I spend about eight months researching and outlining my book.

Sometimes you can't be what you ought to be, you can't have what you ought to have.

We have years to converse with someone, to blurt and rant, to explain our desires and anger and regrets - and oh how we squander those moments.

In general, I think, less is more, and that if a reader stops reading because a book is too icky then I've failed in my obligation to the readers.

For me a thriller is a very carefully structured story.

I've worked for law firms, I've worked for corporations, and for the past 20 years, I've been writing working for myself, and believe me it's a lot better. That's a big part of the James Bond panache, that you're responsible, 100 percent responsible, for the success or failure of your mission in life, whatever it is.

Certainly going back to Sherlock Holmes we have a tradition of forensic science featured in detective stories.