Happy Wednesday, and welcome to The Reading Closet on my day of the Where Demons Hide by Douglas Skelton tour, organised by myself in partnership with Ulverscroft and Isis Audio. Where Demons Hide is the fourth instalment in the Rebecca Connolly series written by Douglas Skelton and narrated by Julia Barron. Available now in audiobook, you can grab your copy here.
Rebecca’s investigation leads her to a mysterious cult and local drug dealings. But what she doesn’t know is that crime matriarch Mo Burke still has her in her crosshairs. Mo wants payback for the death of her son, and after one failed attempt to hurt Rebecca, she is upping the ante. And this time, it could be lethal.
Today, I’m lucky enough to be sharing a guest post piece from the author himself about why he chose to write Where Demons Hide and the inspiration behind it. So, Douglas, the Reading Closet’s stage is yours:
What made you write this particular story, Douglas?
It’s a question every author is asked and some don’t reply because their name isn’t Douglas.
I’ve been asked this in regard to WHERE DEMONS HIDE, the fourth in the Rebecca Connolly series, published in paperback and ebook by Polygon and on audio by Isis Audio.
I always enjoyed episodes of TV shows that suddenly took a lurch towards the supernatural. My earliest memory would be The Saint, which had one episode about voodoo and another about the loch Ness Monster. Sure, the solution turned out to be down to earth, but I still liked the whole other worldly vibe.
The western series ‘Lancer’ was another – if you’ve seen Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood you will know what I’m talking about, although his version was too moodily shot to be anything like the original. In one episode I remember to this day, the devil came to the ranch, leaving behind a gnarled walking stick.
There have been elements of the supernatural throughout the Rebecca Connolly books. Just a whisper here and there, an echo in the wind, a murmur in the grass. The highlands and islands of Scotland are magical places and lend themselves to such things.
So I thought it would be fun to do one that had a stronger occult undertone from page one, even though the solution to the mystery might be more of this world.
Or is it?
Cue a cackling laugh.
I’ve also been long interested in the true case of Norah Farnario, who died in similar circumstances to a character in the book on Iona in 1929. Poor Nora was found in a pentagram she had hacked out of the island’s ground. Why she did so remains something of a mystery and there have been suggestions that she fell victim to a psychic attack by black magicians.
I don’t use poor Nora’s life at all, just the mystifying nature of her death for my story.
I also wanted to wrap up the ongoing, if one-sided, feud between crime boss Mo Burke and Rebecca. This began with incidents in ‘The Blood is Still’, continued in ‘A Rattle of Bones’ but now comes to an end.
You don’t need to have read those books to understand what’s going on, though. It’s all explained. But if you haven’t read the others, I would certainly advise you to do so, but that’s motivated by self-interest!
Hey – I’m an author. It’s all me, me, me.
Source link