“It’s a thrill to see my book in shops in New York, Norwich, Toronto and Teesside,” says debut author Richard Jerram

Richard Jerram celebrated the publication of his first novel The Makoto Murders at a launch party in Hatchards in Piccadilly in July.

The event, hosted at London’s oldest bookshop, brought together family, friends, people in publishing, and lecturers and classmates from his studies.

“I had a wonderful launch party. All sorts of people were there. Everyone mingled, drank wine and saké, and seemed to have a good time,” said Richard. “I’ve found that people are so generous – they are all genuinely happy for me and want to celebrate the achievement.”

The book is already being reprinted – with his publicist saying she’d never seen a reprint so quick.

The noir thriller is written in the point of view of Ken Kato, a British-Japanese photojournalist who gained fame with a photograph of a boy who drowned in the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.

Facing irrelevancy (and, worse, redundancy) at his weekly lowbrow Tokyo magazine, he decides to turn serial killer to generate his own attention-grabbing pictures.

As a satire on ambition, the novel is an unflinching analysis of our ghoulish obsession with true crime and serial killers.

Richard’s first career was as an economist in financial markets, working in London, Tokyo and Singapore.

He met his wife and raised his children in Tokyo, a city he believes is fertile grounds for the crime fiction genre, as it very safe but has a dark underbelly.

Richard’s dissertation was supervised by crime writer Dr Joe Thomas, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, who described the novel as:

A stylish interrogation of contemporary obsessions, and with a deeply etched sense of place, The Makoto Murders is unsettling and outrageous, fast-paced and very entertaining.

The early chapters of the novel won Richard the Debut Dagger (now known as the Emerging Author Dagger) from the Crime Writers’ Association in 2024.

The CWA awards are the UK’s most prestigious crime fiction awards, and Richard met his agent at the ceremony. From there, the book went out for submission before being acquired by Titan Books.

He said:

I didn’t realise how many steps there are before your book arrives in your local bookshop.

Each moment is an absolute delight.

Seeing the cover design. Receiving the first bound proof. Seeing the finished PDF of what the book will eventually look like. Then, about a month before the publication date, taking delivery of a box of books that are the same as the ones that will be in the shops.

Still, it’s hard to beat the raw pleasure of walking into Waterstones and seeing it sitting there, right between Mick Herron and Lisa Jewell, two hugely successful crime writers.

A further thrill has been friends sending me photos when they’ve found it in bookshops in New York or Norwich, Toronto or Teesside.

Richard’s advice to aspiring writers is to truly commit to the process, as many people begin writing and run out of energy or ideas, and to ask a professional editor to review it if they can.

Going through the process of querying your book requires resilience, as many agents are likely to reject your manuscript, “even though you know it’s the most brilliant thing that’s ever been written.”

He has already submitted his second manuscript to his agent last month, which is a sequel to The Makoto Murders, and credits his former supervisor Joe in helping him “knock the first chapters into shape”.

“My dream when I started out was to have a book on the shelf,” he said. “I’ve achieved that, so I’m content.”