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One of Crime Time's favourite writers on his contribution to the new Mira anthology edited by Clive Cussler, Thriller 2...

I think I was at ThrillerFest in New York when someone nobbled me and said, 'Why don't you write short stories?' Well, primarily because no one ever asked me. Or more truthfully nagged me. But when Clive Cussler's editing the book and there's a bunch of top-name Americans in there it's hard to say no. So that's where The Circle, the first short story I've ever written, came from.

It's not set in Italy. It has no Romans in it. If I was to write something different it had to be different all round. So this is a story set in London, largely on a tube line I used to know well, the Circle. A story about an everyday incident and where it goes: a young woman finds herself alone with a foreign-looking man with a rucksack. There's a glint in his eye. Finally he says, 'They'll remember me.'

That seemed like a good beginning to me. I hope it manages to hold its own among such fine company.