no great writers. Only great rewriters'."

It's a solitary existence (just him and the dog) most of the time. His idea of relaxing is to throw the occasional dinner party, in the form of a Roman banquet or a medieval party, for up to 50 of his closest friends. Intricately plotted dinner parties, of course.

* The New Zealand Herald/Dymocks Jeffery Deaver lunch is at Carlton Hotel, Tuesday, April 16.