'I'm improvising line by line...it really suits me'

Stories Behind The Stories, he gives the background to the 24 novels he wrote solo. The 25th was his first collaboration with Andrew Child, youngest of his three brothers, and four more have followed.

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ALL IN THE JEANS Alan Ritchson with his Allen, who writes the Reacher books

(Picture: JIMENA PECK)

Unusually, rather than plan his plots in advance, he works around key points, making up the story as he goes - much like Miles Davis's modal jazz.

"Yes! I'm improvising line by line, which really suits me. As a reader, I love the feeling that you can't wait for what happens next. If I'd known exactly where the story was going, it'd be boring."

He recalls reading Ovid's tale about Theseus and the minotaur at school, and reading Doctor No on the bus home.

"It was the same story in every detail. That's when I realised there aren't that many plots, so it's all about suspense and characters."

He said he didn't actually think about how a book is constructed until he read a John D MacDonald thriller at an airport in 1988. "I could see what he was doing and why. I could see the blueprint. It was an epiphany."