Paul Charles doesn t look like a killer, in fact he looks like the kindly, fatherly guy next door, but you know what they say...

Before he began his career as a crime author, Charles was one of the music industry s most successful agents and promoters, with acts like Van Morrisson, Tom Waits and The Blue Nile on the books of his Asgard agency. Now he divides his time between his business interests and writing crime fiction. His latest offering, The Ballad of Sian and Wilko, concerns the (mis)fortunes of reformed seventies rockers The Circles, and features the return of his gumshoe anti-hero Detective Inspector Christy Kennedy. As usual, the action takes place amidst London s music scene, and makes use of real locations, but the big question is: are the situations also based on fact?
To an extent , Paul smiles, in that I do draw on my experience of the business, but I also use imagination to ask what if and expand on that. I ve never had a client murdered, and I ve never been punched by a client who recognises themselves in the books, but there are little snippets of some of the personalities I ve come across.
Originally from Northern Ireland, Charles re-located to London at the height of the swinging sixties, desperate to become involved in show business, and, as he admits he has no musical talent whatever, management and promotion seemed to be the way forward. A combination of hard work and luck led to the founding of his own agency; thirty years on he is in a position to reflect on a lot of changes.
The music industry has changed immensely, in that it s no longer run by music fans, he says. Nowadays marketing is the keyword, and talent and innovation take second, or third, or fourth place. There s so much money involved that record companies are unwilling to take chances, and that limits the scope of music that the public ultimately hear. Of course in other ways it hasn t changed at all, musicians and artists will always be seduced by the chance to step into the limelight, and many will do just about anything to get there, that obviously hasn t changed, but it s a slippery slope.
A lifelong crime-writing fan who also collects first editions of the likes of Ruth Rendell, P D James and Ian Rankin, Charles initial efforts at writing were rejected by no less than twenty-two publishers.
That s true, he admits, but one of those publishers was kind enough to invite me to lunch and explained what about my first book worked for her, and what didn t. The character of Christy Kennedy was well received, but the first book wasn t based within the music industry, and it was put to me that I should write what I know. The second book was snapped up by that publisher, and the re-written version of the first novel was accepted shortly after.
His latest offering is the fourth in the series, with a fifth on the way. The series has also been optioned by a television company, for a Frost/Morse type serial. So who s gonna play tea-drinking, confused-in-love, Beatles fanatic DI Kennedy? It s gotta be Stephen Rea for God s sake
Jesus, you sound like Denis Desmond, he laughs, but I doubt it ll be up to me
A lovely, modest man for a killer, I mean.
The Ballad of Sian and Wilco is published now in paperback from New Island books.