DIVE a totally gripping, breathlessly twisty crime mystery

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The dead girls all have the same nightclub stamp on the backs of their hands — the same stamp David’s daughter wore on the day she disappeared. Nothing changes by writing about it, except perhaps, to demystify one author’s experience for the benefit of another. A tidal river two hundred and fifteen miles long, snaking through central London as it winds a course to the sea. My side hustle starting out was pulling pints at the Captain Kidd, next to the Marine Police in Wapping.

They are a relegated, forgotten bunch, and the (fictional) attitudes of serving police officers around them reflects that. The dead girls all have the same nightclub stamp on the backs of their hands — the same one David’s daughter had the day she disappeared. Jane, our head of design, is responsible for the output of our award-winning books, ebooks and print-on-demand for Vertebrate Publishing.I’ve since spoken quietly to other authors about this to prove to myself I wasn’t acting out of turn. Her punishment is to be side-lined to the Marine Policing Unit, or 'frogmen', whose main aim is to dredge up dead bodies from the Thames and pass them on to the 'real' police. I won’t pretend I spent all 8760 hours of that time editing one manuscript, but it honestly felt like it at times. I did speak to many commercial divers, and some of the old guard from the marine police consulted me informally. Dive’ was a screenplay before it became a novel, and I spent six months writing that before I thought of it in another form.

I’d spent four years working on Dive on-and-off at that point, so it was hard not to take the rejection personally. Then they uncover something that will threaten to blow the case apart — if it doesn’t get them killed first .

It was longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize, and reached the top 26% of submissions for BBC Drama Room, which saw nearly 4,718 applications. I’d spent four years working on Dive on-and-off at that point, so it was hard not to take it personally. If you enjoy my interviews and reviews, please allow me to continue writing these posts by showing your support. The second is the exact opposite: it’s my way of selfishly purging myself of the whole sorry business.

I was told that an indie publisher can be more nimble, more reactive to market trends than a traditional publisher can be. We don’t talk about resilience loudly enough in the publishing industry, but to me, there’s no other way to get the words down on the page than practicing resilience when the writing starts to get tricky. I think that’s why I found my way to Michael Crichton when I was too young to really understand what he was writing about.She lives in the heart of the Peak District with her super-keen MTB family and loves nothing more than being in the Scottish highlands, either climbing munros or riding her bike. Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages.

Stephen King has a great quote in On Writing that I can relate to: “Writing is not life, but sometimes, it can be a way back to life. It was through dialogue with friends, family and colleagues, that I quietly and rationally determined my potential reactions to curveballs. Jon studied for an MA in Dramaturgy and Script Development at Exeter University, and is an alumnus of Curtis Brown Creative.

There were definitely some publishers that said they wanted something more conventionally commercial. The first book in your three-part debut crime series Dive will be published by Joffe Books on 14 January 2023. If the publishing industry were forthcoming about what really goes on behind closed doors, no-one would ever pursue writing novels in the traditional way.