SIMON BECKETT: What's next for David Hunter?

 The Calling of the Grave

A lot of readers have asked about David Hunter’s past, and in The Calling of the Grave I felt it was time to reveal a little more about his background – especially the events that shaped the man we’ve seen in the previous novels.  

Eight years ago Hunter was part of a forensic team tasked with finding the graves of missing teenage girls, the victims of a brutal rapist and murderer called Jerome Monk. Back then Hunter’s life was very different - happily married and with a young daughter, he was confident in his abilities and optimistic about the future.

Now that’s all changed. Haunted by personal tragedy, he’s forced to return to Dartmoor when Monk escapes from prison and appears to be targeting people involved in the search. As Hunter confronts a past he’d hoped was buried, he begins to realise that the events of eight years ago are far from over, and that his only chance of ending the violence unfolding now is by questioning everything - and everyone - he thought he knew.

The Calling of the Grave is probably the most ambitious book I’ve written. My aim was to create an unpredictable, compelling story in which neither Hunter nor the reader can take anything for granted. I wanted to spring some real surprises, both about Hunter’s past as well as the present, which I hope I’ve done. As well as provide a few scares and sleepless nights on the way...

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Published by Bantam Press (3 Feb 2011)