Thicker Than Water (35 page)

Then there is the Macmillan crew: Trisha, Natasha, Andy, Jodie, Sandra, Susan, Tom and a few others I’ve hopefully not forgotten. Imagine having me email you every day to ask what’s
going on with this or that, or to nitpick about stuff. That’s what they have to put up with.

Lastly, as I’ve said before, thanks to my wife. No Louise = no Jessica. Book 7 is set on a Caribbean island
¹
so I’m off for my six
months’ research. See you soon.

Readers’ Questions & Answers

Bearing in mind your west country roots, do you think Jessica will ever venture to the south-west?

I’m not sure that Jessica’s driving could handle the narrow, winding roads! In all seriousness, I think she has enough places to explore closer to Manchester for a
fair while yet.

Have you got used to seeing your name in print on your books yet and how does that feel?

I handle a lot of these things with a shrug and, for the most part, people I know find it stranger than I do. I worked in journalism for a decade before writing fiction, so
I’m used to bylines. By the time something comes out, it can be years since I finished writing it, so I’m usually concentrating on whatever my next project is.

Did you interview any police officers to help with the creation of the police work featured in the Jessica Daniel series?

Yes, but not just police officers because so many of the stories involve other departments and organisations. A lot of the research is informal but I try to write about people
rather than institutions. That means that I’m usually looking for a way to write around the paperwork and officiousness. I’ll usually have pages of notes for research and then try to
use as little of it as possible, while still making the story broadly realistic.

If you could choose a cast for a film or TV series to adapt your Jessica Daniel books, who would you want to play the main characters?

There are two actresses who resemble Jessica as I see her. Rebecca Hall (who has been in
Red Riding, The Town, The Awakening
and
Iron Man 3
) and Oona Chaplin
(who was in
Game of Thrones
and
Dates
).

Are you ever going to spin-off any of the characters into something else?

I’ve always liked the idea of having a world around Jessica by which she’s influenced and that she has an influence upon. I have a stand alone crime story called
Down Among the Dead Men
, which looks at what happens between two warring crime bosses in Manchester. It’s within Jessica’s world and the ramifications of that is something that
will be touched upon in later Jessica books. That should be out in 2014.

Andrew, the private investigator from
Playing with Fire
, will definitely be back in his own series too. When I first plotted that story, he was a lot less likeable in the initial notes
but he ended up sticking with me.

You’re not going to stop writing Jessica books, are you?

I’ll keep writing her for as long as I have ideas of what she might be up to in her life. Rest assured, that will be for a fair few books yet – although it’s
also nice to work on other things.

Where do you do your writing?

Largely on my sofa at home but I’m pretty good at switching off and getting on with it. I’ve written on trains, planes, my parents’ garden, hotel rooms, on
holiday – anywhere and everywhere, really.

Would you get on with Jessica?

This question threw me a little but . . . probably not. Not at first anyway. I’m generally quite quiet unless I know people, plus she’s something of an acquired
taste. Give it a few beers and I’m sure we’d be getting on famously.

What made you want to write?

I was at Robin Hood’s Bay in Yorkshire with my wife and we were listening to Ricky Gervais on the radio. It dawned on me that he is one of the most famous
comedians/writers/actors in the world – but nobody knew who he was until he turned forty. I always liked Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright for doing their own thing with
Spaced
and
Shaun of the Dead
. Nobody offered them the careers they have now; they each sat down and wrote a TV series. I had not long turned thirty and figured I’d try to make something happen
for myself.

I’d been doing the same job for a few years and wanted to try something different. If you want to do something in life then, unless you marry a royal or have an MP for a parent,
you’ll probably have to make it happen for yourself. I’m not afraid of failing so I thought I’d give it a try. If writing novels hadn’t have come off, I would’ve found
something else to have a go at.

What did you want to be when you were young?

Something sporty, with the only problem being that I was – at best – only
OK
at most sports. I finished fourth in some 400m county race in Somerset, despite
leading on the final bend. I was mediocre at football and it was only really cricket I had any degree of ability at – if you can call it that. I did once score a century at Fulwood &
Broughton CC, which is about as good as it got.

With a distinct lack of talent, I figured the next best thing was to try to become a sports journalist, which is what I spent ten years doing after university.

What is your favourite film?

Back to the Future
. When my parents first got a video player – a top-loader – my mum recorded it off the TV, cleverly cutting out the adverts. I watched that tape to death and have seen
the film so many times. It has the perfect balance of comedy, action and drama – plus it’s not afraid to invent its own rules.

It tells you how time travel works and you just accept it. I generally think with science fiction that the more you explain the technology, the weaker your story. If your characters are strong
enough, readers and viewers will forgive you most things.

Do you share any personality traits or interests with Jessica?

I think we both look for humour in most situations, even those that are darker. It’s something journalists and public workers such as police officers and paramedics have
to have because of all the things you see and do. She says a lot of things that I might only think but keep to myself. When I first started writing her, I was hesitant about letting too much of
that out but now everything goes in.

Endnote

1
. It’s not really.

THICKER THAN WATER

Despite two national newspaper reports to the contrary, Kerry Wilkinson is male. Honestly.

His debut,
Locked In
, the first title in the Detective Jessica Daniel series, was written as a challenge to himself but became a UK Number One Kindle bestseller within three months of
release.

His three initial Jessica Daniel books made him Amazon UK’s top-selling author for the final quarter of 2011. When
Think of the Children
followed in 2013, he became the first
formerly self-published British author to have an ebook Number One and reach the top 20 of the UK paperback chart.

Following
Playing with Fire
,
Thicker than Water
is the sixth title in the Jessica Daniel series.

Kerry has a degree in journalism, plays cricket badly and complains about the weather a lot. He was born in Somerset but now lives in Lancashire, thus explaining the climate gripes.

Website:
www.kerrywilkinson.com
or
www.panmacmillan.com

Twitter:
twitter.com/kerrywk

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/JessicaDanielBooks

[email protected]

By Kerry Wilkinson

First published 2013 by Pan Books

This electronic edition published 2013 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-1-4472-4100-3

Copyright © Kerry Wilkinson 2013

The right of Kerry Wilkinson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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