Blog Tour: John Burley talks about his debut novel, No Mercy

We are pleased to welcome John Burley to Novel Kicks. As part of his blog tour for his debut novel, No Mercy, John talks to us about how his job experience and knowledge contributed to his plot.

My experience as an Emergency Department physician came in handy during the writing of NO MERCY. The novel merges the genres of medical thriller, crime, murder mystery, and psychological suspense. It’s fueled by adrenalin, the drug that got me hooked on emergency medicine in the first place. I tried to bring a level of realism to the medical scenes, to convey the intensity of these environments and how they affect the people working there. NO MERCY is a story about bearing witness to the struggles of others, and the E.R. is a place for that, as well.

My wife is a forensic psychiatrist, and I also incorporated her experience into novel. The story involves a serial killer who terrorizes a small town. We tend to think of such individuals as extremely rare. But many serial killers are sociopaths, and what I learned through discussion with my wife is that sociopaths are present in almost all communities. About 4% of men and 1% of women fit the diagnostic criteria. They frequently blend in to the community, and are harder to identify than one might imagine. Not all sociopaths become serial killers, of course, but for many of them the potential is there. If that doesn’t make you lock your doors at night, I don’t know what will.

I try to remind myself of the basic goodness of people. But we all have our dark side, and we often keep it hidden—allowing it out only when we think no one is watching. NO MERCY is about coming face-to-face with that darkness. It’s about secrets that run like silent contaminated rivers just beneath the surface of people’s daily existence, about discovering those rivers, and then following them with a sense of apprehension to wherever they lead.

It’s hard to know what lies in wait for us at the other end. Just as in medicine, the revelations can be . . . unsettling. For although knowledge can be useful, it can also be carnivorous, slowly eating away at us from within. In time, we may wish we had never known.

Visit John’s website.

The next stop on the tour is Killing Time Crime.

Buy No Mercy from Amazon.

by

Laura

I'm Laura. I started Novel Kicks back in 2009 as I wanted a place to discuss books and writing - two loves of my life. As someone who has anxiety, these two things give me, and I am sure countless others, a much needed escape.
There is a monthly book club, writing exercises, prompts, reviews, author interviews, competitions and guest posts. I cover many genres and I hope there is something for everyone.
I grew up by the sea in Dorset and currently live in Poole with my husband, Chris and three cats. I love writing and have a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from Falmouth University. I am writing my first book. If only I could stop pressing delete. Chris has threatened to stop it from working. Haha.
I have always loved creative writing since I was in first school and would very much like to meet my teacher, Miss Sayers, to say thank you for all the encouragement she gave me then.
When not writing, I love reading, cats, Disney, singing (I can't sing but this doesn't stop me,) and falling into a good TV show or film. If I could step into any fictional world, it would be amongst the characters in ABC's Once Upon a Time.
I love reading many genres and discovering new authors.