A few of us here at Crime Fiction Lover are a little envious of the experiences new crime author Oliver Johnson has had. He’s worked in bookselling with Waterstones, and in publishing as a commissioning editor. Can you imagine critting the likes of John Grisham, Michael Crichton or Lindsey Davis? Well, Oliver doesn’t have to – he’s done it! And, speaking of the imagination, alongside his work in publishing he also co-authored the role-playing game Dragon Warriors, back in the 1980s. Following on from that, he wrote The Lightbringer Trilogy in the fantasy genre in the late 1990s.
Now, he’s stepped into the world of crime fiction having penned the recently released thriller, Caller Unknown, set in Maine. Do you remember the 1970s film Telefon, with Donald Pleasance and Charles Bronson? Well, it’s a bit like that. Our hero, Ed Constance, has suffered a terrible experience as a child which ended in total amnesia. However, one phone call will bring back the nightmare in the present day, and he’s not the only one.
To us, it sounds massively intriguing, so we just had to interrogate Oliver on his ideas, inspiration, key themes and what it’s like to be the writer instead of the red-pen man…
What are crime fiction lovers going to love about Caller Unknown?
Hopefully: mystery; action; relentless pace; a soupçon of paranoia and, in my estimation, a startling ending.
It’s a high-concept, high-impact thriller with quite an unusual set-up. What is the dreaded phone call that Ed Constance doesn’t want?
As a child, my hero Ed and some other kids were held hostage by a shady couple whose motivation is only gradually revealed through the book – they’re but small cogs in a vast conspiracy. During their captivity, the kids were made to recite verses from the Bible, especially an obscure passage from Revelation. When they are grown up, it acts as a psychological trigger when spoken over the phone – their world goes blank, and they set out on the deadly missions embedded in their unconscious since childhood.
Where did the idea come from, and how have you developed it?
I was interested in amnesia and recovered memory and what a character might do when placed in a situation in which they suddenly recall their past and what it means to them now. How, even if they decide to run, they find everything in their new existence as fraught with traps and danger as their old one.
Who is Ed, what inspired the character and how have you developed him?
Ed is my amnesiac hero – a kid, then a young man fighting almost insuperable odds to save his family and his life. Writing Ed is like writing a new character on a blank piece of paper. Initially he remembers nothing of his past and everything he recalls has to be slowly and elaborately brought to life while preserving mystery and the suspense. Oliver Sacks’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat offers several striking case studies of this kind of psychological blankness.
And who is he up against?
The bad guys actually existed. Before World War II, the United States saw a significant rise in far‑right movements – from the Ku Klux Klan to the Silver Shirts and, in my book, the Christian Front, a group of militant, anti‑Bolshevik, antisemitic Catholics. Typhon, the organisation in my book is a survival by other means of this last group.
I know there’s an emphasis on pace, twists and thrills but were there any bigger themes you wanted to explore in Caller Unknown?
With the world sliding deeper into far‑right politics and populism, I wondered whether there was any value in returning to a time when these ideas were already widespread – and in confronting what they produced.
As a commissioning editor at Hodder and Stoughton, you’ve now become a writer. What’s it like being on the other side of the desk, so to speak?
Though I might know every twist and turn in the publishing business, and there are no surprises, good or bad, it’s nevertheless a complete role reversal. Writers have a job, a business, a career – and though it’s not very glamorous to say it, I have to work on that aspect of it as much as the creative side. Forty years in bookselling and publishing don’t bring attendant privileges, despite all the fun and the friends I’ve made.
In the past you’ve also been heavily involved in fantasy fiction and role playing games. How is writing a crime thriller similar to or different to that wild world of dragons and warriors?
Caller Unknown is rooted in this world, but the world of the near past, principally the 70s and 80s. For me, that makes the research a process of recovery, recalling stuff from when I was young. But there is also some level of invention. Readers are quite surprised to discover some of the strange things in the book are actually true. When writing fantasy, it’s all invention, all world‑building – and though you have freedom, it’s like creating your own pocket universe.
Which crime authors or books have inspired or influenced you?
I could hardly not be influenced by all the authors I’ve worked and collaborated with over the decades. And reviewers have already pointed out that the classic book and movie of The Manchurian Candidate are influences. But specifically for Caller Unknown, I’d cite three novels: my very first book with John Grisham, The Firm (a hero whose mounting paranoia reveals that his job – and his life – are essentially a lie); Stephen King’s The Institute (a group of young kids in the Maine woods are vital cogs in a conspiracy); and Terry Hayes’s I Am Pilgrim (a globe-spanning, ambitious and epic thriller).
What’s next for Ed Constance and what’s next for Oliver Johnson in the world of crime fiction?
The ending of Caller opens the door for a sequel, and I will write it one day, but my next book, After You, takes place parallel to the events in this one. There’s an Easter egg near the end that recalls those events, though otherwise it reads as a standalone. It tells the story of a deadly fraternal rivalry, with elements of Cain and Abel, and – for thriller fans and TV viewers – shades of The Gold, with a dash of The Pardoner’s Tale for good measure.
Caller Unknown is out now – watch for our review and/or grab your copy using the buttons below. Photo credit: Mark Rusher.
