In His Words

"I have always considered a good crime novel / suspense story / thriller to be an achievement at least as solid as a mediocre serious novel. This is truer than ever today, when novelists, in their search for new horizons, have moved into the realms of surrealism; crime writers are increasingly filling the gap to meet the demand for good old-fashioned story-telling, and some have achieved a depth and insight worthy of the best 'straight' novelists. So, while I accept the limitations imposed by the genre, I hope one day to be able to extend them.

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The starting point for all the books I have written -- and perhaps the key by which any one of them might be described -- is a setting. Often it is a place with a background of some political or social instability which I like to examine in some detail and which gives an undertone of tension to the narrative. One critic (writing in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) said, "Driscoll weaves a tight drama of suspense and adventure around an existing social-political situation." My first book, The White Lie Assignment, was set in the Greek-Albanian border country; the story of The Wilby Conspiracy unfolded against the background of apartheid in South Africa; In Connection with Kilshaw dealt with the troubles in Northern Ireland; The Barboza Credentials was set in newly-independent Mozambique.

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Beyond the obvious elements of conflict, action, and suspense, what I try hardest to communicate are authenticity, atmosphere, and -- an elusive but essential ingredient -- the quality of fear. That, after all, is what every thriller ought to be about."

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("Peter Driscoll", Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers, 1991)