Murder in Buckingham Palace is toughest case yet for Brighton's Roy Grace

SussexWorld

Murder in Buckingham Palace takes Brighton-based detective Roy Grace into the very heart of royal circles in the latest thriller from Peter James.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. It's always

00:06fabulous to speak to Peter James, but this is particularly exciting. This book, not only

00:12have you derailed Queen Camilla in Sussex, you have plonked a killer in Buckingham Palace.

00:19Now this really is quite something for the 21st Roy Grace book, which comes out appropriately

00:25on October the 21st. How on earth did this happen? We've got the King as a character in

00:30the book, we've got Camilla as a character in the book.

00:34Well, what happened was Camilla, I've been very fortunate, she's like seriously been my

00:41number one fan for at least 10 years, if not longer. And regularly we communicate and see

00:49each other several times a year. And about three, four years ago, she wrote me a letter

00:57saying, when are you going to set Roy Grace in London? And I thought, well, that's a royal

01:03command, isn't it? And things have not ended well for people who've disobeyed former Queen's

01:08commands. You either end up minus your head or burnt on a bonfire. So I thought about it

01:16really hard. I thought, well, your Buckingham Palace is, I'm going to set it in London, where

01:20Buckingham Palace would be the dream. And I came up with an idea for the book, But the

01:27Hawk is Dead. And I, just a short few lines, and I sent it to a senior member of the royal

01:33household. And I said, could you give this to her majesty and see what she thinks? And

01:38he said, yes, HMQ is, she's in Kenya at the moment, but I'll let, I'll go to her soon

01:44and she's back. And a week later, he emailed me and said she loved it, laughed her head

01:47off, thinks it's brilliant. Got to get it signed off by Buckingham Palace comms. And

01:52I thought, that's it, that's where it's going to go and die. And to my amazement, two days

01:56later, he emailed me and said, comms have signed it off, you're on.

01:59And that led to an extraordinary tour of the palace, didn't it? And another one just to double

02:05check at the end.

02:06Yeah, I mean, yeah, some people, there's a lot of stuff, it is obviously available on

02:11open source. But I think because I had my majesty's approval, I did get a lot of wonderful

02:19help from different members of the royal household who were really enthusiastic about

02:22the book. And I literally had a tour from the basement to all the major rooms, up on the

02:28rooftops. I mean, actually, it's a vast warren. I said to one member of the household, I said,

02:34how on earth do you ever learn your way around here? He said, well, I remember asking Prince

02:38Philip that about 15 years ago. He said, dear boy, you navigate by the paintings.

02:45And I wanted to get, I mean, obviously, the main, all the characters in the book are fictitious,

02:50except I felt that I can't have a fictitious king and queen. Everybody knows them. And it

02:56would lessen the book. So I took a big gamble in making them both real. And I had, I did talk

03:02to the queen a number of times. I even asked what she had for breakfast and how they had

03:07breakfast. And she was great. And one member of the household said to me, I've, I let them,

03:17members of the household read certain chapters in which the king or king and the queen were

03:21present. And one of them said, we've got this scene when Roy Grace is in King Charles's office

03:26and the king stands up and puts both hands in his pocket. He wouldn't do that. You know,

03:30he'd only have one hand in his pocket. So I changed it. And I had lots of little nuggets

03:37of detail like that, but I was, I was terrified having finished the book. I thought, what if

03:44Queen Kimmer doesn't like it?

03:46It's astonishing. It's one thing knowing the building, knowing their mannerisms, et cetera,

03:49but actually putting words in their mouth and imagining their breakfast scene and how they

03:54respond to each other and how they respond to Roy Grace.

03:59I know I was, I was taking a massive gamble and the enormity of it actually really hit me in,

04:05in March when the first, first time the book was together, properly together, and it had its

04:10first major edit. And I thought, what if she hates it? What if she doesn't like what I said? So I

04:18arranged for, my publishers were really enthusiastic. They bound a really early proof and they printed

04:24001 on the, on the front, like the, and I, I had it sent to her and I said, your majesty, this is the

04:30only copy in existence. It's a really early proof. If there's anything you want changed, anything at

04:36all, please let me know and we'll, and we'll do it. And I met her a week later at Clarence House

04:42and she came up to me. I didn't sleep the night before. I was so nervous. I thought, ah, she's

04:47hating it. She doesn't like the fact that I've used her and the King. She's going to make you want

04:52all kinds of changes. And arrived at Clarence House and she walked up with a big smile on her face.

04:58She said, I loved it. I said, is there anything you want changed? She said, don't change a word.

05:05That must have been a truly extraordinary moment for you.

05:08I was like flying. I was like walking on air for days and days. I still am, I think.

05:15How's it going to change Roy Grace now he's moved in these circles?

05:19He'd be trying nothing now, will he?

05:23Sorry, I missed that.

05:24How will it change Roy Grace now that he's moved in these circles? He'd be allowed to do anything, wouldn't he?

05:30Well, you know, he's definitely coming back down to earth with a bump in the, in the new one I'm now

05:35writing, which is set in a hotel in Brighton. But I think, yes, I mean, you know, I think it's an

05:41he, I mean, I tried to portray it, but he is actually in awe a little bit when, when he goes

05:47to the palace.

05:48I comes across, yeah.

05:50Glenn Branson. And just what a big responsibility it is, because, you know, without giving the story

05:57away, what happens is the Queen's traveling to Brighton on the Royal Train with her entourage

06:02to start a tour of hospices in the South Coast. And the train is derailed, Roy Grace has been

06:08warned there's a Not My King protest going on in Brighton. And the train is derailed in Clayton

06:14Tunnel. And as the Queen helps get people out of the tunnel, one of the senior members of the

06:20Royal Household is shot dead by a sniper. And everyone thinks that there's an assassination

06:25attempt on the Queen that's failed. And Roy Grace says, no, if it was a sniper, he might

06:32miss by four inches. But the guy was standing four feet from her. I don't think the Queen

06:36was the target. But it immediately puts him into conflict with the King who says, you know,

06:41who's this hillbilly hick detective from Sussex with this crazy theory? You know, why don't

06:47we have the Scotland Yard anti-terrorist squad on this and a Met? So Roy has to sort of hold

06:53his own. And then there's another murder in the palace. And suddenly people start to think,

06:56hmm, maybe he's not wrong. But it's a massive, he's on a massive responsibility. He's the one

07:01who's saying, I don't think she was the target. But it leaves a potential assassin out there.

07:08So he's carrying a massive, biggest burden of his career.

07:12Absolutely. Well, it really is a truly thrilling book. If I'm even more dozy than usual, it's

07:18your fault entirely, keeping me up reading it. It was absolutely brilliant to read.

07:23Completely thrilling. Congratulations. And lovely to speak to you.

07:27And you too.

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