We’d like to welcome John A. Hoda to the blog today for a little Q&A. He’s here in honor of his latest release, Hyde and Seek, the first book in the new Jekyll & Murphy Mystery series, which came out yesterday!

Welcome! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what got you into writing?

I am an award-winning author of 18 books and a headline-making investigator of forty-nine years. I am a licensed private investigator in CT. I am a life time athlete, having run marathons, played semi-professional football and adult soccer. For hobbies, I paint and act in amateur theater. The idea for my first novel, Second Chance at Bat had been kicking around in my head for years. I had the beginning and the end, but not the middle until my son and I attended a Phillies game in 2010, and the answer was there in the program. I told my son the plot and he astutely pointed out I didn’t know how to write. What I said to him has become my mantra, “I will learn.” So I did and I have been learning ever since whether it’s been through conferences, writer groups, study groups, critique groups and reading others in my genre with a writer’s eye. I listen to my editors and work hard to make my books shine. I have written non-fiction for magazines and text books. I created a DVD about interviewing. I have a knack for storytelling and I am an avid reader of flawed fictional detectives so the leap to fiction was not impossible.

Are there any books that have really influenced you as a writer?

Tana French, The Dublin Murder Series, (I read her with a highlighter in hand), Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch and Renee Ballard series, Lawrence Block with the Matt Scudder series. Martin Cruz with the Arkady Renko series and Laura Lippmann with the Tess Monaghan series. Who can forget A. Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes or Dame Agatha Christie?

What do you enjoy most about writing mysteries?

Sculpting a page-turner where my flawed fictional detectives overcome every external obstacle to uncover the truth. In this story I have Mr. Hyde chasing Jack the Ripper; a wanted murderer tracking an unknown serial killer.

What inspired this book/series in particular?

A writer in my critique group was pitching a synopsis and I asked, “Is it like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde meet Jack the Ripper? He said, “no.”  But it got me thinking, what if? The idea stuck with me. I researched Jekyll and Hyde. The novella was published in January 1886. Jack started his reign of terror in the summer of 1888. Both settings were only a few postal codes apart. No one mashed up this iconic story with the greatest criminal of that century. Sherlock Holmes chased The Ripper. Jules Verne traveled back in time to follow the clues, but nobody thought of this unique premise.  I found it exciting to get into the heads of my major characters. I wrote this story from four different point of views in the first person present tense. Talk about pulse-pounding immediacy.

Can you tell us a bit about the historical setting of Hyde and Seek?

Victorian London—Foggy nights in the worst part of town, Whitechapel. We pick up the story before the Whitechapel Murderer is given the title of Jack the Ripper. I had to learn about that time period as all of my writing up to this book was set in present day America. I also had to learn about the Ripper. I was fortunate to have a Ripperologist in my family who sent me a large box of books all about Saucy Jack. I had to make sure I got it all correct. The killings are still the subject of intense speculation.  Grisly coroner inquest reports and sketches completed the details—not for the faint of heart.

Can you tell us about your writing space? Where do you do most of your writing?

Coffee shoppes, outdoor tables when its warm and dry. I play Tangerine Dream on Pandora on my headphones. I try to write in the afternoon Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I do a light edit and develop my scene cards the night before, so I am ready to write the next day. It also allows my brain to marinate ideas while I sleep. I write in 1500 word scenes. This process has served me well since 2018.

What helps you when you have writers block?

I don’t have writer’s block. I go from idea to concept to storyline to three-act structure to tent pole scenes in methodical fashion. I flesh out my characters, do my research before I finish my scene list. This methodology allows me to never stare at a blank page and ask what’s next. The joy is filling out that scene with vivid descriptions, snappy dialogue, interiority leaving the reader at the end with a desire to turn the next page.

What are some things you are really enjoying right now? Books, TV, foods, etc.?

Val McDermid’s Karen Pirie on Britbox, Connelly’s Renee Ballard and Elizabeth George’s Inspector Linley on Prime Video, School Spirits on Paramount + and the Ian Rutledge series by Charles Todd in mass paperback.

Hyde and Seek was a chance to take on a killer premise (pun intended). I fleshed out Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde, created Francine Murphy out of whole cloth as a social reformer ahead of her time and explained why the Ripper became monster. It’s not often a writer has such fertile soil to work with.

Want to know more about Hyde and Seek?

A bold new re-imagining of one of literature’s most enduring legends, Hyde and Seek is an utterly unique, Victorian-era mystery with a clever play on the famous Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tale, where the monster becomes the hero, and lines are crossed along the way…

Unbeknownst even to himself, the kind, gentle, quietly brilliant Dr. Jekyll has created an alter ego—his polar opposite, the dark and dangerous, Mr. Hyde. A little bit Dexter, Hyde hunts down criminals to make them pay for their sins. But his “good deeds” go too far and, now, wanted for murder, he must lay low…until his love interest comes into Jack the Ripper’s sights.

Francine Murphy, a social reformer years ahead of her time, walks the mean streets of Whitechapel London, rescuing the gin-soaked prostitutes that “Jack” preys upon. But as she gets closer and closer to the truth, will she become the Ripper’s next target? Hyde and his exceptional investigation skills—and his wicked hand—may be all that saves her.

Atmospheric, intelligent, and emotionally charged, this is historical mystery at its most inventive, masterfully blending Gothic suspense with Victorian realism, inviting readers into a world where the boundaries between hero and monster blur. A rich-new voice in historical mysteries, Hoda is an ex-police officer and private investigator, as well as a three-time winner of publisher’s award from The Legal Investigator.

Meet John A. Hoda:

John A. Hoda is an award-winning author and headline-making investigator. Readers applaud the realism and gritty dialogue he delivers from his work on the mean streets for the past five decades. He was the show runner of My Favorite Detective Stories podcast. John is a former insurance fraud investigator and police officer.

Hoda graduated from Indiana Univ. of PA with a degree in criminology. He moderates a writing craft study group and is an active member of the Fairfield Scribes, a critique group on steroids. John was a judge in the Shamus awards in 2019.

John has written the six-book FBI agent Marsha O’Shea police procedural series about a badass female agent trying to get her mojo back.

Mr. Hoda released his Gwendolyn Strong four-book small town traditional cozy mystery series in the fall of 2022.

He has written four how-2 books on the business side of running an investigations firm.

The podcast is heard in 79 countries with over 50,000 downloads. He interviews best-selling and award-winning authors about what makes their flawed fictional detectives tick.

He can be reached at hodagen@gmail.com. Or you can follow him on Facebook and Bluesky!

Become an email subscriber for upcoming announcements at www.johnhoda.com