JAKE ARNOTT chats to Paul Burke about his new novel Blood Rival, Sophocles, Family, noir, tragedy, Blue Lights, Jim Thompson, James Ellroy, Cathi Unsworth, The Responder.

BLOOD RIVAL It happened at a place where three roads meet. Junction 1A of the M25, heading east towards Gravesend. There’s a killer on the road.
Lee Royle, the notorious ‘King of Kent’, is dead, killed in a brutal act of road rage. But was this a random attack, or was it a premeditated move in a deadly game of betrayal and revenge?
Three lives are set on a collision course: Jo Royle, Lee’s disillusioned and embittered wife, hiding secrets that could kill; Eddie Pierce, Jo’s ambitious new lover, determined to move up the criminal ranks; and Commander Ray Spinks, a corrupt cop with his own claim on Lee’s legacy -and no intention of letting it slip through his fingers.
Caught between lust and loyalty, ambition and guilt, each will risk everything to uncover or bury the explosive truth behind Lee’s death. Because this wasn’t just a murder. It was a reckoning.
Blood Rival is a modern retelling of an ancient story, where Greek tragedy meets neo-noir. A compulsive psychological thriller of forbidden desire, family secrets and fatal ambition.

Jake Arnott was born in 1961, and lives in London. He is the author of the THE LONG FIRM, published by Sceptre in 1999 and subsequently made into an acclaimed BBC TV series. His second novel, HE KILLS COPPERS, was also made into a series by Channel 4. He has since published the novels TRUECRIME, JOHNNY COME HOME, THE DEVIL'S PAINTBRUSH, THE HOUSE OF RUMOUR, THE FATAL TREE and now BLOOD FEVER.

Paul Burke edits Aspects of Crime Magazine and writes for Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2025. His first book An Encyclopedia of Spy Fiction will be out 2026.

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