Peter James has been shortlisted for the prestigious Wellcome Trust Book award for his stand alone thriller PERFECT PEOPLE, which enters the sinister world of designer babies. The Wellcome Trust Book Prize awards fiction and non-fiction titles that centre around the theme of health, illness and medicine. They aim to encourage interest and excitement about medicine and literature, and reach audiences that do not normally read about medicine or science. For more information on the Wellcome Trust Book award, please click here.
Peter James says: 'I spent twelve years researching and writing this book, and much though I love my Roy Grace novels, PERFECT PEOPLE has a very special place in my heart. To be shortlisted for such a prestigious award thrills and humbles me; I feel I am walking among giants.'
The judging panel will be chaired by Radio 4's Mark Lawson, and the winner of the £25,000 prize will be announced on 7 November.
Praise for PERFECT PEOPLE:
'Brilliantly done, the emotional credibility of the characters is as good as it gets. There's a movie in this book.' -- Jeff Park, 'Front Row', BBC Radio
'Peter James is acknowledged as being one of the top thriller writers in the UK, and his series of crime novels featuring DI Roy Grace are the best of the current genre. But in his new novel PERFECT PEOPLE he has proved he can depart from the formula and break the mould... From the moment they meet the sinister geneticist who offers to create a new child from their cells, the pages just keep on turning themselves. The ending is so horrifyingly scary that I was unable to sleep properly for several nights.' -- Joan Collins, The Mail on Sunday
'James takes a break from his Roy Grace crime series with this excellent standalone thriller...James writes beautifully, maintaining the pace with short, punchy chapters. But it's his firm grasp of the moral issues surrounding designer babies that makes PERFECT PEOPLE so satisfying - and so unsettling.' -- John O'Connell, The Guardian