J.A. Konrath

J.A. Konrath, author of the terrific Lieutenant Jack Daniels thrillers, has a new standalone novel titled Afraid, published under the psuedonym Jack Kilborn, out now in the UK and coming in the spring to the US.

The Rap Sheet's Ali Karim quizzed Konrath about "why this Chicago-area author used a pseudonym for his new novel, what his fascination is with the horror genre and techno-thrillers, and how it happened that the British won the rights to publish Afraid so far ahead of the Americans." Part of their interview:

AK: Let me say that I was just knocked out by Afraid. So, can you tell us how you came to write this horrific techno-thriller?

JAK: Thanks for the kind words. I’m a huge horror fan, and the Lieutenant Jack Daniels thrillers I write in the U.S. under the name J.A. Konrath have a lot of horror elements in them. But those books also have their lighter moments, and I wanted to try a novel that was pure terror--no pulled punches. So I made a list of things people feared. There were some obvious ones, like fear of death, or the dark, or drowning, or enclosed spaces, or fire; but also some more specific fears, like your children getting hurt, trusting a caregiver, a spouse dying, being helpless.

Then I took those fears to the Nth degree.

My personal prediction is that one quarter of those who start reading Afraid won’t have the courage to finish it. I included something to scare just about everyone.[read on]

Visit J.A. Konrath's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue