Interviewing RJ Dark
Helloooo! Recently I reviewed A Numbers Game by RJ Dark an author whose real identity and relationship with the fantasy author RJ Barker is a source of constant speculation. Trying to find ou more I left some questions at an abandoned lock up garage with antlers painted on it and by messenger pigeon I’ve now had some answers about the book and what more to look forward to from Mal and Jackie!
How would you book tempt A Numbers Game?
One reviewer said P.G. Wodehouse with guns, which I like but I think it oversells me. Maybe a Northern Hap and Leonard (By Joe R Lansdale) as it has that working class “two guys just trying to get by and everything is going wrong” thing going on.
Typically in crime we get a Holmes and Watson style tale where one character is clearly supporting the other with Mal and Jackie we get a different type of relationship. What drew you to them as your leads?
They’ve been in my head in one form or another for at least a decade. Mal has stayed quite static but I could never quite peg Jackie down. I just knew I wanted to write about two friends and I wanted to do a British version of the American books I love by authors like Robert Crais, Robert B Parker, Janet Evanovich, Joe Lansdale and Harlen Coben; which are thrilling but have a real sense of humour running through them. I’m also really interested in friendship and how even the most unlikely people can find ways to get along.
Blades Edge challenges what some would think an Estate would be like as we see all walks of life. What kind of world where you aiming for?
It’s less a world, I think, more that I really like people. And nearly everyone in A Numbers Game has something interesting about them, I hope. There’s little bits of humanity scattered through them, from Mick’s Twins trying to better themselves to Jackie, who is probably a sociopath, but just wants to do the right thing. In his own, quite violent, way. As to Blades Edge itself, I didn’t quite grow up on an estate but I grew up adjacent to one and Blades Edge is very much the estate as I imagined it as a thirteen year old, as opposed to something real. It’s an amalgam of various places I’ve lived near or on.
For a crime thriller do you always know the answer to the mystery up front or does that change as you go along writing it?
I very much knew the end before I start. I am never 100% on all the details and they tend to appear as I write things. A Numbers Game was imagined as a bit more of a caper than it turned out to be, all the twists and turns and the motives appeared as I went along. But the person responsible never changed.
What else can we look forward to from Mal and Jackie in the future and will we get to explore their past further?
Yes. One of the odd things about these books is Mal and Jackie have been in my head for years but I could never get it right. Partly because I never locked Jackie down, but mostly because I was telling the story of how they came together and then I realised that’s a later book. There are three written right now, the second hints at a bit more of Jackie’s past. The third is a total standalone. If it’s popular enough for me to do more then four five and six will be exploration of the past of Mal, Jackie and Beryl. Even if they don’t do well I will probably still write those books cos I really like doing it.
Who are some of your favourite thriller writers and why?
So many. I love Robert B Parker who’s Spenser books were one of the starting points for A Numbers Game, as were Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole books and his L.A. Requiem remains one of my absolute favourite novels, it showed me things you could do with narrative and point of view I had just never thought about. I love James Lee Burke, whose writing is just beautiful. Joe R Lansdale’s Hap and Leonard are wonderful too and right now I am working my way through Michael Connelly’s Lincoln Lawyer and Bosch books.
Can you explain your relationship to the well known fantasy award winning yet enigmatic author RJ Barker? Are you lost siblings?
It’s complicated.
