MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/. British crime fiction writer Peter James is interested in the Salisbury events but has no plans to write a book based on them as of now, as he himself said at a TASS press conference dedicated to the release of the Russian translation of his latest novel Dead If You Don't.
"Generally, I’ve kept away from political issues to some extent but I find that any crime like that is fascinating, it’s fascinated the English public. I don’t shy away from many subjects and I think that as a writer you should be open to whatever, but I have my next three Roy Grace novels planned out already so it will be somewhere down the line if I was going to write that issue," James said in response to a TASS question.
"I think there is no subject that a writer should ever shy away from writing but I am always researching and planning several years ahead… so I didn’t have anything in my immediate plans to look at that but it’ll be interesting to see how it all resolves," the writer added.
Peter James, the author of a series of novels featuring Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling writer. His books have been translated to 37 languages, their total circulation exceeds 19 mln.
Skripal saga
According to London, former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergei Skripal, 66, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and later swapped for Russian intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia, 33, suffered the effects of an alleged nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury on March 4. Claiming that the substance used in the attack had been a Novichok-class nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union, London rushed to accuse Russia of being involved in the incident.
Moscow rejected all of the United Kingdom’s accusations, saying that neither the Soviet Union nor Russia ever had any program aimed at developing such a substance.
On September 5, British Prime Minister Theresa May informed the country’s parliament about the conclusions that investigators looking into the Salisbury incident had come to, saying that two Russians, believed to be GRU agents, were suspected of conspiracy to murder the Skripals. According to May, the assassination attempt was approved at "a senior level of the Russian state." The Metropolitan Police published the suspects’ photos, saying their names were Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.
In an interview with Russia’s RT TV channel released on September 13, Petrov and Boshirov said they had visited Great Britain for tourist purposes. According to them, they are businessmen not linked to the GRU and have nothing to do with the Skripal case.