Simon de Waal
Q&A with Simon de Waal (1961): writer, scriptwriter, director, and homicide detective
‘It’s a true privilege to work in a detective force and to experience what I am experiencing’
Do you consider yourself a detective, detective writer or a scriptwriter?
It’s a fun mix and I find it hard to choose. Working in homicide gives me satisfaction on a different level than writing. As a detective you can truly mean something to the victims and the next of kin. As a writer you try to give people pleasure with a book, a film or a TV series.
How does your work as a detective influence your work as a writer of novels and scenarios?
It’s an incredible privilege to work for the detective force and to experience what I’m experiencing. I started back in 1979, when the criminal world was a different one from the one we know now. I have experienced the increasing toughness of society and its crime first hand. It’s exciting to live life in the centre of the action and to see things nobody else will ever see. I know exactly what’s going on, and how criminals think and operate. On top of that, I know everything about detective work; the background and the way criminals act and think. As a detective you get to meet all sorts of people, the junkie with no prospects, the white-collar criminals and the serial killer and everyone in between. This gives me so much knowledge and inspiration for stories and characters. Everybody keeps telling me how realistic and credible they are.
How did you come up with the idea for Nemesis?
Every detective, no matter where he lives, will at some point be confronted with a case where he knows for sure who did it. But he just misses that little shred of evidence to prove it. That is so extremely frustrating and I’ve used that frustration as an inspiration for Nemesis. As a writer you often use ‘What if…’ and that’s what I’ve done in this case. What if the Nemesis-team can’t find the culprits, what if they are harassed and threatened, so that they have no other options? What if they decide to catch the culprit, no matter what? And what if it goes wrong? That’s how I started writing and I asked myself another question: What if I write a story that is far more psychological than I’ve done before. That was really the ultimate challenge.
Is Nemesis based on a true story or a case you’ve worked on yourself?
No. I don’t work that way because I just don’t want people to recognize themselves in my stories. Also, I want to be able to enter a crime-scene without people thinking I might use it for a future story. I don’t want to use other people’s grief for entertainment purposes, I never do. Of course I use real-life situations or dialogue but nobody will be able to recognize this. But the descriptions of investigations and the characters and their frustrations will also be realistic and recognizable and that gives my work a very specific trademark.
How do your single novels like Petito, Nemesis en Cops vs. Killer compare to the oeuvre of De Waal & Baantjer?
They are totally different, incomparable. The funny thing is that people find that weird. It’s because the De Waal & Baantjer-series is somewhat lighter than the ‘big’ thrillers. I myself don’t find that strange. As a screenwriter I once wrote a thriller (like Cop vs. Killer) but also a family film of a series for kids. Those are totally different styles but nobody thinks that is weird. On the contrary, I think it’s good to vary your writing, to keep it fresh and surprising. That’s why Nemesis took a while to write. You have to be a 100 per cent ready to write a book when you start. That’s why I took a break during the De Waal & Baantjer series. It should never become a trick, or something you ‘just’ write down. I you don’t write with your heart your readers will definitely notice.
Do you have international examples you compare yourself with?
Oh no, I would never compare myself to anyone. I can give you the names of writers I like to read. The early work of Patricia Cornwell about Kay Scarpetta, Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell, the old Sjowall & Wahloo stuff and Michael Connelly. And I am forgetting quite a lot of others here.
What was it like to direct the film based on your own book, Cop vs. Killer?
That was a tremendous experience, although the occasion was rather sad. They original director had fallen ill after three days of filming and so the producer asked me to step in because nobody else would be able to grasp the script at such short notice. And because they would never be able to get that same fantastic cast back together again. So I jumped into the deep end and I had the time of my life on the set. It was — apart form the sad occasion — an experience to cherish. And apparently people liked the result so the producer asked me to direct another film. I’m writing the script for that one as we speak, it’s called The Fear of God. If all goes well, and of course you never know, we could start shooting next year.
This year you wrote a special book for the so-called Thrilling Books Weeks. A gift called Vector, for all the people who bought a thriller during those weeks. They printed 400.000 copies. What was that like?
Fantastic! But also very exciting. It’s a great honour to be asked, but it’s also a tremendous burden on your shoulders. It’s a free book, with an enormous circulation so obviously you have to come up with something good. I didn’t make it easy for myself; the challenge was not to include any police in the book. I wanted to write a story a la Hitchcock, where a regular guy is trapped in what looks like a huge international conspiracy. Even before it was published it was awarded a five star review by one of our leading magazines. More good reviews followed, so eventually I was able to spend these weeks as a relaxed and happy person.
