Alex Knight Q&A

Janet Emson at the fab From First Page to Last blog kindly asked me to do a Q&A on Darkness Falls. 

You can read it below, or better still go over to From First Page to Last and read it along with some other great interviews.

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1. Tell us a little about Darkness Falls

It opens with the protagonist, Thessaly, driving on the highway late at night in Pennsylvania. She stops for a break at a 24-hour diner and hears a voice she recognises in the booth behind her. It’s the voice of the man who killed her brother 20 years ago, and then disappeared. Is it really him? Where has he been hiding all this time? Thessaly has to make a split-second decision of what to do, and her choice draws her into a dangerous mystery…

2. What inspired the book?

I’m always fascinated by those chance meetings and coincidences that happen in real life. Like you can be on holiday thousands of miles away and run into someone who’s related to your best friend from high school. I thought it would be an interesting hook if one of those coincidences brought a survivor of a traumatic event into contact with the perpetrator, and what lengths she might go to to get resolution.

3. Are you a plan, plan, plan writer or do you sit down and see where the words take you?

Kind of a bit of both. I like to write out a 4-page synopsis that has the main beats of the story, the characters, important scenes, and hopefully an ending, but it’s not set in stone at that point. The book always changes and develops as I write it, and I often come up with a completely different ending. That was the case with this one, which went from a climax set in New York’s Grand Central Station to a more intimate ending with four people in a house. I think lockdown may have influenced that change!

4. Having been through the publishing process a number of times, is there anything about the process of creating a novel that still surprises?

Really just that it doesn’t get any easier. Each novel is a struggle and it feels like it’s not going to work, but you just have to push through and trust you’ll be able to do it again.

5. What do you do when you aren’t writing? What do you do to relax and get away from it all?

I like to read and watch movies, of course, but I also love getting outside and going for walks and runs. When the world gets back to normal, I’d like to go back to travelling again. I love visiting cities and exploring them on foot and by train.

6. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life which book would it be?

Too difficult! It would have to be a big book so I could take my time with it. I love Raymond Chandler, and the Everyman edition of his collected stories is pretty chunky, so I’ll go with that.

7. I like to end my Q&As with the same question so here we go. During all the Q&As and interviews you’ve done what question have you not been asked that you wish had been asked – and what’s the answer?

Good question!

How about… Could you get away with a murder in real life?

To which the answer is, probably not as I’m pretty disorganised, don’t plan in enough detail and I wouldn’t have the ability to go back and edit the things I did wrong or the inconsistencies in my alibi. If my editor helped me from the beginning on the other hand…

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Twenty years ago, her brother was murdered. Tonight, she’s found his killer.

Thessaly Hanlon is four hours into a long drive home through the night when she pulls into a 24-hour roadside diner to take a break. She’s exhausted, but when she hears a chillingly familiar voice from the next booth, she wonders if he’ll ever sleep again.

The voice is unmistakable. It belongs to Casper Sturgis, the man who murdered Thessaly’s brother two decades before, and then disappeared without a trace.

Thessaly makes the decision to follow the killer. As Thessaly begins to unravel the second life of Casper Sturgis, she finds that digging into the past can have deadly consequences…

Buy Darkness Falls

Hunted - US publication day

Hunted, my first standalone book under the Alex Knight pseudonym is out today from all good bookstores in the USA.

I had a lot of fun writing it, particularly as the research took me to one of the cities I love most, San Francisco, and beyond to explore northern California. So far, people seem to like it. 

You can read chapter one on the Alex Knight website, and if you like it, you can get the book from these places:

Indiebound

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Audible

You can also order Hunted wherever you are with free worldwide postage from Book Depository.

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You’re woken early by banging on the door. It’s a young girl, the daughter of the love of your life. She’s scared, covered in blood, she says her mother is hurt.

You let her in, try to calm her down, tell her you’re going to get help. You reach for your phone, but it lights up with a notification before you touch it.

It’s an Amber alert, sent to all four million phones in the Bay Area – a child has been abducted by a dangerous suspect.

The child is the girl standing in front of you.

The suspect?

You.

Darkness Falls

 The new Alex Knight book is published on September 16 in the UK. It's called Darkness Falls. This is another standalone, following on from Hunted, and I think you'll like it.

It starts out on a quiet highway at 2am. 

Thessaly Hanlon is driving back from a funeral through the driving rain when she pulls into an all-night diner for a break. When she hears the voice of the man in the next booth, a chill runs down her spine that's nothing to do with the weather. She last heard that voice two decades ago, but she'll never forget it. 

The voice belongs to a man named Casper Sturgis, the cold-blooded killer who murdered her brother and then vanished.

If you want to know more, you can read chapter one at the Alex Knight website.

If you're in the UK, you can pre-order from all the usual places.

Waterstones

Amazon

Hive

Audible

If you're from elsewhere on the planet, you can order the UK edition with free worldwide delivery at The Book Despository.

Hunted - paperback

 

Hunted, my first standalone thriller under the name Alex Knight is out in UK paperback today.

I'd love to tell you it's available from all good bookshops, but as we know, all good bookshops are closed right now.

You can get it online of course, from the usual places. I know a lot of independent bookshops have really upped their game on online sales this year, so if you're buying the book, I'd love it if you support one of your local shops by ordering direct from them.

It's available in all the other online places too, of course, and if you don't happen to have a local bookshop, it just so happens that Hive is offering the lowest price as of time of writing, so that's a great way way to support the little guys.

I think it's one of the best books I've written so far. I hope you love it...

Paperback
Hive
Waterstones
Amazon

Ebook
Kindle
Kobo
Google
Apple

Audio
Audible
Kobo Audio

You're woken early by the doorbell. It's a young girl, the daughter of the love of your life. She's scared, covered in blood, she says her mother is hurt.

You let her in, try to calm her down, tell her you're going to get help. You reach for your phone, but it lights up with a notification before you touch it.

It's an Amber alert - a child has been abducted by a dangerous suspect.

The child is the girl standing in front of you.

The suspect? You.

“I loved it. This has an astonishing opening and just gets better and better. A stunning thriller. ” – Steve Cavanagh

“Brilliant. Opens at a breakneck speed and does not let up.” – Lara Dearman

“Jolts and shocks like a claustrophobic rollercoaster. Knight could be the Hitchcock of the 21st Century. Hide-behind-the-sofa compelling” – Denzil Meyrick

“A smart, tense, edge-of-your-seat thriller with characters you’re desperately rooting for.” – SJI Holliday

“They don’t come better than this. One of those thrillers that really and truly thrills! A masterclass from Alex Knight.” – Tony Kent

“Amazing opening, and just got better and better.” – Jenny Blackhurst

“A well-crafted, tightly-plotted thriller that races from the streets of San Francisco to the coast without pausing for breath.” – CJ Carver

Hunted is also available in Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Click to check if it’s available where you are in paperback or Kindle.

OnLymeCrime

This weekend I should have been in Lyme Regis for the inaugural Lyme Crime festival. Sadly, COVID-19 put paid to that, but unlike most similar events, the estimable Paddy Magrane and his team decided that the show must go on (virtually).

I think it worked really well. Of course there's no substitute for being physically present at a festival, but the panels ran really smoothly over Zoom, and it was great that people were able to tune in from all over.

I was part of two events (one for What She Saw Last Night with Susi Holliday, one for Hunted with Tony Kent), and you can watch them both here.

I guess that's one advantage over live in person festivals - anyone in the world can 'attend' a panel, months after it's happened.

First up on Thursday, an encore version of the Train Noir tour Susi and I embarked on last Autumn. We talked about our train-themed mysteries and why night trains are so popular in crime fiction.


Then on Saturday morning, Tony Kent and I discussed our new action thrillers, and talked about the mechanics of a thriller in Setting the Pace. This one was live, so we were getting questions from the viewing audience, which worked pretty well.



There are over a dozen panels available to watch again at the Lyme Crime YouTube page, so head over there, subscribe, and experience a book festival from the comfort of your living room.

Hunted - publication day

Hunted, my first book under the pseudonym Alex Knight, is published in the UK today.

It's a little weird having a new book out right now. Normally, I would have a launch event at a bookshop and get to meet readers, sign some books and have a few glasses of wine. There would be post-launch drinks in a beer garden somewhere with other writers and readers. 

But obviously none of that's happening right now, so Hunted is going out with a little less fanfare than normal.

I'm really proud of it and I think it's one of my best books, so I hope people buy it. 

You can help by getting the word out, telling your friends, leaving a review (if you like it, feel free not to if you hate it!), talking about it on Facebook - anything you can do will be much appreciated.

In the meantime, you can tune in virtually to OnLyme Crime on Saturday morning at 11am to see me and Tony Kent talk about Hunted and his fantastic thriller Power Play.

Check out the blurb below, and you can read chapter one on the Alex Knight website - if you enjoyed the Carter Blake books, I think you'll love it.

“A STUNNING THRILLER”

– Sunday Times bestselling author Steve Cavanagh

Trade Paperback

Waterstones

Amazon

Hive

ebook

Kindle

Kobo

Google Play

Audio

Audible

You're woken early by the doorbell. It's a young girl, the daughter of the love of your life. She's scared, covered in blood, she says her mother is hurt.

You let her in, try to calm her down, tell her you're going to get help. You reach for your phone, but it lights up with a notification before you touch it.

It's an Amber alert, sent to every one of the four million phones in the Bay Area - a child has been abducted by a dangerous suspect.

The child is the girl standing in front of you.

The suspect? You.

Lyme Crime - see me twice!

Rather greedily, I'm going to be appearing at OnLyme Crime twice - once as Mason Cross, once as Alex Knight.

First up, I'm doing the TRAIN NOIR panel with SJI Holliday. We did a Train Noir tour in the Autumn for What She Saw Last Night and Susi's brilliant thriller Violet and it was so much fun, so I'm looking forward to the (virtual) reunion.

Then, on Saturday morning, I'm teaming up with Tony Kent for SETTING THE PACE, which should be a lot of fun too. He'll be talking about Power Play, which I read this year and absolutely loved. It's also the first-ever event for Alex Knight and for Hunted.

As you would expect, this is a virtual festival, and details of how to book your free ticket will be available soon, check out the Lyme Crime Facebook page for more details and the rest of the lineup.

Thursday 25th June, 6pm

Train Noir

SJ Holliday and Mason Cross discuss their most recent novels, both of which are set on trains, talking about the journeys that inspired them and how this particular form of travel lends atmosphere, momentum and claustrophobia to a thriller.

Saturday 27th June, 11am

Setting the Pace

When a book becomes a rollercoaster. Thriller authors Alex Knight and Tony Kent reveal the secrets to writing a page-turner.

Who the hell is Alex Knight?

So it's May, and my new book has usually appeared by now, and some people having been asking where it is.

Well, the bad news is there is no Mason Cross novel this year.

The good news (hopefully) is that I do have a new book coming out.

It's under a different name. Why? A few different reasons, some to do with marketing, but also because it feels like a different kind of thriller than the ones I've written up until now.

It starts with the protagonist, Jake Ellis, being woken by banging on the door.

Molly, the teenage daughter of his girlfriend is there, covered in someone else's blood. Her mother has been shot, she thinks she's dead.

Shocked, Jake reaches for his phone to call for help, but at that moment it lights up with a notification.

It's an Amber alert. A child has been abducted, the suspect is armed and dangerous. The child is Molly.

The suspect's name is Jake Ellis.

It's called HUNTED, and here's the cover.

It's published in the UK on June 25 2020.

Check out the Alex Knight website for more, and you can pre-order the book in the UK  right now from Waterstones, Amazon and Hive (Hive is a particularly good option right now as it will help support indie bookshops when they need it most).

I hope you like this one. And if anyone has any ideas of a good way to launch a book in the middle of a pandemic, do let me know...