This week on Spotlight On, we spoke to the incredible Robert Gold about his upcoming thriller TWELVE SECRETS, the first in a new crime series following journalist Ben Harper as he seeks to uncover the truth surrounding his brother’s gruesome murder. It will be published by Sphere in the UK in 2022, and can be pre-ordered from Waterstones, Amazon, or your local bookshop.

Robert Gold co-wrote three James Patterson titles in 2016 for his Bookshot series. Rob started his career as an intern for CNN in Washington DC, before he moved into the publishing world, where he was the nationwide book buyer for Asda. He now works in sales for a publisher. Living in west Putney, you often might find him running along the riverbank or back through the woods from Barnes.

Tell us about your book.

The novel is called TWELVE SECRETS and is set in a fictionalised part of west London.  It is a close knit community with quite a claustrophobic feel.  Like so many people, I loved the ITV series Broadchurch, where lots of secrets were kept hidden - I guess I would aspire to capturing an element of that. 

I love the way a good story can gradually peel back the layers for a reader and that is definitely the case in TWELVE SECRETS.  I hope the reader finds lots of twists and turns along the way and the odd moment which takes their breath away. 

Fingers crossed by the very end all of the strands are weaved together!

You work in publishing, so you know what goes on behind the scenes - what has it been like to experience the other side of the process, and what are you looking forward to?

Publishing is a great industry to work in with lots of creative people, and with an ability to reach a huge number of readers in so many different ways. I have worked within Sales for much of my career and while I have always been very close to the publishing process it is a very different experience as an author.

Just the first step of sharing your novel is a huge one, so when you then start working with an editor in a considerable amount of detail that is a very different experience.  Your editor gets to know your book almost as well as you do and suddenly something you have already worked on for a considerable amount of time has somebody else putting forward ideas and suggesting changes.

The team at my publishers (Little, Brown) have been absolutely brilliant and the enthusiasm they bring to the whole publishing process is great.  Publishing a book is a long process and I think when you are the author you realise that far more.  When you are working within a publishing house, particularly a big publisher where I work or at somewhere like Little Brown, you are constantly juggling a huge amount of books. Almost every week we will have new books being published.  When you are an author, and working on your one book, you soon realise you are part of the process and everything does take time.

What’s the first novel you remember completing and was this the first book you had published?

The first novel I completed was called COAST TO COAST.  It was the story of a couple traveling across America and through flashbacks into their lives you realise their marriage is gradually breaking down.  It lives in my “bottom drawer” and I doubt will ever see the light of day again! 

It was still a great experience writing it—and knowing I could tell a story over the length of 100,000 words—and even though it was never published knowing I could do that gave me more confidence.

The first “books” I ever had published were three short books I co-authored with James Patterson in his Bookshots series.  That was a brilliant experience and nobody can tell a story better than James Patterson.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers and those seeking representation?

Never give up! And always enjoy what you write.  If you aren’t enjoying it then I always think it is a fair bet that other people won’t either.  And if you are enjoying the writing that has to be half the fun. It is difficult to get published but take on board any feedback you ever receive.  I find it is nearly always well-intentioned.

What are you working on at the moment? / What are you writing next?

The lead character in TWELVE SECRETS is an investigative journalist called Ben Harper.  TWELVE SECRETS tells the story of his life but the nature of his work allows him to be drawn into a huge amount of other stories.  With him being an investigative journalists, the stories he becomes involved with will always have a link to the past but will hopefully play out in the present day as well.

Right now I’m starting work on the second book in the series which will see Ben, along with a number of other characters, return.