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Tis the season for thrills and chills, and Nashville-based author R.J. Jacobs has a new thriller to add to your list of Halloween reads.
His chilling novel, Always the First to Die, transports readers into an eerie hurricane-ravaged setting in the Florida Keys where a former horror movie actress is forced to return to the site of her most famous film. But life begins to imitate art as she finds herself caught in events that resemble the cursed movie.
Along with his work as an author, Jacobs has practiced as a psychologist since 2003. And it’s evident that Jacobs’ deep understanding of the mind gives him a unique perspective to write novels that are nearly impossible to put down.
Passion Project: I grew up in Southwest Florida and have lived in Nashville for about 19 years. I work as a psychologist and took up writing mystery novels about five years ago, which has turned into a bigger part of my life in the last few years. The only writing classes I took in college were in scriptwriting. My professor was an enormous fan of horror movies, and his affection for them definitely rubbed off on me. I like an exciting story. I set aside writing fiction during grad school but always intended to get back to it when the time was right. Just before my 40th birthday, I bought a laptop and carved out some time to start working on a novel. I have a nice professional balance going right now. My clinical work is obviously patient- facing so I’m lucky to have a creative pursuit that’s mostly solitary. I think most artists—musicians, visual artists, writers—access a flow state at times while they work. It sounds hokey, but I like being in the present. Writing gives me that.
A Hauntingly Good Read: [Always the First to Die] is about a former horror movie actress who has to go into the evacuated Florida Keys to find her daughter after a hurricane, and the circumstances begin to resemble the plot of the film she starred in. My hope is that it’s a fun, fast-paced read. I think classic horror movies were fun because they weren’t afraid to be campy. People shield their eyes during those films, but they also smile. The tropes remind everyone that the story is just a story and that the audience can relax and enjoy the experience because they’re in on the jokes. I wanted that energy to translate to Always the First to Die.
Setting is Key: The Keys have such a vibrant unique culture, I hoped to capture part of that in my story. Once the setting was decided, I started thinking about nautical elements that could work in a thriller—pressurized air, boat props, even water itself. The Keys also have only one way in and out. I interviewed residents who’d lived through Hurricane Matthew who told me about how dark it was at night, and were cooking and reading by candlelight. I thought about how spooky that would be, how much like a horror movie.
Coming Soon: I think understanding context [as a psychologist] helps me write certain scenes. I guess if I was a lawyer, I might write legal thrillers, or I might write medical thrillers if I was a doctor. My next book is about a group of psychology graduate students running an experiment on deception, and it should be out in fall 2023. After one of the subjects becomes unsettled, the professor in charge decides to suspend their research. The grad students take sides and resentments bloom. That night, one of them is killed in the department. I wanted to write a classic locked room mystery in a setting I’m very familiar with: an academic department. There’s still a lot of mistrust of psychology, but I hope the story is a lot of fun.