Hungry Ghosts charts the continuing adventures of the Thailand-based private detective, David Braddock. Braddock is a man with a shadowy past and an uncertain future, operating in an unlicenced capacity on the tourist island of Koh Samui.

In HUNGRY GHOSTS he finds himself looking into the disappearance of a drug smuggler and dealing with the ghosts of his past while continuing to wrestle with a tangled love life …

What genre is it?
HUNGRY GHOSTS contains a number of thriller and mystery elements, but if I had to put a label to it, I guess I’d call it a detective story. But only if I absolutely had to!

Fair enough. It’s part of a series, right?
HUNGRY GHOSTS is the second book in the TIME, BLOOD AND KARMA series, and follows on the story from EVERYONE BURNS.

In the first book he solved the particularly grisly murders of some European visitors to Thailand, while juggling a variety of love interests.

Tell us more about David Braddock.
David Braddock is a wounded man, haunted by past demons and unable to get over the death of his wife. He has a dark sense of humour, a malleable moral code and an unusual perspective on life. The ladies tend to love him when they’re not hating him. I’ve felt like strangling him on a couple of occasions, but somehow he’s survived thus far.

What kind of readers will your series appeal to?
Folks who like detailed characterisations, ambivalent morality, a narrative that weaves between plot and sub-plots … and South East Asia.

We honeymooned in South East Asia, and absolutely love Thailand.
My wife and I have spent several years in South East Asia, and we currently live on the island of Samui in the Gulf of Thailand. We love this part of the world and I like to bring something of the exotic feeling of the place to my stories.

Plus, it’s always a good idea to write about the places that you know. I think that’s one of the things that give tales authenticity.

Is the hungry ghost thing in the title something to do with Thailand?
‘Hungry Ghosts’ appear in various traditions and religions. In Tibetan Buddhism they are represented as ‘pretas’, creatures with grotesquely bloated bellies and thin necks who can never eat enough to satisfy their hunger. In traditional Chinese religion they are beings driven by intense, animalistic needs, and they are ‘ghosts’ in the sense of being only half-alive. In Japanese Buddhism they are the ‘gaki’ and the ‘jikiniki’, the spirits of jealous and greedy people; and in the Book of Enoch (a pseudepigraphal book of the Bible), they are the ‘Grigori’, demons endlessly wandering the earth in search of food.

Many of the characters in the book have their own ghosts or demons – so it seemed a fitting title.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I travel a lot, talk a lot and sometimes write stuff down when time allows. Most of what I say is nonsense.

I hail originally from a small town in the North-East of England. Before turning to writing, my career encompassed law and finance. I have run businesses in Europe, South and Central America, Africa and Asia. My wife Fiona and I currently divide our time between the UK and Thailand.

I wear a hat but usually take it off to go to bed.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
I sure do, and here it is http://johndaviddolan.wix.com/johndolanauthor

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
Twitter @JohnDolanAuthor
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JohnDolanAuthor?ref=hl

My inside leg measurement is 32″, in case you were wondering.

We’ll keep that in mind. What’s next?
A short rest, then I’ll be starting on the third book in the series – A POISON TREE – and embarking on a co-authoring project with the thriller writer Fiona Quinn, which I’m very excited about. I suppose I should say, “about which I’m very excited”, but I won’t.