- I'd like you to know that I have professional credentials to write crime novels that accurately reflect 'the real thing'. I spent five years working as a crime reporter for a Fleet Street news agency, covering trials at the Old Bailey and completing in depth investigations into major crimes for the national newspapers. This process helped me forge cast iron relations with countless cops, criminals, lawyers and reporters of varying status and abilities.
- My dubious expertise in crime led me into the arguably shadier business of TV. I've produced and directed documentaries on a veritable gallery of rogues, ranging from;
o The heinous - Kenneth Noye; Fred and Rose West.
Dance with the Dead
o The bonkers - Charles Bronson 'the one from Luton', and 'Madness in the Fast Lane' for the BBC, now seen by over 50 million people, detailing the exploits of a pair of deranged Swedish twin sisters who ran amok on the M1 before launching a murder spree. It remains one of Louis Theroux's top ten 'must see docs', the closest I've ever come to an award of any kind.
o The dastardly - charities that dupe the public; people who 'cry wolf' by making false allegations to the police.
- I've written a number of non-fiction books about yet more rogues, including Unsung Hero about an ex British soldier who infiltrated the Provisional IRA. The publication of this book prompted the Police Service of Northern Ireland 9PSNI0 to raid my home and interrogate me for ten hours. I also wrote Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, which prompted the TV phenomenon of the same name.
o As a result of my experiences as a specialist in crime, most of the characters and crimes in Dance with the Dead are based on real people and events. The dialogue spoken by cops, criminals, hacks and prostitutes in the book is based on taped recordings I've made of the real thing, in an attempt to add granular authenticity to the writing.
o The idea for the '… WITH THE DEAD' book serial came from a TV documentary series I directed for Discovery US about people with extreme sleep disorders. This is how I stumbled upon the unique condition that afflicts my hero Donal, known as Sleep Paralysis.
To understand Sleep Paralysis, you need to know two things about dreams. When we are in REM sleep, our bodies go into paralysis to stop us acting out our dreams. Secondly during dreams, our Amygdala - the brain's alarm system that controls our 'fight or flight' response - is in a state of high alert. That's why dreams are almost always scary and negative.
Sufferers of sleep paralysis wake, but their 'REM dreaming sleep' fails to 'snap off'. As a result, they 'wake' in the night literally scared stiff. Often, if they sleep on their backs, the paralysis of chest and throat will make the sufferer feel like they're being choked. To justify the inherent terror the victim feels, the brain hallucinates that person's particular bogeyman - often typical of the culture they belong to. In ancient times, people saw demons or the devil on their chests. In the 1800s, sufferers saw witches. Since the 1950s, the 'baddies' in these sleep paralysis episodes have tended to be aliens.
Rookie cop Donal Lynch suffers from sleep paralysis and sees the recently-murdered - but they don't just scare him half to death. They put on a show for their reluctant host which, he gradually realises, is pointing him to their killer.
o I was brought up in the Midlands of Ireland but now live in Brighton with my partner Bridget and two children James, 12 and Emma, 1. James has been a crime fanatic since way too young, developing an unprompted fascination for Marple and Poirot at an age when he perhaps should've been more fixated with Mr Men and Postman Pat. Emma, meanwhile, very considerately delayed her birth until literally six hours after I completed the final draft of book one, Alone with the Dead. What a pair.
o My other half Bridget is a writer of some repute and gets more readers on her blog - Bridie by the sea - than I can ever dream of. Not that I'm jealous…
o I wrote my first book Alone with the Dead over four years, mostly on my daily train commute from Brighton to London. I did this less as a creative outpouring than a diversion from my preferred course of action, murdering one of their obnoxious conductors with my bare hands.
o Donal Lynch's love life and drinking habits are NOTHING like mine. Honestly…
o A major film company has optioned the rights to book one with a view to a film series. A major Hollywood star has signed up to the project too. I'm not even supposed to reveal this much but, what the hell… I just want people to enjoy the madcap capers of the world's most reluctant psychic cop.
Dance With The Dead is now available to order on Amazon in e-book and paperback
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dance-Dead-Donal-Lynch-Thriller/dp/0008149550