Disappeared by J. T. Brannan

The shocking disappearance of little Katie Morgan two years ago horrified the nation. Snatched from a holiday beach-house in the sleepy Californian town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, six-year-old Katie was never seen again. One of the cops involved in the case is convinced the parents are to blame; but when they are completely exonerated by his own department, there is only one man he can turn to.

Maxwell Knight is a private investigator like no other. An ex-cop who threw in his badge when the corrupt system kept on letting criminals escape justice, Knight now works for himself, re-investigating cases which have been thrown out of court, or which never came to court in the first place. And when he’s convinced that someone is guilty, he serves them his own kind of justice, old-school style.

Knight is hired to prove the parents’ guilt, and to punish them as he sees fit. But as the investigation unfolds, he discovers that nothing is as it seems – and to find out what happened to the missing girl, he must reluctantly enter a world darker than any he has experienced before.

Bestselling author J. T. Brannan took time out of his busy schedule to meet with The Big Thrill and discuss his latest thriller, the first installment of the Maxwell Knight series, DISAPPEARED:

What do you hope readers will take away from this book?

As well as enjoying the novel as a pure piece of entertainment, I would like readers to understand the terrible problems the world faces in terms of child abuse, abduction, and child sex slavery, as well as the online issues that exacerbate these problems and make these unforgivable crimes ever harder to tackle.

What attracts you to this book’s genre?

I love the planning that goes into producing a book of this sort, the mental exercise required to develop a plot that makes sense, that can be followed through to a logical conclusion. It is a challenge to make the outcome hard for the reader to guess, while laying down enough clues so that it can be figured out, if the reader is paying attention. It is a balancing act that is hard to get right – but when it works, the result is more rewarding than most other genres.

No spoilers, but what can you tell us about your book that we won’t find in the jacket copy or the PR material?

Maxwell Knight’s twelve-year-old daughter is in a wheelchair after being hit by a car when she was younger. My niece has spinal muscular atrophy – and so will never be able to walk – and she often complains that there are rarely people with disabilities featured in books, films or TV shows. I think she’s right, and I wanted to show how they’re people too, to be valued just as much as anyone else. I think we should try and reflect society in a realistic way in how we write, and it is important to include people from sectors that are often marginalized, or overlooked altogether.

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J. T. Brannan is the author of the Amazon bestselling political thriller series featuring Mark Cole, the all-action Colt Ryder series, and the action-adventure John Lee series, as well as the high-concept thrillers Origin (translated into eight languages in over thirty territories) and Extinction (his latest all-action novel from Headline Publishing).

The latest novel in the bestselling Colt Ryder series, The Thousand Dollar Killers, was just released on April 30th, 2019.

A brand new series, featuring the private eye Maxwell Knight, is also due in July with the terrifying first novel, DISAPPEARED.

Currently serving in the British Army Reserves, J. T. Brannan is a former national karate champion and bouncer.

He now writes full-time, and teaches martial arts in Harrogate, in the North of England, where he lives with his two young children.

To learn more about J. T. and his work, please visit his website.