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Hi, welcome to my website. I'm a half-English, half-Kiwi author living in London, where I'm best known for writing thrillers and undertaking the odd car rally - my first was 13,250 miles London to Saigon in a Lada, my last 14,400 miles around South America in something far more sensible: a Toyota 4X4.
You'd think being a petrol head I wouldn't care about the environment, but oddly enough the opposite is true. Two of my books have decidedly green themes, and I always make sure the wildlife isn't badly treated, even the sharks.
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'Well-researched, shocking, moving and exciting, Gone Without Trace shows that a British writer can take on the most vigorous of the Americans.'
Times Literary Supplement
For me, one of the joys of writing is the research. When I started out, I used to be amazed at how easily doors opened until I realised how much people wanted me to get the facts right. I've talked to a huge variety of people from the Royal Military Police to Greenpeace, MI6 and Nato. I've interviewed Alaskan husky sled drivers and state troopers, sea plane pilots and harbourmasters, and been humbled and inspired not just by their extraordinary lifestyles, but by their heroism.
I like to visit the places I write about. How else could I have described the three green tree frogs clinging to the faucet in my heroine's bathroom in Queensland, Australia, or the hand-written note taped across the loo seat saying: Keep shut to keep frogs out?
'I loved it. Hard, fast and real - a solid gold A-grade thriller with a tremendous story and a great lead character . . . Captain Jay McCaulay is going to be one of the best.'
Lee Child
People often ask me if there's a difference between thrillers written by women and those written by men, and in my opinion women are no more or less capable of writing a cracking good thriller than a man is of writing a passionate romance.
As C J Carver, will anyone guess my gender from my text? Hmmm. Perhaps I should conduct some kind of test to find out.
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For me, it doesn't matter who the writer is as long as the book thrills. I read voraciously, and as long as I'm consumed by believable characters, a tight plot, an unrelentingly fast pace and lots of realistic action, then I'm a happy bunny. And since I write what I like to read, I guess my books reflect that.
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Jay McCaulay, C. J. Carver's tough, tender ex-army officer, first met in Gone Without Trace, was voted into the top 5 best female detectives by The Times, March 2008.
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