Mountmellick author delves into the dark side of humanity in new novel

A Mountmellick author has drawn on his background in psychology to pen a new thriller. 

Gary Colton started writing ten years ago and has previously written adventure novels.

His latest book ‘Dark Finds’ centres around a young detective who unknowingly falls in love with the serial killer she is trying to catch.

Speaking to the Leinster Express / Laois Live this week Gary said he wanted to give the reader the opportunity to travel into the villain's world. 

“When I came out of college I worked in the psychology department in the National College of Ireland. A lot of the research that came up was about the impact of early childhood trauma. I think that stuck with me,” said Gary. 

“My thesis in college was based in the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise and it looked at psychopathy among the prison inmates. It looked at how they identify as a criminal and how it spurs on that kind of behaviour. These two factors were the genesis of the book and led me to create this serial killer, a psychopath that has suffered this trauma and then goes on to do these unspeakable acts.”

Writing hasn’t always come natural to the Laois native and it was only when he was in first year in secondary school that he discovered he is dyslexic. 

“As I got older I knew that was something I wanted to conquer and to get better at. I started reading a lot when I was travelling in Canada,” explained Gary. 

“I was working in a hostel and I was doing the night shift so there was ample time to read and start to write.”

Along with a passion for writing Gary’s other love is advertising and he is currently a Senior Client Solutions Manager at LinkedIn.

“I have been working in advertising for the last six years. It tends to be far more analytical so I think the writing balances my brain. It fulfils the creative desire while the day job is very numerical.” 

When he had his latest novel written Gary set out to build a marketing engine around the book to capture the audience. This led him to set up the very popular Instagram page DarkFinds, where his content delves into the dark side of humanity.

It has clearly struck a chord with readers and has a following of 228,000 on the social media platform. 

“I started that in August last year and it took off really well. It has a really active community around it,” Gary said. 

“There's an evolutionary aspect of why we are drawn to darker elements of people and society. We see this with the media, we pay so much more attention to something that's dangerous or darker. People are naturally drawn to it. It's ultimately the way our brains are wired up.”

Readers can expect all this and more in Dark Finds, which follows detective  Eve Salah and her seasoned partner, Mitch, as they face their most perplexing case. A serial killer known as The Poet has struck again, bludgeoning an Irish businessman to death in Toronto’s financial district. 

Everything changes when Eve meets handsome psychologist Jack Lawson, who Mitch becomes suspicious of after new evidence is uncovered. Continued after book cover 

“I wanted to tell the book from the serial killer’s perspective. I always found the most interesting characters in books or TV are the villains. I was more curious about their background and how they became like this,” said Gary. 

Since the book has launched Gary has been overwhelmed by the support from his community in Mountmellick and his work colleagues. 

“After writing such a dark book I got to see the beautiful side of humanity and that has been so heartwarming. It contrasts with the darkness of the book,” he added. 

Not one to rest on his laurels, the Mountmellick man has already begun working on his next book which is set to be released before Christmas. This time Gary is turning his attention to ancient Greece and this adventure epic will retell the myth of narcissus.

“It is exciting, I have always had a massive interest in ancient Greece and mythology,” said Gary.

‘Dark Finds’ will be available from this week in Bookmark in Portlaoise Shopping Centre, O’Gorman’s Shop in Mountmellick and also online at Amazon through the following link Dark Finds: Amazon.co.uk: Colton, Gary: 9781805173632: Books