Published: Thursday, 11th February, 2010 6:00am

Jack dips his toe into Dark Waters

by Sam Berkeley

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Jack Ross on a fact-finding tour of Miami

THRILLER writer Jack Ross released the sequel to his acclaimed debut novel 'Requiem' last month.

In 'Dark Waters', the 46-year-old - born and educated in Dunbar - continues to chart the investigations of unflinching Miami Herald reporter Deborah Jones as she probes cover-ups and scandal among Florida's political class and social elite.

His maiden novel was largely well received, and the author wasted no time publishing the follow-up having completed the sequel in just 18 months.

"Requiem took much longer," said Ross, who grew up in Gardener Street and now lives in Dunfermline.

"It took me years to write and rewrite and then I had to get an agent to try to get it published.

"With Dark Waters the first draft was ready in about three of four months.

"[As a thriller] it's got to be fast paced and, because it's the sequel, you want the story to be more complex than the previous one. Hopefully I pulled it off."

Ross' other half thinks so. As his biggest critic and greatest fan, wife Susan is one of the acid tests for his literature... and she was impressed with his latest creation.

"My wife reads all my stuff and she thinks it's an improvement on the last one," he told the Courier.

In the sequel, Ross weaves a complex narrative around plot lines loosely based on factual episodes of the last decade: the attempted extradition to the US of Scottish computer hacker Gary McKinnon, and the 'missing 28 pages' from the US government's Congressional Report into September 11.

Conspiracy theorists speculate wildly about both incidents and it was on this premise that Ross elected formulate much of his 336-page novel.

"The seeds of Dark Waters were sown when I first read about the case of Gary McKinnon [alleged to have hacked into 97 United States military and NASA computers in 2001 and 2002] years before he became a cause celebre across the globe," said Ross.

"The 'missing 28 pages' [from the 9/11 report] are alleged to contain links between some within the Saudi elite and some of the terrorists.

"It's a conspiracy thriller. They were two areas I became interested in and began researching for this novel."

As part of this groundwork, the rising author even went on a fact-finding mission to Miami where he quizzed FBI officers, investigative reporters and the city police.

Asked if there were parallels in his previous life in the British newspaper industry and indomitable lead character Deborah Jones, he said: "Thankfully, no!

"The stuff she gets up to... I don't want to go down that road. My [newspaper] stuff was pretty mundane by comparison."

But Ross is not resting on his laurels, and has already sketched out plot lines and character ideas for further books.

"It's very heartening when you see such great feedback about your first novel," he said.

"But the important thing is to get on with your work.

"It's like anything. You have to be thinking about the next book and have to stretch yourself."

Published by Arrow, Dark Waters is available now in paperback at £7.99.