The idea came from a single, unsettling question: What if a crime writer began committing the very crimes he wrote? I’d always loved the psychological battles in detective fiction — especially Sherlock Holmes vs. Moriarty — and I wanted to explore a modern version of that dynamic. The tension between a writer who uses his crimes as “material” and a detective sharp enough to notice felt like the perfect foundation for a thriller series.

My influences are a mixture of classic and literary voices: Dostoevsky for psychological depth and existentialism, magical realism authors like Marquez Borges to bring parts of magic Arthur Conan Doyle for the structure and intellectual pleasure of detective work, and many classical authors whose works taught me how powerful layered storytelling can be. Killer Lines is my attempt to bring those influences together.

Yes. From the very beginning, I wanted to enter this genre with complete freedom — to write crime fiction without the weight of expectations or assumptions tied to my real name. Using a pseudonym allowed me to start from zero again, to focus entirely on craft, and to receive honest, unfiltered reactions from readers and industry professionals.

It felt liberating to build a new identity whose only purpose was to serve the story. Writing as Jonathan Smalls became a way of creating the right atmosphere not just for the books, but for myself as a writer — a space where I could experiment, sharpen my voice, and explore the darker psychological elements of the Killer Lines series.

Even now, I continue to write under this name because it preserves a clear boundary between this series and my other work, and because I genuinely enjoy inhabiting another persona. It keeps the focus exactly where I want it: on the writing.

I plan meticulously before writing — the motives, the clues, the thematic threads — but the actual drafting process is more fluid. I like following characters as they reveal themselves, especially under pressure. I write in long, focused sessions, usually early in the morning or late at night when the world is quiet enough for crime and imagination to take over.

No, but they are shaped by real observations. I’ve always been fascinated by the subtle tells in people — the contradictions, the small hypocrisies, the fears they don’t say out loud. The characters in Killer Lines are fictional, but the emotions and psychological patterns behind them are very real.

The psychology. Crime fiction allows you to peel back layers of humanity — to explore guilt, desire, fear, ambition — through a narrative that keeps readers turning pages. It’s also a genre that rewards close attention. There is something satisfying about building a puzzle that feels both unpredictable and inevitable.

I hope they feel the tension and excitement of the chase — but also reflect on the deeper themes: the nature of creativity, the blurred line between truth and fiction, and the moral cost of obsession. Above all, I hope readers are so absorbed in the story that they forget the world around them — at least for a little while.

Yes — the next book in the Killer Lines series is already underway. The nezxt writer and the detective grows more tangled, more dangerous, and more personal. Each book takes them deeper into each other’s worlds — and closer to a truth neither is prepared to face.