'I found out Queen is a fan of my crime thrillers - and now she has a starring role in one of them'

BEST-SELLING AUTHOR ON UNEXPECTED AND INTRIGUING TURN OF EVENTS IN WRITING OF HIS LATEST ADVENTURE

- By MARTIN NEAL

Queen Camilla is quite the fan of Peter James' crime thrillers

WHEN bestselling author Peter James discovered Queen Camilla was a huge fan of his popular Roy Grace crime thrillers, it led to regular correspondence between the pair.

Now, after one thing led to another, the Queen is taking a leading role alongside her favourite fictional detective in the latest Grace adventure - The Hawk is Dead.

The book - released by Macmillan on October 21 - sees DS Grace go behind the scenes at Buckingham Palace after the Royal Train, with Queen Camilla on board, derails and a senior member of the royal household is shot dead.

Fans can meet the author and get a signed copy at a Toppings Ely meet-and-greet book signing event at the Lighthouse Auditorium, Ely, on October 23 (7pm start).

Explaining how he first became aware that Camilla was a fan, the author said: “It was 2016 and I got an email one morning that said ‘whatever you're doing, stop, and buy a copy of the Daily Mail.

“So I did and on page three was Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, in her office with two Roy Grace books. She said I was one of her two favourite authors - Jane Austen was her other.

“I wrote to her and said ‘thank you so much’ and she wrote a really chatty letter back, saying ‘I love them, I've read every single one, when's the next one coming out?’

“I got into correspondence with her and I'd send her an early copy of each new book. She'd always write a chatty letter back - she wrote one saying, ‘I finished it on my endless journey to Australia, what on earth am I going to read on the journey home now?”

Since first appearing in Dead Simple back in 2005, Grace has used his meticulous and intuitive policing skills to bring members of Brighton's violent underworld to justice in 23 novels.

He has also been brought to life on the stage and also in the hit ITV drama series Grace, starring John Sim.