At the end of the fifth Edmonton police station thriller, WHEN THE DEVIL CALLS, we witnessed the fall from grace of the latest senior investigating officer to walk the grimy corridors of Edmonton Police Station, DCI Jairus. He’d survived many pitfalls and performed many dark acts in the name of ‘justice’, but in the final act it seemed he’d been finally caught out and arrested.
He would lose his job and never be a policeman again, a fact that of course would kill him.
Now I’m happy to say (probably not as happy as my editor) that Jairus is back and more haunted than ever. From the moment I created the character of Jairus, which seems a million years ago, as I walked to my local hospital, I knew I’d created a character that I’d want to revisit to really tear his world apart. But it’s my editor, John Hudspith, who was the real driving force behind giving Jairus his own series. I was wary at first, as I didn’t want to fall in the trap of having the ‘super’ detective that solves every crime that comes along. So I wanted to have a series that didn’t always follow that pattern; I wanted diversity of plot, from conspiratorial crime to serial killers and on and on. In my Edmonton books I made sure I changed things up by changing lead characters every book, killing off central characters or, in the case of Jairus, having them arrested.
So what about Jairus? Will he solve every crime, catch every serial killer? No. Definitely not. But yes, he is the hero, the anti-hero. He’ll do anything in the name of justice, even cross the line and commit murder. Would Sherlock homes do that? No, although he has been known to let a criminal get away with ‘it’. But Jairus is no Sherlock, not even Columbo, he’s more a North London Dirty Harry, but without the huge gun.
And talking of films and TV series, I was contemplating the other day who I would cast if the Jairus character had his own TV series. Well, I straight away knew who I’d cast as DCS Clare Napper. No one would suit the roll more than the incredibly talented Nicola Walker, who has recently starred in The Spilt and is always great in every part she plays. The problem is who could play DCI Jairus? I’ve never found an actor until recently who I felt had the physical presence to play him. Until I watched Brawl in Cell Block 99 and witnessed Vince Vaughn give a brutal and dark performance. Yes, obviously the problem is he isn’t from London, or even the U.K. If only he was or could even do a decent London accent, which I doubt, then he would be perfect. Alas, he’s not, so the search continues. Now for his best friend and long suffering partner, Peter Moone. Well, I’m a big fan of the Luther TV series, for obvious reasons, and I think Steven Mackintosh is another great and consistent actor, and would be great playing Moone. Anyway, that’s the dream. Below you’ll even see a poster I put together- I was that bored one day.
So, Jairus is back, in his first solo book, JAIRUS’ SACRIFICE, which will kick off a brutal, gut wrenching and very dark and twisted series. By the way, as you may have guessed, every book will be JAIRUS’ something, as in the second book which will be called JAIRUS’ SLAUGHTER. Along the way, will learn a lot more about his character, like his back story, where he’s from, about his father, and where the name Jairus came from. We might, and I say ‘might’, even learn his real first name! It’s like Morse all over again!!
Well, here’s the blurb for Jairus’ first book, JAIRUS’ SACRIFICE:
Jairus isn’t a policeman anymore and it’s killing him. His whole world has collapsed after being investigated for murder, twice. Cleared, but off the force, he spends his days drinking and trying to fathom what went wrong.
Then he gets offered a deal from the devil. Douglas Burdock, son of a much despised media baron, asks Jairus to look into the closed brutal murder of a journalist, suspecting a cover-up. If Jairus solves the case, then Burdock will use his father’s influence to get him back on the force.
But nothing’s that simple.
Jairus’ investigation leads him into a dark and sinister world of secrets and a mysterious organisation determined to stop him. But it’s when the case leads him towards more murders and back into his own dark history that things really start to get horrific, and push Jairus towards making the ultimate sacrifice.
JAIRUS’ SACRIFICE can be downloaded here:
I hope you enjoy!
