Tell us about the Jessica Daniel series.
It is currently three full novels (Locked In, Vigilante, The Woman in Black) and a 50,000-word half-book (As If By Magic) . The fourth full novel, Think of the Children is out in February 2013 and book five, Playing With Fire is out in July.

What genre is it?
It’s about a detective sergeant, so crime and mystery, but the more things go on, the more they become specifically about Jessica, her life and her friends.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
It’s awkward to pigeon hole. I’ve had emails from teenagers to pensioners saying they enjoyed it. I think if you’re interested in other people then you’ll probably get it.

Complete this sentence for us: If you like ___________, you’ll love the Jessica Daniel series.
The same things I do.

Tell us about DS Jessica Daniel and why you chose her as the heroine of your series.
I’m not sure it was as simple as that because it makes it sound like Jessica came first. I had the story of Locked In initially and it was only through working backwards from there that I began to develop Jessica. The more I wrote her, though, the more she began to take on her own persona to the point that by the time I was a quarter of the way through Locked In, it had become far more about her than I ever thought. If anything, that only increases the more the series goes on.

One way in which your Jessica Daniel novels stand out from the pack is the fiendish impossibility of the puzzles Jessica faces. How do you think them up? Do you start with a solution, or an impossible problem to which you have to find a solution? (ED: Locked In is about murders committed in houses with no sign of how the killer got in or out. In Vigilante, a serial killer keeps killing even though he is behind bars.)
I don’t think that’s really true. It’s only ever about the characters and the people and then things slot around them.

How do you walk that fine line between respecting the conventions of your genre and staying fresh and inventive? Do you ever nix an idea because it is not right for the genre?
I don’t worry or think about it. It’s too easy to get caught up in concerning yourself about other people or ideas, so I do my own thing. The only ideas I ever put to one side are if they don’t slot into Jessica’s life as it stands.

Your Jessica Daniel novels have been phenomenally successful, selling in the hundreds of thousands. What is your secret? Step One is obviously writing good books, but what are steps two, three and four?
Similar to the last question, I don’t worry about it. It’s great to receive emails from readers but I’m the same now, after all those sales and the publishing deals, that I was before. I still write on my sofa, in bed, on trains, during lunchbreaks, and I still write about what interests me. No big secret.

What are your ambitions for the series – outsell Jo Nesbo,  or maybe even the silver screen?
If things happen, they happen. With writing, the “what happens next” bit in terms of sales, television, etc, is largely out of your control. If you start worrying about all those things, you’ll never get anything done.

You have recently left self-publishing behind, signing with Pan Macmillan. While we can all guess the advantages of aligning yourself with such a huge player, what do you feel you have lost from your indie days?
Actually, I’ve not left self-publishing behind: As If By Magic will continue to be published through KDP. What you lose is the immediate control to do things, such as change descriptions/prices, check sales, etc. That said, I’ve been involved at pretty much every stage of what’s gone on with Pan Macmillan and I’m usually in contact with someone about something during any given week. I don’t think I’ve lost that much.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m a sports journalist and have been ever since I graduated. I live in the rainy, grey north of England – which provides the backdrop for most of what I write about.

Have you got a blog where readers can keep up with your work?
Yes and no – it’s more a news page: http://kerrywilkinson.com – I’m not convinced an actual blog in the sense of writing about myself is anything other than self-serving. A lot of writers spend a lot of time concentrating on other writers, which would be the tiniest part of your audience.

At this point we usually ask authors where we can find their books. In your case, it’s everywhere, right?
Heh, pretty much.

What’s next?
Pan Macmillan have also bought a young adult/sci-fi/fantasy/adventure trilogy from me, so there’ll be edits for that; more Jessica too. I have three books out next year (all written) and three the year after (all written) – so it’ll be the launches for all of those and working on bits beyond that. I still have a day job too. I’ll be busy enough.

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Enjoyed this interview? Then check out our interview with Douglas Dorow.

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