Crafting an ending

I’m near the end of the first full draft of my new novel, The dead can lie. It’s about Greg, a criminologist whose wife was killed by a serial killer known as the Dreamer. A year after her death, Greg has no new leads, and is close to ending it all, when he receives a phone call that changes everything. But he is then framed for his own wife’s murder.

I didn’t intend to write this book, I had something else in mind, but it kind of insisted.…

Black holes and writing strategies

As a thriller writer, whether action or psychological, the beginning and end of a novel are not usually the danger zones. It’s the middle. That’s the part when things can slow down or get confusing, and the reader can put the book down and begin searching on Netflix… So, you need something to keep the reader, and even the writer, going full steam ahead. And what is more attracting and compulsive than a black hole?

The theory is simple. Whether using a three, four or even five-act structure, there need to be big events, cruxes at the pivotal points, that pull the reader in, make them gasp and think ‘No no no!…

Duelling psychologists…the dead can lie (extract)

I’m working on the new novel, The dead can lie, about Greg Adams, a criminal psychologist whose wife was murdered by a serial killer. A year on, Greg has got nowhere trying to track down the ‘Dreamer’, and comes close to blowing his brains out, when gets a new lead.

I thought I’d show an extract, as people keep asking me what I’m working on. This book is quite different from the Nadia series, as the action is all on the inside, so to speak, as it’s a psychological thriller, though there is some action particularly at the climax of the book.…