More Champagne, Mister Child?

Bestselling thriller author Lee Child is due to uncork the champagne once again as Nothing to Lose, his latest Jack Reacher novel, tops The New York Times bestseller lists. From The Observer:

Fired from his job at Granada Television at the age of 40, Lee Child was suddenly on the scrapheap with a family to support. Refusing to panic, he spent £3.99 on paper and pencils with the ambition of writing the biggest-selling book in the world’s biggest market: America.

Thirteen years later, Child reaches the summit today when his 12th novel, Nothing to Lose, starring his anti-hero Jack Reacher, goes straight to number one in the New York Times hardback fiction list, 10 places ahead of Sebastian Faulks's James Bond rework Devil May Care. It is the culmination of a breakthrough year in which he has also had the number one paperback in America and topped both charts in Britain -- a quadruple thought to be unique for a crime writer.

In 2008, the paperback release of Bad Luck and Trouble hit the number one slot at both the London and New York Times. The hardcover release of Nothing to Lose has done the same.

The Observer sums up Child’s popularity:

His success was assured from the moment he submitted his first manuscript in March 1995, according to his agent, Darley Anderson. “My reader and I knew we just had hit gold dust. I told everybody at the time I had a number one bestselling author. Lee thought very, very big: his idea from the start was to conquer America. I wish more Brits were thinking on that scale.”

Veteran writer Frederick Forsyth said: “Reacher is clearly going to be another Bond-type character. Maybe the American Bond. They’ve always longed for one of their own. How funny if it’s created by a Brit.”

The Observer piece is here.