Shawville author Luke Murphy will be releasing his eighth novel at the end of the month, a mystery thriller entitled “Dark Horse”.
The plot centres around one of Murphy’s recurring protagonists, Calvin Watters, a former football player turned private investigator. “Dark Horse”, the fifth in the Watters series, sees the sleuth venture to small-town Mississippi, where the sister of a former teammate of his has been found dead.
It’s been around two years since the release of Murphy’s last novel, and he said that his latest required some revision.
“I started working on ‘Dark Horse’ probably in the winter, late in the winter, 2024,” he said. “Got the first draft last summer and I kind of put it on the shelf, I didn’t love it.”
He said that after taking some time experimenting with writing screenplays, he returned to the manuscript this past winter and
reworked the whole thing with a new location.
“It’s the fifth novel with Calvin Watters, I kind of wanted something different. The major change I had was the setting.”
Murphy said that switching to a small town allowed him to mine some of his personal experiences for the page.
“This is the first book where I actually set it in a small town. So I got to use all my experience growing up in Shawville, my knowledge of small towns. So I had a lot more fun with that,” he said. “My other novels are set in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, these major U.S. cites, so I took my creative liberty and created a fictitious town of 1,000 people called Port Hope, Mississippi. Basically it revolves around everything I know about Shawville. That’s where it was a lot more fun to write, and I think especially locals will be able to make a connection.”
He added that some readers may recognize some similarities, such as the trail where the victim is initially found resembles a
certain trail in Shawville.
Murphy said that he really enjoyed his experience writing for the screen, and said that he had recently completed a pilot episode.
“I worked with a professional screenwriter, we created a pilot episode for a series, more of a drama, that was a really fun project that I did,” he said. “I can’t believe how different it is from writing novels, it’s crazy.”
With his eighth novel nearly under his belt, Murphy said that his process now differs considerably from when he first started. He said that with family and work responsibilities, it’s hard to find a few hours to get behind the keyboard.
“This winter was really tough finding time. I’m getting older, I just turned 50 in November.
I can’t write from 11 [p.m.] till two in the morning and expect to get up and go to school like I used to right?”
The e-book of “Dark Horse” will be available June 26, with paperback and audiobook to follow. Preorders are available here: https://mybook.to/xK8X
