What is the title of your latest release?
JOVE
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Ron Eldon answers a call telling him one of his agents is dead, jumped from Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. Ron is a semi-retired MI5 agent, the news hits hard, because this time the agent was his daughter. How his daughter died is somehow wrapped up in a meeting Ron had with a Russian agent twenty years ago. Who hated her enough to kill her, or did her investigations lead her to a tragic end?
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I read an obituary of a dead English traitor who spied for the Russians and died over there and thought how a Security Officer reading that would have no regret. And then, the bridge! Clifton Suspension Bridge is in Bristol, my hometown, it seemed a fitting place for a suicide, which happens all the time. The bodies do float down to Avonmouth Docks where my dad used to collect them, he was a police officer at the docks.
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
The heroine is Yolanda, and yes, I would, she’s a tough but human, kind but clever, foil to the hero Ron Eldon.
What are three words that describe your hero?
Ron Eldon: honest, brave, in-the-face-of-tragedy.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned about the Security Services in the UK, about slavery in Bristol, about being a parent and finding solutions to problems.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I wrote Jove in 30 days, writing 2,500 words a day until it was finished. There was no time to edit. I spent a week editing, two weeks later.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Chocolate biscuits and tea.
Describe your writing space/office!
It’s in the attic, full of old things, old table, old chair, old ruler, old measuring tape, old baseball, old fishing wire mesh lobster pot, old small wooden boxes, old emergency radio, old spider in a frame, postcards of David Bowie, Ferlinghetti and friends, Marc Chagall, John Cassavetes.
Who is an author you admire?
WG Seabold and John Le Carré
Is there a book that changed your life?
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Dostoevsky and LORD VALENTINE’S CASTLE by Robert Silverberg
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I sent JOVE in after already being published by Collective Ink for a sci-fi novel called 944 HIDALGO, I thought it would be good to keep on a roll. Both books had been waiting around for 5 years to get published. And then their time came, “Jove” was accepted in a couple of weeks. I was glad. There’s nothing as sad as a book not read, except perhaps an empty swimming pool.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Thrillers, detective stories, spy stories, sci-fi
What’s your favorite movie?
Stranger than Paradise by Jim Jarmusch
What is your favorite season?
Spring
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Quietly
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Sunlight (2024)
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
British
What do you do when you have free time?
I make metal sculptures, I have a commissioned piece of public art I’m making to be shown on top of a stone plinth in St John’s churchyard, Waterloo, England.
What can readers expect from you next?
I’ve written a sequel to JOVE called ALPHABET SPIES, it’s finished and waiting for publication. And I’ve begun a third book in the series, SPIES IN AMERICA.
A retired spy becomes a detective to find his daughter's killer.
Retired secret service agent Ron Eldon hunts his daughter's killer, taking on the role of detective in a case that everyone says is suicide. Aided by his ex-colleague Yolanda Reddy, they are confronted by official obstructions, plagued by red herrings, confounded by false information, and tricked by a Russian spy who has history with Eldon from the Cold War. Leaving behind him a trail of bodies and a minefield of revelations, Eldon is beaten and captured before escaping to continue his crusade across London, Bristol, Cornwall, and Yorkshire. Ending with a shocking twist that reframes the story in a new and defining light, this spy thriller delves into Britain’s colonial past, present-day slavery, and Russia’s dirty tricks, uncovering truths that dare not speak their names.
Thriller Spy [ Roundfire Books, On Sale: July 7, 2026, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781917704557 / eISBN: 9781917704670 ]
Jack Davies is an award-winning writer/director/producer based in London. Writer of published short stories, film scripts and poetry, he was shortlisted for the York Poetry Prize in 2020. He lives in London, UK.
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