Why Daniel Mallory is the first megastar author of 2018

With a merlot-swilling depressed heroine suffering alcohol-induced memory lapses, a grisly murder and a series of riveting plot twists, The Woman In The Window has already had ecstatic reviews comparing it to Girl On A Train or Gone Girl.

For author Daniel Mallory, a 38-year-old former publishing executive with a love of Hitchcock, film noir and Agatha Christie, the acclaim surrounding his debut novel is welcome… if a little intimidating.

‘Being called this year’s Gone Girl is flattering beyond belief,’ the soft-spoken author says, sitting in a cosy bar not far from his home in New York’s trendy Chelsea neighbourhood, ‘but there’s always a danger when a book gets so much advanced buzz going that it won’t live up to the hype.’

Daniel Mallory

Daniel Mallory’s debut novel was inspired by his love of Hitchcock, film noir and Agatha Christie

For Oxford-educated Mallory, a lifelong love of classic cinema and Hitchcockian suspense led to him ‘unashamedly’ tapping into the genre that has taken the publishing world by storm over the past few years.

‘When Gillian Flynn published Gone Girl in 2012 she inducted a mass readership into a genre that had been around for decades, all the way back to Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell. Gone Girl proved there was a modern mass market for it. I knew I had a psychological thriller in me but I didn’t want to cough one up simply for the sake of striking while the iron was hot. As a publisher I can tell when an author is phoning it in.’

Mallory, a senior editor at William Morrow, wrote his suspense-laden thriller under the nom de plume A J Finn. A well-known figure in the literary world, he was ‘terrified everyone would hate it and I’d end up with egg on my face’. Instead, the reverse has happened, and he is predicted to be this year’s breakout star.

Dan Mallory: ‘People don’t necessarily want to read about depression, but they do like thrillers..'

Dan Mallory: ‘People don’t necessarily want to read about depression, but they do like thrillers..’

His heroine, Dr Anna Fox, is an agoraphobic child psychologist living in Manhattan. She spends most of her days downing vast goblets of wine and handfuls of prescription pills while spying on her neighbours through the lens of her Nikon camera.

The rest of the time she bemoans the ‘loss’ of her husband and eight-year-old daughter and watches countless black-and-white movies: Gaslight, Rebecca, Strangers On A Train. Then she witnesses a murder. Or does she? Throw in a handsome tenant in the basement, a troubled teen who lives across the street and a plot that twists and turns at giddying speed and Mallory believes he has a recipe for global success.

Handsome, witty and erudite, Mallory could pass for a hero of romantic fiction. He says his happiest years were spent at Oxford University, where he developed his passion for English history and literature.

As a publishing executive he represented authors Karin Slaughter, Peter Robinson, Val McDermid and Nicci French, and his literary agent is Felicity Blunt, sister of Girl On The Train actress Emily Blunt. ‘I have some celebrity friends, but I’ve never wanted to be famous,’ he says.

Debut novel

Debut novel

Mallory, the oldest son of Wall Street banker John and mother Pamela, wrote the 90,000-word novel in a year ‘of long weekends and nights’ while holding down his day job

Part of the publisher’s pitch for The Woman In The Window is that Mallory, like his heroine, battled crippling depression for years before it was finally diagnosed and treated.

‘I struggled from the age of 21. I tried everything – drugs, therapy. There were days I couldn’t get out of bed. Nothing worked. I’d been misdiagnosed. When I finally got the “right” doctor he diagnosed bipolar disorder and put me on the correct medication. Within six weeks I was restored and transformed. It was the summer of 2015 and that’s when I started thinking about writing a book. Once I was diagnosed I felt a hell of a lot better and I wanted to give this a shot.

‘One thing I love so much about suspense fiction is it can be enjoyed on the surface or, if you want, you can take it to a deeper level. The most important thing to me was that my book was well written, furiously paced and spring-loaded with whip-crack turns. It also gave me a chance to write about depression, which I know so much about.

‘People don’t necessarily want to read about depression, but they do like thrillers, and I hope I give a sense of what depression is like through my book. There’s a stigma surrounding depression, particularly for men. Hopefully this will help get the dialogue going.’

He says Princes William and Harry talking about the depression they felt over the death of their mother has improved the situation. ‘It’s a healthy thing. For years men have been conditioned not to talk about depression. Growing up I felt isolated and lonely so I threw myself into books.’

Mallory, the oldest son of Wall Street banker John and mother Pamela, wrote the 90,000-word novel in a year ‘of long weekends and nights’ while holding down his day job.

Last September, the book was put up for auction. ‘I was flying from New York to LA. By the time I landed, offers were rolling in from all over the world.’ The publishing rights sold for ‘in excess’ of a million dollars.

The next phone call was from Mallory’s agent. ‘She said Fox Studios had an “exploding” offer, one I had to accept right then, or it would go away. ‘I asked what it was. She replied: It’s a million dollars.’

‘I said “Yes please”, and we hung up.’

Is he living proof of the American dream?

‘If you work hard and have a great idea you can have all your dreams come true.’

Whodun ’em? The best new thrillers of 2018

Girl In Snow 

Danya Kukalka 

Picador, Jan 11 

The murder of a high-school princess seen through the eyes of the boy who was obsessed with her, maybe to a dangerous degree… A clichéd title belies a dark and elegant thriller set in smalltown America. 

The Confession 

Jo Spain 

Quercus, Jan 11 

A banker is beaten to death in front of his wife. The killer confesses, but doesn’t say why he did it. Spain’s blackly comic touch – who hasn’t wanted to kill a banker? – pulls us through a brilliantly dark tale. 

Girl In Snow by Danya Kukalka

The Confession by Jo Spain

Girl In Snow by Danya Kukalka; The Confession by Jo Spain

The Chalk Man 

C J Tudor 

Michael Joseph, Jan 11 

Spooky English murder mystery. Chalk men start appearing on the walls of a cathedral city and then people start dying. The ideas here are stronger than the prose – this is one that may work better on screen. 

Fear 

Dirk Kurbjuweit 

Orion, Jan 25 

Chilling German thriller based on its author’s real experience of having his family stalked by the downstairs neighbour. Kurbjuweit takes you right into the heart of the darkness. In film terms, it’s an arthouse chiller, not a blockbuster. 

Need To Know 

Karen Cleveland 

Bantam, Jan 25 

Ex-CIA analyst Cleveland has written her debut thriller about a CIA analyst who discovers her husband is a Russian spy. Impressively compelling if highly unlikely, this is probably the banker among the New Year crop thanks to its sheer page-turning readability. 

John Williams

 

He has yet to splurge on any major purchases but dreams of buying a home in London. ‘Throughout my career I’ve seen books acquired very expensively only for them to fizzle and sink. I am constitutionally cautious.’

Kate Winslet is reportedly vying for the lead role in the Fox film, to be produced by Scott Rudin, the man behind movies such as Clueless, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Queen, though Mallory says: ‘I didn’t write the character with anyone in mind.’

He chose the alias A J Finn after a favourite cousin, Alice Jane, and a French bulldog called Finn, owned by another cousin.

Critics are already raving. The book has shot to the top of The New York Times’ bestseller chart, with Stephen King calling it ‘un-put-down-able’. Gillian Flynn, the author who started it all with Gone Girl, calls it ‘astounding and thrilling’.

‘I feel charmed and lucky beyond description,’ says Mallory. ‘Will it become a blockbuster? I certainly hope so!’ 

‘The Woman In The Window’ is published by HarperCollins on Jan 25, priced £12.99. Offer price £10.39 (20 per cent discount) until Feb 4. Order at mailshop.co.uk/books or call 0844 571 0640; p&p is free on orders over £15. 

Daniel Mallory will be appearing at Waterstones Piccadilly in London at 6.30pm on Jan 24 to discuss the psychological thriller with fellow authors Ruth Ware and Stephanie Merritt. For tickets click here

  

 

 



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