James McCreet

James McCreet (born 22 December 1971) is a novelist. His first book, The Incendiary’s Trail, is a Victorian detective thriller set in London. The sequel, which continues the series, is due to be published in July 2010 and is entitled The Vice Society. McCreet is currently writing the third in the series.

Biography

James McCreet was born in Sheffield. He studied English and American Literature at the University of East Anglia, where his twin preoccupations were Shakespeare and the novels of Ian Fleming. He also completed a Masters degree at the University of Sussex. Since then, he has lived in Norwich, Maidstone, Brighton, Harrogate and Leeds, as well as a number of years living abroad in Greece, China and Poland. He has worked as a teacher, a bookseller, an editor, a copywriter, a journalist and a holiday rep. He is married and lives in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Works

McCreet’s debut novel for Macmillan New Writing imprint was The Incendiary’s Trail, published in June 2009. The author has since written that book almost wasn’t published: “I think it was October 2007 that I sent the manuscript in – emailed from Harrogate public library. I heard nothing back and assumed it had been rejected. But in February 2008 I sent it in again. That’s when I was told the novel had excited some interest back in October but that my contact details had been misplaced. If I hadn’t tried again in February, it might never have happened.”

McCreet’s second book (due for publication in June 2010) is entitled The Vice Society and is the next installment in a series featuring the same characters and locations as the first book.

In September 2009, McCreet confirmed on his website that a third book in the series (as yet untitled) had been commissioned: “I have just agreed to write a third book for Pan Macmillan and I’m in the middle of that now. As you might expect, Williamson, Dyson and Newsome et al are discovering that the secrets of London are inexhaustible.”

Influences

Though he has been compared to Charles Dickens in tone and subject , McCreet has often said that his main influence is Edgar Allan Poe , a copy of whose stories was one of two books owned by the author while teaching in China (the other was Moby [...]). He has also listed other writers: “Umberto Eco for his ideas and the way he blends history, philosophy and literature. James Ellroy for his distinctive voice. Elmore Leonard for his perfect prose. Kurt Vonnegut for the way his personality comes through in his writing. Ian Fleming for his inner boy. Herman Melville for Moby [...] – a book in which the author luxuriates in his writing. Henry Miller, who made being a writer the subject he wrote about. I’m not sure any of them influence my writing in a perceptible sense. They represent standards to aim at.”