The Death List was the first book I published under the name of Jack Dillon and it was an homage to thriller writers I had loved growing up when I first discovered the genre back in the seventies.

I think the first thriller book I read that made me think I could do this as well was Touch the Devil by Jack Higgins which came out in 1982 the year my son was born. I bought the book through a book club because I was already a fan of Higgins’ work having already read his Savage Day and the book that made him famous, The Eagle has Landed. Touch the Devil featured a character from his most famous work, the Eagle has Landed, Liam Devlin and it was set in modern day. The style of writing was terse but sharp, Higgins knew what he was doing and set the story down in  a fast paced roller coaster which i devoured in a couple of days. I’ve re-read this book a few times and it remains a favourite of mine. It made me want to do the same and I found myself trying to come up with characters that would do Higgins style justice. The end result was The Death List but before it became the book I published, it went through more than a few changes along the way. It had a change of name, change of lead character, change of plot to some degree and a change of location. Basically it became a different book but the essence remained the same as did the tone and style, I simply polished into something I could be proud of.

It was never meant to be a series but once I had finished I realised there was so much that I wanted these characters to do, there was so much left undone at the end of the story even though it didn’t seem that way. I had to bring them back to continue their story so that’s what I did. The characters were too good to waste on just one story as was the villain of the piece, the Hierarchy. I have since decided that the SI6 series will now be rebranded as the Jack Cross thriller series and of course the Hierarchy will undoubtedly pop up again to cause him more grief and trouble but for now why don’t you grab a copy of The Death List and see how it all began.