Michael Robotham

And I think it's like putting on a favourite pair of slippers and slipping into your favourite armchair and you feel as though you are back with an old friend.

Yeah, but I think, but that's true, but that again is, who would you like to lead you into those very dark places other than someone you know and you trust to bring you out again in one piece?

I think, well, because I never intended him to be a serious character.

I was going to write standalones, you know, a la John Grisham.

And I gave him in the very first novel, The Suspect, early onset Parkinson's.

He was at that stage 40 years old.

And I've aged him in real time over the course of 14 years.

And so he's had Parkinson's now for 14 years.

So in a sense, you're right, I created a use-by date.

But I guess I wanted a character who had a brilliant mind but a crumbling body.

He was going to be the antithesis of Jack Reacher or James Bond or Jason Bourne.

He was going to have to outthink the villain.

I have.

No, it's been quite wonderful.

You know, I feel a bit embarrassed at times at how flippantly I gave my main character this terrible affliction with Parkinson's because I didn't know a great deal about it.

Obviously...

In the years and books since I've done tremendous amount of research, I get contacted by dozens and dozens of people, you know, every month who have Parkinson's or who are caring for someone with Parkinson's.

And I've become involved in Parkinson's New South Wales, the charity.

I've auctioned off several names as a name in the other wife of someone who donated very generously to Parkinson's New South Wales.

I do, I guess.