Karma Never Sleeps by R. John Dingle
ITW Debut Author Interview + Book & Author Info + Author Pet Corner
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Karma Never Sleeps
In a small town, the truth can’t always set you free…
When a second woman from a group of friends known as “the posse” is murdered in the woods near the New England enclave of Kendalton, FBI agent and profiler Gus Wheeler and his partner are called in to determine if this is a serial killing. He’s intrigued by a clue hidden on the body: a memorial picture of a teen who died 25 years ago.
Instead of helping with the investigation, the long-term friends stonewall the agents. But Gus can smell fear beneath their calm masks, fake smiles, and politely vague answers. Digging deeper, he discovers they are being terrorized by cyberstalking, spying, threats and mysterious break-ins. When a third member is hospitalized after a brutal attack, Gus suspects someone in the posse is the hunter instead of the hunted.
Is it the alpha leader Jules, her best friend Maria—married to the chief of police—outsider Mel, or weak link Lizzy? Or someone else bent on revenge? Time’s running out, and Gus’s life depends on his skill at determining who’s the best liar in town.
To purchase Karma Never Sleeps click the following link for all your favorite outlets! Tule Publishing
R. John Dingle — Author Interview
Karma Never Sleeps centers on FBI agent and profiler Gus Wheeler. What would you like readers to know about him?
It took me a long time to get Gus “just right” as a character. There have been so many mysteries written with FBI and other law enforcement protagonists that it’s very difficult to come up with something different or unique. And I wish I could take all the credit but my wife came up with the idea to have Gus be a jazz player aspiring to become a professional musician.
Gus toiled in that world for a while, living hand to mouth, when his friend and former college roommate who works at the FBI recruited Gus with the allure of a steady income, health benefits (for once!) and sabbaticals when important music opportunities arose. Our son is a professional jazz musician so I had lots of source material to bring Gus to life from there. Then I thought of coupling Gus with a different side-kick, one that broke the FBI mold in every way, and Vanessa was born.
Karma Never Sleeps takes place in a rural area of New England. Tell us about the location and why you set your debut there?
Kendalton is an amalgamation of a number of small towns. I’ve lived in small towns for most of my life so that type of setting just seemed natural. For a mystery / thriller, I love a closed setting. I feel that type of environment sort of tightens the tension around the story and has the characters act and react in interesting ways.
In an early draft of the book, Kendalton was a downtrodden, poor community but I soon struggled with why the members of the ‘posse’ would remain there once adults. So Kendalton then blossomed into a tourist destination which brought with it its own elements to the story.
What kind of research did you do for Karma Never Sleeps?
I was amazed at how much research is involved in writing a commercial thriller / mystery novel. Someone told me early on it’s the details that matter and, oh how she was right.
For Karma Never Sleeps, I had research to do in so many areas it was both exciting and daunting. The story revolves around a group of women being targeted and psychologically tormented, someone anonymously providing the investigators with clues along the way, and the FBI investigating it all.
So, for starters, I needed to research the FBI on several fronts – how their profilers operate in real life, how their investigative process works and even when they are / are not called into a town to investigate. I read articles, blogs and official documents released from the FBI to tie it all together. I then had to dive into crime scenes and how they’re processed and for that I relied on everything from ‘Crime Scenes for Dummies’ to forensic articles on blood splatter and where and how a fingerprint could be lifted.
Next, as the story progresses the FBI begins to get anonymous messages they cannot trace providing them clues. Fortunately, I was able to find an expert in cyber security that helped me with the details in so many areas – encryption methods, computer servers and bouncing connections among them, etc.
And, finally, I wanted the suspect to be able to paralyze their victims while also allowing them to still feel pain. I’ve always been intrigued with the concept of creating medicines from nature – a younger me watching The Serpent and the Rainbow and being fascinated by the concept has always stuck in my mind. So I researched medicines created from nature, pain blockers, etc. and honed in on what I wanted.
So, with all of that, I had to temper what I included in the story to provide the right balance of details, while also propelling the story along at a fast pace to keep it engaging. And, once that was accomplished, Karma Never Sleeps was born.
Karma Never Sleeps is considered a psychological thriller. What does that subgenre mean to you?
Interestingly, an early criticism I received when shopping Karma Never Sleeps to agents was that it was both a mystery and a psychological thriller. It seemed they needed to put it in a box, pick a lane for it.
More interestingly (to me) is that much of the early feedback and reviews has been very positive and many have highlighted how it’s a bit different in that it gives you the procedural elements of a mystery while also weaving it all into a psychological thriller.
The customary definition of a thriller is a story where the reader learns of things or knows things before the protagonist and I generally agree with that. I try to write stories that have a cat and mouse element to it which inevitably has the reader knowing things the protagonist does not.
You live on a small island off the coast of Maine. Tell us about your two-hundred-year old “not” haunted home:
We absolutely love our old home. We bought it in 2005 and, as the story goes, my wife said one day “what if we just move this one wall to make the room a little bigger?” Five years later, a full studs-up restoration done, we had our dream home. And during that process we found all sorts of items in the walls – very old young children’s shoes, glass jars, coins, etc.
But one of the best stories involves clocks.
When we began furnishing it, my wife brought in some small clocks to hang and put in different places. And every time she would, the clock would stop working days or a week or so thereafter. And each clock would stop at the same time – 10:25. She repeated this pattern for a while, each time to the same result. She then told our elderly neighbor about it and they puzzled on it but came up with no ideas. Then the next day, our neighbor came running over to tell us that she relayed the story to her husband and he reminded her that the prior owner who had owned the house for 70-80 years had a passionate hobby: he fixed clocks.
My wife then went around the house, speaking to the former owner to tell him we loved the house, thought of it as home, and would take care of it as such. New clocks brought in after that worked just fine.
What are you working on now?
Karma Never Sleeps is the 1st in the Gus Wheeler FBI Thriller series. The 2nd book is due out in November 2025 and is based in a small city so has a very urban vibe.
That story revolves around a series of women being abducted from a section of the city dubbed Music Row (think a small, less attractive version of The Quarter in New Orleans) and a suspect who is experiencing severe psychological issues as he’s overtaken by psychosis.
That book is in the editing process now. And I just finished editing a stand-alone thriller about a group of true crime junkies that stumble on a series of murders and work to solve it with other true crime junkies online. I wrote that novel while Karma Never Sleeps was being shopped to publishers so we’ll be finding that a home soon. And, lastly, I’ve just begun writing the 3rd book in the Gus Wheeler series which has a hardcore religious element to it and takes place in the vast rural areas of northern Maine.
Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Writers:
The best advice I’ve ever gotten regarding writing is just sit your butt in a chair and write. I wrote for years and probably wrote 5-6 entire books in all the drafts I tossed in the proverbial garbage. So, my journey to getting published – like so many others – was anything but a straight line. But all that writing was invaluable practice and really helped me find my own style and voice. So, I’d say to anyone that wants to be a writer: practice, practice, practice. You’ll be happy you did.
Great Advice!
Author Pet Corner!
We have a dog – currently only one which is rare. She’s a hound and her name is Belle.
Belle was found trapped in a home in Oklahoma, having been alone for several days after her owner passed away. And Oklahoma, like many states sadly, has an over-population of homeless animals so the rescue service that ended up with Belle has a program to transport homeless dogs north to Maine.
My wife, who had been searching for “her dawg” for years, saw a Facebook post from a dear friend with a photo of Belle and she just knew.
Flash forward a few days and my wife was at the shelter in Portland before sunrise – hours before it opened – on the day Belle was due to arrive to make sure she was 1st on the list. We’ve had Belle for about six years now and spoil her every chance we get.
Karma Never Sleeps Author R. John Dingle
John Dingle is the author of mysteries and psychological thrillers set in New England.
He and his wife currently call a small island in Mid-Coast Maine ‘home’, both living, writing and boating from their restored 200-year old house.
The psychological thriller, Karma Never Sleeps, is John’s first novel and the first in the Gus Wheeler FBI Thriller series. It will be published in April 2025.
To learn more about John, click any of the following links: Website & Instagram
Elena Hartwell | Elena Taylor
