The new thriller from Mark Stevens was released on May 1 as an Amazon First Reads selection and quickly racked up thousands of positive reviews. No wonder.
No Lie Lasts Forever is a smart, fast-paced thriller that keeps readers engaged and guessing through 450 pages of twists and turns.
Ahead of the book's official June 1 publication date, Mark and I chatted about this new book, whether his earlier Allison Coil series is really over, and what sort of reader he has in mind when he writes.
Steve Weddle: So the tagline for No Lie Lasts Forever is “A reformed serial killer coaxes a disgraced journalist into finding the imposter trading on his name.” What a setup. How did that come about?
Mark Stevens: How? I have no idea. I was driving. It was night. I was alone. This was a long time ago. I had written three crime novels. All were safely out of the hands of readers. I had good agents for all three projects at that point, but I was still learning how to write. So, there I was. Driving. I wasn’t trying to dream up a plot. I wasn’t thinking about my next project or anything like that. To put it simply, I was minding my own business. And the whole concept of this book materialized in my head. At least, the general shape of it. I could feel it. I know, that sounds strange to say. I’m not a woo-woo guy. But I could grasp the general tension of the whole story. In a flash.
Steve Weddle: Which section of the book did you write first?
Mark Stevens: Act one, scene one, sentence one. I always start at the beginning. I have no idea how other writers manage to write a scene from the middle of the novel without knowing the beats and details for what has come before. To me, writing out of order is some sort of black magic that should be outlawed because it sets a dangerous precedent for intelligence and perception that is most likely the product of an evil alien presence. What else could it be?
Steve Weddle: How is this new novel impacted by your time at The Denver Post? And why is Flynn Martin a broadcast journalist instead of a print journalist?
Mark Stevens: Second question first: Because the incident that causes Flynn Martin citywide embarrassment, and gets her suspended from the station, is something that plays out as she’s covering an ongoing hostage situation at a convenience store. Flynn already has a bit of celebrity in Denver as a highly visible reporter who has been around for years and that celebrity. Print reporters, generally speaking, don’t have the same public persona and the print reporters don’t typically get put in those situations. Because television reporters have access to that little stick of dynamite: live television.
And I would say much of the book was informed by 20 years in journalism (three different newspapers in all and six years producing national television news for the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour back in the 1980s). I also spent a long time working with reporters as director of communications for school districts and the state department of education here in Colorado. So I worked with lots of reporters from the other side of the communications fence, so to speak. The fact that reformed serial killer Harry Kugel works at the Colorado Department of Education is pure coincidence. It’s got to be.
Steve Weddle: Do you have a Mark Stevens reader in mind when you write? And, if so, has that idea of the reader changed for you since you started?
Mark Stevens: It sounds wrong, I guess, but I don’t have readers in mind. Sorry, readers. I guess that comes from years and years of writing without being published. And it’s possible you could think that was the reason WHY I wasn’t getting published, because I didn’t know my reader. But I also think it’s kind of a mistake to think you’ll only have one type of reader, right? So I write for myself. I try to make the story good and then rewrite it five or six times after that.
Steve Weddle: Which part of this book was the hardest to write?
Mark Stevens: Can I get away with saying “all of it”? No? I guess writing from Harry Kugel’s point of view was the hardest thing to try and get right. A guy who was once evil but who stopped, cold. And reformed himself. Maybe? It was a challenge to make him somewhat likable and engaging and then watch him squirm as the pressure builds.
Steve Weddle: What surprised you the most about this book?
Mark Stevens: I’d have to say I was surprised at the role that Michael Martin plays. He’s Flynn’s father. A longtime former print reporter who has retired from the daily Denver newspaper but still works as a citizen journalist. I was surprised at their relationship, especially how they treated each other less like father-daughter and more like friends. If the sequel gets published, he plays a pretty strong role in the follow-up, too.
Steve Weddle: This book and your 2023 novel, The Fireballer, were both Amazon First Reads picks. How has that experience differed from publishing your earlier books?
Mark Stevens: Well, it’s tremendous exposure. To be included as one of seven or eight titles promoted all month long to Amazon’s vast readership? It’s pretty hard to beat. And everybody I know who has worked with the editors at both Thomas & Mercer and Lake Union has nothing but praise for their work. The marketing is fantastic. But the bottom line is that editors at both houses made The Fireballer and No Lie Lasts Forever better books. That’s worth more than anything else. Truly.
Steve Weddle: And speaking of your earlier books, you had five novels focused on Allison Coil, a hunting guide in Colorado. These were all pretty outdoorsy – wildfires, dead hunters, environmentalism, and more. Why did you move away from that series? Have you completely left that series behind?
Mark Stevens: I didn’t purposely move away from the Allison Coil series. The fifth book, The Melancholy Howl, ends with plenty of room to pick up various threads and write another. But now No Lie has sent me in a different direction. I’ve written a sequel and the plan is for a third in a tight trilogy about Flynn Martin. There are other projects in the works, too. But, never say never. I’d love to get back to Allison and see what trouble she can run into next.
Steve Weddle: Do you have a Mark Stevens reader in mind when you write? And, if so, has that idea of the reader changed for you since you started?
Mark Stevens: It sounds wrong, I guess, but I don’t have readers in mind. Sorry, readers. I guess that comes from years and years of writing without being published. And it’s possible you could think that was the reason WHY I wasn’t getting published, because I didn’t know my reader. But I also think it’s kind of a mistake to think you’ll only have one type of reader, right? So I write for myself. I try to make the story good and then rewrite it five or six times after that.
Steve Weddle: Which part of this book was the hardest to write?
Mark Stevens: Can I get away with saying “all of it”? No? I guess writing from Harry Kugel’s point of view was the hardest thing to try and get right. A guy who was once evil but who stopped, cold. And reformed himself. Maybe? It was a challenge to make him somewhat likable and engaging and then watch him squirm as the pressure builds.
Steve Weddle: What surprised you the most about this book?
Mark Stevens: I’d have to say I was surprised at the role that Michael Martin plays. He’s Flynn’s father. A longtime former print reporter who has retired from the daily Denver newspaper but still works as a citizen journalist. I was surprised at their relationship, especially how they treated each other less like father-daughter and more like friends. If the sequel gets published, he plays a pretty strong role in the follow-up, too.
Steve Weddle: This book and your 2023 novel, The Fireballer, were both Amazon First Reads picks. How has that experience differed from publishing your earlier books?
Mark Stevens: Well, it’s tremendous exposure. To be included as one of seven or eight titles promoted all month long to Amazon’s vast readership? It’s pretty hard to beat. And everybody I know who has worked with the editors at both Thomas & Mercer and Lake Union has nothing but praise for their work. The marketing is fantastic. But the bottom line is that editors at both houses made The Fireballer and No Lie Lasts Forever better books. That’s worth more than anything else. Truly.
Steve Weddle: And speaking of your earlier books, you had five novels focused on Allison Coil, a hunting guide in Colorado. These were all pretty outdoorsy – wildfires, dead hunters, environmentalism, and more. Why did you move away from that series? Have you completely left that series behind?
Mark Stevens: I didn’t purposely move away from the Allison Coil series. The fifth book, The Melancholy Howl, ends with plenty of room to pick up various threads and write another. But now No Lie has sent me in a different direction. I’ve written a sequel and the plan is for a third in a tight trilogy about Flynn Martin. There are other projects in the works, too. But, never say never. I’d love to get back to Allison and see what trouble she can run into next.
***
“I never thought I’d be so invested in a serial killer. The PDQ murderer is a character for the ages—complex, calculating, at times sympathetic—and he makes the pages shudder and howl. His relationship with a disgraced reporter is the stuff of classic crime fiction. In No Lie Lasts Forever, Stevens breaks free of all the old tropes, crafting a tense, surprising, and gritty tale about our darkest impulses, our quest for truth and redemption, and the lengths we go for the people we love. I adored this book.” —I.S. Berry, author of The Peacock and the Sparrow
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