Author Nick Louth on finishing one series and starting another

Bestselling thriller writer Nick Louth’s final instalment of the DCI Craig Gillard series, ‘The Body in Nightingale Park’, will be released on Thursday next week (August 17) and sees our hero’s story come to an end.

​The Body in Nightingale Park sees DCI Gillard living a life of domestic bliss, with a pregnant wife and a new home.

But when retired police sergeant Ken Stapleford is found stabbed to death while watching Saturday afternoon football, Gillard’s peace is once again disturbed, and then just a day later, a short walk from his new home, Gillard witnesses the killing of a jogger in Nightingale Park.

A strange forensic connection emerges between the two killings, and as he digs into the evidence, Gillard uncovers two more attacks, and any chance of taking time off for the birth of his child disappears – and all the time, the killer is circling closer...

Nick said of his main man: "It’s been six years of writing about him, and that’s a lot of books – two a year – and it feels right to end his story here,” he said, “You can risk getting into a rut with characters and you need to refresh them from time to time.”

Nick said that while this is the last of Craig Gillard, he will not be killed off as he wanted the have the opportunity to bring him back later.

He has signed an eight-book deal for a brand new series last year, of which he has just finished writing the first book, with a female lead character this time – DC Jan Talantire.

The first, ‘The Two Deaths of Ruth Lyle’, will be out in April 2024 and is set in north Devon this time, a switch away from Surrey where DCI Craig Gillard was set, and it seems that the same woman with the same name has been killed, in the same way, decades apart.

Nick has two main pieces of advice for any aspiring authors:

"It’s easier than ever to start writing a book, but the crucial thing is to make sure you never give up,” he said, “You’ve got to have excellent attention to detail and make sure there’s no errors or spelling mistakes, and let someone proofread it who you know will tell you the truth.

"Also, don’t try to perfect it chapter by chapter – rough out the whole thing and be sure how it’s going to end."

To find out more about Nick Louth and his books, visit www.nicklouth.com/