Five on Friday with David Jackson @Author_Dave #crimefiction #fiveonfriday

Today I’m delighted to feature international, crime thriller author David Jackson. His latest book The Resident hit the shelves yesterday, so congratulations and good luck to David.

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About David

David Jackson’s debut novel, Pariah, was Highly Commended in the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Awards. He has written a string of internationally published crime thrillers since then, including the bestseller Cry Baby, nominated by Amazon as one of their Best Books of the Year. The Guardian newspaper said of his work: ‘Recalls Harlan Coben – though for my money Jackson is the better writer’. When not murdering fictional people, David spends his time as a university lecturer or giving writing workshops. He lives on the Wirral with his family and a cat called Mr Tumnus.

Over to David

Which 5 pieces of music/songs would you include in the soundtrack to your life and why?

Love Will Tear Us Apart Again, Joy Division – When I was a young man going through all the usual angst of dealing with relationships, this song really resonated.

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Roberta Flack – Another relationship song, but with more positive connotations. Sentimental chap that I am, I played it to my wife on a deserted beach on the Isle of Mull for our wedding anniversary.

Bach Suite for Cello Solo No. 1 in G, John Williams – I spent many, many hours trying to learn classical guitar. This piece was one of my more ambitious goals. I haven’t played for years because being stuck in that curious pose gave me a bad back.

One Day Like This, Elbow – This is such a stirring, beautiful, positive song, especially welcome in the current circumstances (a lockdown during a pandemic)

She’s Leaving Home, The Beatles – Being from Liverpool, I had to include a Beatles song. This one is particularly poignant at the moment with one of my daughters about to get married and the other at university.

What 5 things (apart from family and friends) you’d find it hard to live without.

Chocolate – Goes without saying, right?

A computer – I’m a writer. I need my writing and research tools. Plus, I sometimes feel the need to connect with other people.

Television – For sheer escapism.

A quiet place – I need this to write. No music for me when I’m working.

Books – Of course.

Can you offer 5 pieces of advice you’d give to your younger self?

Try writing – I was a latecomer to writing fiction. I’ve done okay with it, and now I wish I’d started much earlier in life.

Don’t compare yourself with others – You can always find others who seem to be doing better than you (even though that might not be true). Don’t go looking for them. If you must compare, then compare yourself now with how things used to be for you. Your own trajectory is the only thing that matters.

Don’t procrastinate – I’d hate to tot up the amount of time I’ve spent occupying myself with things to distract from the real work at hand. Get on with it, younger David!

Let things go – I have a habit of turning things over and over in my mind, often to no avail. Much better to accept that what is done is done, and to move on.

Always be nice – I try to be nice as much as I can, but in my younger days I definitely deserved a slap for some of the things I said or did that were hurtful to others. It costs nothing to be nice, and we could all do with bigger helpings of it at the moment.

Tell us 5 things that most people don’t know about you.

I have a PhD in computer science – People tend to think that fiction writers have educational backgrounds in English or literature, and so are often surprised to hear that I’m a scientist by profession. True to the mad scientist stereotype, you can often find me breeding and evolving computer programs.

I went to the same school as Paul McCartney and George Harrison (though not at the same time) – It’s no longer a secondary school: Paul McCartney converted it to the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

I hate marzipan – It’s the devil’s work.

I write my novels in one draft – I am often loathe to admit this, because there is so much advice out there about multiple drafts and constant rewriting. However, I have discovered in recent years that there are quite a few of us who work in this way. Of course, my draft isn’t regarded as final by everyone: ask my editor!

I once broke into a derelict house – At the start of THE RESIDENT, Brogan seeks refuge in an abandoned house. I’d almost forgotten that I’d done the research for this many years ago. Perhaps the less said about it, the better.

Tell us 5 things you’d like to do or achieve.

Become a better writer – It doesn’t matter how successful you are, there is always room for improvement. For me, one of the joys of reading is discovering authors who are so much more talented than myself.

Get on the Times bestseller list – I don’t mind where on the list. Just squeeze me in near the bottom somewhere.

See one of my books adapted for film or TV – One of the highlights of the past year was having a three-way phone call with my new film and TV agents in New York and Hollywood. I don’t know what will come of it, but if they can’t get me a deal, nobody can.

Win an award for my writing – I’ve come close, with a ‘Highly Commended’ accolade in the CWA Debut Dagger Awards, but getting my hands on a trophy would be amazing.

See more of the world – I love travelling and discovering new places and people. I can’t wait for the world to open up again so that I can explore more of what it has to offer.

Many thanks for joining us today David. I love your music choice, She’s Leaving Home made it into my Beatles top five, so always happy to see that one and Elbow, well, just perfect. Then you started with chocolate in your things you couldn’t live without and than added books, I thought we might have been separated at birth (albeit by quite a few years) but you hate marzipan!! We’ll just have to be friends instead when we get the chance to meet 🤣. Hope you get to achieve some, if not all of your dreams, that film adaptation sounds promising.

David’s Books

(NB contains affiliate links, for more information see here)

Standalone

The Resident

THERE’S A SERIAL KILLER ON THE RUN
AND HE’S HIDING IN YOUR HOUSE

Thomas Brogan is a serial killer. Having left a trail of bodies in his wake, and with the police hot on his heels, it seems like Thomas has nowhere left to hide. That is until he breaks into an abandoned house at the end of a terrace on a quiet street. And when he climbs up into the loft, he realises that the can drop down into all the other houses on the street through the shared attic space.

That’s when the real fun begins. Because the one thing that Thomas enjoys even more than killing, is playing games with his victims. And his new neighbours have more than enough dark secrets to make this game his best one yet…

Do you fear The Resident? Soon you’ll be dying to meet him.

The New York series featuring Detective Callum Doyle

pariah Pariah (book 1)

WHAT IF THE BIGGEST THREAT TO THOSE YOU LOVE WAS YOURSELF?

Introducing Detective Callum Doyle, in David Jackson’s gripping and acclaimed debut novel

Where can you turn when your very presence brings death to those around you?

That’s the question Detective Callum Doyle is about to face. It begins with the calculated murder of his partner on a vacant lot. But more death is to follow, and when the chilling anonymous messages arrive, Doyle is left in no doubt that this is about him.

You cannot go near your friends, your colleagues, or even your family. Because if you do… they will be killed.

To save others, Doyle is forced to cut himself off from society. But with the investigation getting nowhere and his isolation becoming unbearable, Doyle has to ask himself how much he’s willing to sacrifice to get his life back.

the helper

The Helper (book 2)

An anonymous caller is willing to give you clues that will help you solve a series of murders.

But there’s a catch: You can’t tell anyone about the help you’re getting.

What do you do?

If you turn the offer down, you will have nothing to go on, and more people could die.
But if you accept it, and fail to interpret the clues correctly, they will still die, and you will have concealed information that could have stopped a killer.

Such is the dilemma faced by New York detective Callum Doyle.

The decision he takes will have consequences that will haunt him for the rest of his life.

marked Marked (book 3)

In New York’s East Village a young girl is brutally raped, tortured and murdered. Detective Callum Doyle has seen the victim’s remains. He has visited the distraught family. Now he wants justice.

Doyle is convinced he knows who the killer is. The problem is he can’t prove it. And the more he pushes his prime suspect, the more he learns that the man is capable of pushing back in ways more devious and twisted than Doyle could ever have imagined.

Add to that the appearance of an old adversary who has a mission for Doyle and won’t take no for an answer, and soon Doyle finds himself at risk of losing everything he holds dear. Including his life.

cry baby

Cry Baby (book 4)

It’s every mother’s nightmare – the abduction of her baby.

That’s how it starts for Erin Vogel when she is attacked and left unconscious in her apartment. When she awakes, it is to find that Georgia, her six-month-old daughter, has been taken.

But Erin is given a chance to get Georgia back. At an unthinkable price.

Like most mothers, she has always said she would do anything for her child. Now the strength of that bond is about to be put to the ultimate test.

And when her actions arouse the interest of a certain Detective Callum Doyle, one thing is inevitable: a confrontation that will be as explosive as it is unforgettable.

The Liverpool Series featuring DS Nathan Cody

A Tapping at my Door (book 1)

A deadly game of cat and mouse – and the police aren’t the ones doing the hunting. A gripping new serial killer thriller from the bestselling author of Cry Baby

When police are called to a murder scene in the Liverpool suburbs, even the most jaded officers are disturbed by what they find.

DS Nathan Cody, still bearing the scars of an undercover mission that went horrifyingly wrong, is put on the case. But the police have no leads, except the body of the bird – and the victim’s missing eyes.

And then the killer strikes again, and Cody realises the threat isn’t to the people of Liverpool after all – it’s to the police.

Hope to Die (book 2)

CROSS YOUR HEART AND . . . HOPE TO DIE

A gripping serial killer thriller, perfect for fans of Mark Billingham, Peter James and M. J. Arlidge.

There was a hate in this killer. A thirst for obliteration rather than a mere desire to end a life . . .

A brutal murder takes place in the grounds of a Liverpool cathedral. A killer is on the loose, driven by a chilling rage. The victim: the last person you’d expect to be subjected to such terrible violence. Can DS Nathan Cody crack the case before another innocent is chosen?

don't make a sound Don’t Make a Sound (book 3)

You can’t choose your family. Or can you?

Meet the Bensons. They’re an ordinary couple. They wash their car, mow their lawn and pass the time of day with their neighbours. And they have a beautiful little girl called Daisy.

There’s just one problem.

SHE’S NOT THEIRS.

D. S. Nathan Cody is about to face his darkest and most terrifying case yet . . .

Your Deepest Fear (book 4)

‘Sara! Remember! Victoria and Albert. All I can say. They’re here. They’re-‘

These are the last words Sara Prior will ever hear from her husband.

As DS Nathan Cody struggles to make sense of the enigmatic message and solve the brutal murder, it soon becomes clear that Sara is no ordinary bereaved wife. Taking the investigation into her own hands, Sara is drawn into a world of violence that will lead her in a direction she would never have suspected.

For Cody, meanwhile, things are about to get personal in the darkest and most twisted ways imaginable .

You can follow David via

His website

Twitter