Jake Arnott
Author Interview - Jake Arnott
Author of Blood Rival
It happened at a place where three roads meet. At Junction 1A of the M25, heading east towards Gravesend. There's a killer on the road.
A savage act of road rage leaves Lee Royle, the feared "King of Kent" dead. But was it a random attack, or a premeditated move in a deadly game of betrayal and revenge?
As shockwaves ripple through the criminal underworld, three lives are set on a collision course: Jo Royle, Lee’s disillusioned and embittered wife, hiding secrets that could kill; Eddie Pierce, Jo’s ambitious new lover, determined to move up the criminal ranks, whose obsession with her threatens to consume him; and Commander Ray Spinks, a corrupt cop with his own claim on Lee’s legacy — and no intention of letting it slip through his fingers.
Caught between lust and loyalty, ambition and guilt, each of them will risk everything to uncover or bury the explosive truth behind Lee's death. Because this wasn’t just a murder. It was a reckoning.
Blood Rival is a neo-noir reimagining of Greek tragedy, a compulsive psychological thriller steeped in forbidden desire, family secrets, and fatal ambition.
Author Interview - Jake Arnott
Author I draw inspiration from:
Shakespeare -I know he was a dramatist rather than a novelist but his plays have such depth of character and storytelling. He always knew how to move an audience and how to connect with different levels of sophistication in a drama. He would tap into high culture yet never lose sight of the ordinary spectator in the sheer energy and engagement of his work. It was his ability to create classic work with popular appeal that is my inspiration and aspiration. Shakespeare clearly wanted to impress the critics but he never forgot his audience.
Author Interview - Jake Arnott | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
On the train, I really love reading on the train. There’s something about the movement of travel that helps me concentrate. There’s a rhythm to reading, I guess, and the motion of the carriage sort of puts me into that zone. And I love the sense of double transportation of the physical self and the imagination. That I get taken somewhere else, twice.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby. Trapped together in a confined space I’d finally get the whole story from his point of view, of how he reinvented himself and what really made him tick. And though I doubt I’d ever get the whole truth, I might get an invite to one of his fantastic parties.
Author Interview - Jake Arnott | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
From a very early age I loved words. I have a very early memory of seeing individual letters as creatures that could crawl across the page. I remember seeing the printed letter g, and thinking how it looked like a little bird with a body, a neck, a head and even a tiny beak sticking out skywards. And I loved making stories, as it seemed to me that was what words were for. Little creatures that lived in books and told us things. And as a child I made books myself, out of bits and card and paper, stapled together. When I was six and I'd made picture book about cowboys -I still have it, and rate it among my best work!
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
I think there’s definitely a Goldilocks theory here: hardbacks look great but they're too heavy and cumbersome; ebooks are convenient but they're not nearly tactile enough -you just don’t get the same reading experience gazing at a screen. Paperbacks are just right. They're just substantial enough and you get that physical pleasure of a solid book in your hands, but you can usually take them anywhere. They don’t mind getting battered about a bit. Cheap and cheerful I love their bright and sometimes gaudy covers. It’s no wonder they inspired such a great Beatles song.
The last book I read:
The Second Cut by Louise Welsh -a great noir novel set in contemporary Glasgow with a wonderfully deadpan gay protagonist. It’s a follow up to her debut novel The Cutting Room that came out in 2002 and we see how the lives of LGBTQ+ people have changed in that city over the years. Welsh takes us to some dark places in her fiction, but she always gives such depth and humanity to her characters, with a sharp wit in her prose.
Author Interview - Jake Arnott | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
Pen and paper for marking out ideas, making sketches as it were and getting down snatches of dialogue. It's the freedom of movement on the page that allows the words to develop and flow. These become notes to work from when composing text on a screen. Sometimes I can get things down straight onto the computer, but even then I'm usually making notes as I go along.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
Holly Golightly in Truman Capote’s seminal novella Breakfast at Tiffanys. Of course she acts as a friend to the aspiring writer ‘Fred’ in the book, and maybe I always imagined having someone like her there as I was struggling to become a published author myself. I certainly met many like her on the way. A free spirit, so full of life and adventure, with a wonderfully oblique view on life and its inhabitants, Holly is the modern muse, and a perfect companion to an observant soul. And I think I'd be a loyal friend to her -I'm a good listener and I love hearing other people's stories and adventures.
Author Interview - Jake Arnott | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
I always wanted to be an astronaut when I was growing up. Too late for that now. I did so many jobs before becoming a writer full time (my only white-collar career!) and I often wonder what I might do otherwise if I had to. But the other day I noticed highway workers painting markings on the street, with that thick white paint embossing the asphalt, and I saw what a beautiful kind of calligraphy it was. I realised that this might be a dream job for me, a kind of writing of course, though wonderfully minimal in its word count. I would know for certain that my work would be read, and that no one could say that it didn’t mean anything!
Favorite decade in fashion history:
The 1960s were pretty cool, particularly in London. It's where I set my first novel, The Long Firm. For a short while the capital really set the trend for the whole world, and you still see the influence of the mod style everywhere.
Place I’d most like to travel:
I'd like to go back to Havana, Cuba. I spent some time there in the 1990s and I still have some friends there. It's an amazing city, full of energy and music and contradictions.
My signature drink:
An ice-cold dry martini -with gin not vodka!
Favorite artist:
David Bowie -he was such an influence on my generation. And such a bookish man, his songs are so full of ideas and literary references, which was a real gift for my delinquent teenage years. And his work just keeps on giving. I was lucky enough to meet him in 2003, and he even gave me a cover quote for my third novel (a dream come true). He created so much in his life, he was a consummate artist.
Number one on my bucket list:
I want to take a long train journey through America, to ride the rails right across to the Northern Pacific. I’ve got an idea for a novel set in Montana in the early part of the 20th Century, with a character from the East Coast heading into the Rockies.
Anything else you'd like to add:
I always try to read as widely as possible. People will sometimes say of a book 'oh, that's not my kind of thing' but you never know what you might get from a book. I love to be surprised or have my expectations challenged. Reading itself is a creative process and it can take you to places you've never dreamed of.
Find more from the author:
Instagram -@jakearnottauthor
About Jake Arnott:
Author Interview with Jake Arnott
I was born in Buckinghamshire, England in 1961. I didn’t do well at school and left at 17, to do a whole variety of jobs: hospital porter, mortuary technician, theatrical agent’s assistant, care worker, and I even tried acting, though I was never much good. My big credit is appearing in the 1999 film The Mummy starring Brendan Fraser, though you won’t recognise me as I’m wrapped in bandages.
My first novel, The Long Firm was a bestseller in the UK and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. It was adapted as a BAFTA award-winning BBC TV drama series starring Mark Strong and Sir Derek Jacobi. My second, He Kills Coppers was made into a critically acclaimed ITV1 series, starring Rafe Spall and Kelly Reilly. Along with my third book, Truecrime, this trilogy won the Crime Writers Association prestigious Dagger in the Library award.
My subsequent novels include Johnny Come Home, The Devil’s Paintbrush, The House of Rumour and The Fatal Tree. I’ve written journalism and radio plays and worked extensively in TV drama development.
After many years living in London I moved down to Hastings, a fishing town on the South Coast. It's beautiful here. I live on the front and each morning I wake up to look at the sea and wait for the next idea.
