About
(Author photo credit: Charlotte Graham
Little Girl and Boy: Will Staehle)
My first novel as Alex North, The Whisper Man, was a Sunday Times, New York Times and international bestseller. It has been translated into over 30 languages and is currently being adapted for film. It was followed by The Shadow Friend. My most recent thriller is The Half Burnt House.
Before writing as Alex North, I studied Philosophy at the University of Leeds, worked there in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy for several years, and published ten award-winning crime novels under a different name. I currently live in Leeds with my wife and son.
Books
The Half Burnt House / The Angel Maker
The Shadow Friend / The Shadows
The Whisper Man
Upcoming Events
CrimeFest
9-12 May 2024
Details
Articles and Interviews
On the pleasures of fictional forbidden texts
“It’s a familiar and recurring motif in fiction: the search for a work of art that may or may not exist. One that is difficult to find. One that is rare because it’s awful, and which is sought after for both reasons.”
“Here is my choice of five very different books, each of which has given me a shiver over the years. There’s pleasure to be had in feeling the rational world unsettled and tipped slightly off-balance, and all of these books deliver that and more.”
A playlist for The Shadow Friend/The Shadows
“I use music to help with my writing all the time, but like a lot of authors, I find it almost impossible to write while listening to lyrics. Attempting to come up with my own words is hard enough; having other people’s words playing in the background is just too distracting.”
On Lucid Dreams And The True Crime That Inspired “The Shadows”
“Lucid dreams are when you ‘wake up’ in a dream while remaining asleep. I was obsessed with them as a teenager, and have remained so to an extent as an adult. The appeal was always the idea of escape: of being in control of the world and able to do anything you want.”
An Intriguing Game
“Emotion is very important to me, and the works that have stayed with me over the years have usually been ones that made me feel something rather than think something. If there is no emotional resonance to a story then I’m generally not all that interested in writing it.”
On writing The Whisper Man
“I don’t think you can help but draw from your own experience. Even if you’re using your imagination, you’re still going to be influenced by everything you’ve seen and read and done.”
Alex North 