SEEING his work on stage is a dream come true for novelist Peter James. The international best selling author spoke to Freetime about The Perfect Murder, which is coming to Aylesbury this month.

Peter James has had huge success with his Roy Grace detective novels and this summer released his tenth book in the award winning crime series.

But funnily enough when it came to adapting The Perfect Murder they decided to add Roy Grace into the show, as he didn't feature in the book.

The book was the obvious choice for Peter's first stage adaptation as it is a novella and fairly short and leant itself to the theatre.

He said: "I was heavily involved in the whole process. I didn't want to adapt it myself. I think that writing stage plays is very much a specialist craft in its own right.

"It is very hard to adapt your own work."

He worked with stage adaptor Shaun McKenna and director Ian Talbot, which said has been a dream.

A different ending is introduced, as is Roy Grace.

Peter said: "He wasn't in the original novella. In my novels in the first book he is 39, coming up to 40. We set this when he was in his late 20s.

"The hardest thing was to find a credible young Grace that would not put off my fans."

And he said they have been lucky in finding Steven Miller who stared in the last tour and Thomas Howes (Downton Abbey) who is playing Grace in the current tour.

The Royal's Robert Daws plays Victor Smiley and Dawn Steele (Monarch of the Glen) takes on the role of wife Joan. Gray O'Brien (Coronation Street) returns as Don Kirk and Simona Armstrong (How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria) as Kamila.

The play focuses on the marriage of Victor and his wife as it reaches crisis point and Victor has decided there is only one way to get Joan out of his life forever Unbeknown to him, he is not the only one thinking about murder. Detective Roy Grace starts to investigate his very first homicide case.

Peter said about the play: "I have seen it about 20 times going around to where it is on and doing events. I am still not bored of watching it.

"When I was a kid my parents used to have regular seats every Thursday night at the Theatre Royal Brighton.

"I used to sit there at eight or nine-years-old and would dream that there was something I had written on.

"When it finally happened with The Perfect Murder it was just amazing. I sat watching the audience for most of it.

"At the end of the play I went on the stage with the cast- I could hardly speak. I was choked with emotion."

Peter's background is in the film industry and he had previously worked with producer Joshua Andrews, who left to go into the theatre world.

They bumped into each other in November 2012.

Peter said: "He said about the tremendous success with the Agatha Christie plays and he said, 'You are probably the nearest thing to a living Agatha Christie, have you ever thought about having something adapted for the theatre?'

"I said, 'It has been a dream all my life. Let's do it.'"

They decided to adapt three of the books. The second, Dead Simple, is coming to the stage in January and the third one is undecided.

And the character Roy Grace is based on a real person- Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Gaylor.

It was when Peter and his wife's home was burgled that a young detective came to his house and spotted a spy novel which Peter had published and which he said was "very bad".

The couple became friendly with the detective and his wife and went to lots of social occasions with police.

Peter said: "I got friendly with these characters and they realised I was genuinely interested and said 'Oh, there's a homicide detective you ought to meet. Dave Gaylor. You'll find him interesting,'

"I went to his office and every inch of his floor was covered with blue and green crates bursting with folders. And there was this homicide detective, Dave Gaylor and he said: 'These are my dead friends.'

"I thought, 'Great, who is this weirdo?' But he said he had just been tasked with opening all these unsolved murders in the county.

"He said: 'Each one of these crates contains the last chance for each of these victims to have justice and their families to have closure.'"

Since that first meeting he has helped Peter with his crime novels.

Peter said: "I love writing. I feel very privileged to make a living out of something I love. To be able to see my work transferred to the stage is simply exciting."

The Perfect Murder is at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre from October 20 to 25 at 7.30pm, with Thu and Sat matinees at 2.30pm. Tickets are £10 to £32.50 when booked in person at the box office or for full details when booking on-line or over the phone visit www.atgtickets.com/aylesbury (bkg fee) or call 0844 8717607.