What era and place does your story, The Lucifer Syndrome, take place?

The novel is set in contemporary London, England.

Which topics did you research in order to confidently write your story?

In some ways I suppose I’ve been researching it unconsciously for quite a few years.  There are topics relating to Gnostic philosophy, the early Christian martyrs and aspects of psychiatry—with specific reference to the pathologies of psychopaths and serial killers—that all feature prominently in the novel.  Over the years these subjects have been something in which I’ve had quite a bit of interest, so they seemed to coalesce rather organically as the concept for this story began to take shape.  As I started to write it these ideas seemed to share a natural affinity with the novel’s over-arcing themes of totalitarianism, political corruption and the media’s inherent potential as an insidious system of mind control.

Where does the novel, The Lucifer Syndrome, belong on the library shelves?

I’m inclined to see the novel as ‘cross genre’ to a certain extent in as much as I think it combines elements of the psychological thriller with aspects of the political conspiracy genre.  In terms of imagery I think there’s also a certain amount of horror involved too.  In broad terms, though, I think it would sit quite comfortably on the ‘thriller’ shelves in the library.

Who is your reading audience and what should they expect to read in your novel?

That’s a bit of hard one.  But I think the audience who might be interested in my writing would probably enjoy the thriller and maybe even the psychological horror genres.  I think what they can expect is an exploration of the nature of evil as the title The Lucifer Syndrome suggests—whether it be the evil spawned in the mind of a lone psychopath or the organized evil hatched by a privileged elite that occupies the secret corridors of power and operates above the rule of law.  Publicity for another of my books once suggested that I might appeal to fans of the mystery, horror, gothic and comic book genres—so I think the potential spectrum of the reading audience may well encompass that general area.  Personally I’ve enjoyed reading books by authors in all those genres, a fact probably reflected in my own writing.

Please give a brief background of your main characters.

The main characters in the novel are Chief Inspector James Verlaine, a New Scotland Yard detective, Dr. Cassandra Stark, a psychiatrist and director of an institution for the criminally insane and the story’s enigmatic antagonist, a serial killer known as the Samaritan.  Verlaine is in charge of the investigation into the Samaritan’s bizarre killing spree.  He turns to Dr. Stark for her assistance in interpreting the religious symbolism that characterizes the carefully stage-managed crime scenes.  Her expertise means that she provides illuminating insights into the mind and motivation of the killer.  However, she may be following her own agenda in pursuit of justice quite outside the official investigation.  As for the Samaritan, his true identity remains hidden until quite late in the story.  But his crimes are not the random acts of violence perpetrated by an ordinary psychopath.  He is driven by a quest to dispense divine judgment, in the process revealing a hidden world of depravity, corruption and a sinister conspiracy that reaches deep into the heart of the Establishment.

Tell us, in your opinion, which is your most compelling scene and why do you think so?

Another hard one, but I’ll give it a go.  While I’ve been quite pleased with the execution of the murder scenes (no pun intended) and certain set-pieces—most notably the scene involving a pair of komodo dragons, I’ve been most pleased with the scene where the political and philosophical motivations that truly lie behind the Samaritan’s crimes are finally revealed.  The reason I’m most drawn to this aspect of the story, I think, is that it exposes something of a ‘hidden world’ that exists just below the surface of civilized society, but which the unsuspecting population are conditioned and indoctrinated never to see—an invisible machinery of tyranny that functions beneath the façade of familiar social institutions operated by a shadowy cabal, which wields almost limitless power and influence over the lives of millions.  Essentially this concept lies at the heart of the novel, so I suppose that’s why I find it most compelling—though I suppose some readers may have their own personal preferences.

Was there any point when writing The Lucifer Syndrome that you had difficulty?

Strangely enough, it all seemed to flow quite smoothly and I didn’t encounter any real difficulty.  I think the reason for this might have been the fact that I’d considered the issues involved—the religious, pathological and even political elements—in some detail over the years before approaching this novel, so they all seemed to segue into an integrated whole with relative ease.

What was one of your earliest publications?  How did that experience affect your writing thereafter?

My earliest publications were short stories in the horror/science fiction anthologies, Red Stains and The Starry Wisdom published by Creation Books and a collection of my own sci-fi/horror stories, Metal Sushi published by Oneiros Books.  I think those stories represented something of a departure from the approach I employ in writing novels as they involved a more surreal and occasionally abstract style, which wasn’t always entirely successful and nudged me towards a more accessible style of story telling.  In fact, a certain influence on my subsequent writing has been the work I’ve done in the comic book medium while I was fulltime writer on Harris Comics’ Vampirella title and the manga-inspired spin-off Vampi for Anarchy Studios.  Comic book writing is a very specific discipline and quite ‘editorially intensive’ in the interests of character development and narrative accessibility, which I’ve actually found useful when it comes to novel writing too since it tends to focus the mind on the essential aspects of the book.

Where can readers find current news about your publications?

Aside from the e-press website readers can go to www.double-dragon-publishing.com for details of my recent novel Tokyo Gothic, a dark fantasy thriller set in Tokyo or to www.paraphiliamagazine.com to read my recent story The Persistence of Memory that appears in Paraphilia Magazine Issue 4 due in August 2009.  Another of my sci-fi stories entitled Manta Red is shortly due to appear in the Creation Books anthology Songs of the Black Wurm Gism, details of which can be found at www.creationbooks.com.

What is on your ‘to-do’ list for the next three years?

 At the moment I have two more books—a horror novel called Death Disco and a Tokyo-set psychological thriller entitled Kinky Kabuki—due for publication by Double Dragon Publishing either late 2009 or early 2010.  More information about them will be available on the website as and when they are published.  At the moment I’m looking for a suitable home for another novel I’ve recently finished, which deals with issues concerning celebrity, the media and terrorism.  I’m currently outlining a new novel I’m planning to complete within the next year, after which I hope to write a sequel to Tokyo Gothic and an ‘alternate history’ novel set in late Victorian London, which involves certain well-known historical—and some infamous—characters in a fictional thriller.

The Lucifer Syndrome
by David Conway

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