Regular visitors will know that I love to read about recurring characters and watch their story develop over a number of books. This feature, A Series Business, was created so that I could ask authors to discuss all their books and try to put the focus on the wonderful back catalogue available for readers.

Today I am joined by Mason Cross, author of the Carter Blake books.

I never begin with a question. Could I ask you to introduce yourself and ask you to ensure you take full advantage of this opportunity to plug your books?

Thank you! I’m from Glasgow and I write American thrillers, just to confuse people. The first Carter Blake book, The Killing Season, was published in 2014 by Orion, and so far there have been four more Blake books: The Samaritan, The Time to Kill (aka Winterlong), Don’t Look For Me and Presumed Dead.

I live outside the city with my wife and three kids, and I procrastinate a lot.

As the purpose of A Series Business is to discuss the Carter Blake books could you now introduce us to Mr Blake?

Carter Blake is a freelance person locator. He finds people who don’t want to be found. That can be almost anyone, from a spree killer roaming across several states, to a missing person thought long-dead, to someone who’s on the run with a shipment of stolen diamonds. He’s not tied down to any one city or supporting cast, so he gets to explore the map quite a bit.

Had it always been your intention to build a series around a recurring character?

Yes. I knew publishers liked series, and a lot of the books I liked to read featured recurring characters. I think one of the reasons they’re popular is that the reader can see the character develop over a number of books, even though each one has a self-contained story. Readers like to check in with an old friend who they’ve been reading about for years.

Have you a character path mapped out and are you building up towards key events? Or is the future for Blake still unclear, even to you?

Nope. It’s a mystery. I had the key events in the first three books roughly mapped out before I wrote them, but I’m not sure what the future holds for Blake. I think if I had too rigid a plan it would probably get stale, for me and the reader. That said, there are some characters from previous books I definitely think Blake will meet again.

Have you written anything thus far in the series which you now wish you could undo?

Kind of… he doesn’t have a passport, and is on a No Fly list, which means no trips overseas for the time being. I don’t think there’s anything too major though.

Do you include “spoilers” from earlier stories in subsequent books? If I were to be reading out of order could I possibly learn of a character death or a murderer’s identity which was a twist in an earlier story?

There might be the odd small spoiler, but hopefully nothing to spoil the enjoyment of earlier books. Although Blake’s story is a through-line, the books are designed to be read as self-contained stories. As long as you know Blake looks for people who don’t want to be found, that should be all the information you need to start reading any of the books.

Do your characters age in real time, living through current events and tech developments or are they wrapped in a creative bubble which allows you to draw only on what you need for the latest book?

Real time. Each book takes place in the year it’s published, and I always know the exact dates when the action unfolds, down to the average temperature and what time the sun sets in that location on that day of the year. It’s much easier to keep things consistent when you know when the books happen in relation to each other. I actually enjoy the challenge of keeping up with new technology. A few years ago people thought the mobile phone would kill the thriller, but it hasn’t happened. I think there are always ways to make technology work in the service of your story.

Do you have ideas for a book which just don’t fit in the Carter Blake world? Is there a standalone story crying out to be written?

Yes, and I’m writing one just now in fact! I like done-in-one stories, and it’s been fun to write something completely different. In each of the Blake books I’ve had a point of view character who is, for want of a better word, the ‘normal person’ – the audience stand-in. The book I’m working on just now has a protagonist very much like those characters.

Can a Carter Blake novel end in a cliff-hanger?

Not a cliffhanger per se, but certainly with unresolved questions. The current one, Presumed Dead, ends with something big unresolved, even though the mystery itself is solved.

Colin Dexter famously killed off Inspector Morse. Agatha Christie wrote Poirot’s death and then released dozens more Poirot stories before Curtain was published. Will there ever be a “final” Carter Blake story?

There’s a rumour that John D. Macdonald wrote a final Travis McGee novel that has never been published. I do love the idea of having a final story under wraps so you know where everything’s going to end up.

It’s nice to think of having a closing chapter, but I don’t know if it’s advisable. Mark Billingham says readers wouldn’t be particularly bothered if the author died, but they would be really pissed off if the hero of the books dies.

My thanks to Mason for joining me today.  You can order all of the Carter Blake books here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mason-Cross/e/B00FWO52KC/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1540843330&sr=8-1