I write psychological thrillers about secrets, memory, murder and the dangerous pull of the past — usually set somewhere close to the sea.
My novels include the Amazon #1 bestsellers The Wave at Hanging Rock and The Things You Find in Rockpools, now in development for TV, as well as the Audible #1 hit Little Ghosts and my latest thriller, Deep Blue Lies. My books are known for twisty plots, atmospheric settings and, according to my Spanish wife and translator, being too long.
Before becoming a novelist, I spent years trying to find a job I wasn't terrible at. I worked as a windsurfing instructor in Greece and Spain, tested boards for a windsurfing magazine, taught English abroad, worked in a book warehouse, packed potatoes on a farm, and was once cast as Santa on a TV ad. At one point I made the deeply questionable decision to buy a windsurfing centre in Egypt. None of these jobs made me rich, but I think they made my life richer, and I definitely see odd moments from them surface in the books I now write.
I grew up in Essex in the UK and spent twenty years on England's south coast before moving with the aforementioned wife (María), our two children and perpetually perplexed Labradoodle, to the wild north coast of Spain. It's an incredible place, almost mystical sometimes with the snow-capped mountains behind, and the roaring Atlantic in front. We moved here partly for the adventure of it, and partly because I wanted to be somewhere that felt dramatic to feed into the stories. We work from the basement of our house. It's currently dingy, dark and slightly mouldy — but it's huge and we have dreams of one day turning it into a light-filled, New-York-loft-style studio space.
I've always wanted two things from life: to write, and to have adventures. It took me a while to realise the two weren't as separate as I thought. Every book is a new place to explore, a new puzzle to piece together, a new mystery to solve. I also keep adding side-projects, which you'll find scattered around the site — adventures of a different kind.
Alongside the books, I write a newsletter. Often it's more like an actual letter: a bit about writing, a bit about life in Spain, a bit about whatever strange project I've talked myself into next. I don't send it constantly, which is probably best for everyone, but readers seem to enjoy it when one turns up. You can join too, and I'll send you a couple of free books.
