iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 06/11/2025

“It is a rare talent to be able to write a compulsive thriller with such heart … both terrifying and heart-wrenching, bittersweet and hopeful, nightmarish and deeply, deeply human.” Thank you, @spookyrebecca.bsky.social The Man Made of Smoke is out in the UK as a very lovely paperback today.

The cover of the novel The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North. There is blood-red smoke surrounding a white keyhole through which the silhouette of a little boy can be seen.

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 23/10/2025

I forgot to mention on here that I had a ‘new’ book out in the UK last week. Dark Room was previously published years ago under my real name, and then went out of print. It won’t set the world on fire, or anything, but it’s nice to have it out there again. Four more of them to come…

The cover of Dark Room by Alex North, previously published under the name Steve Mosby. A greeny-black background, with a half-open door with yellow light spilling through.

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 07/03/2025

“He’s mad. He’s mad! He’s madder than ‘Mad Jack’ McMad, the winner of last year’s Mr Mad Man competition.”

A post on social media by Donald Trump that reads: “Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely “pounding” Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED. To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late. Thank you!!!”

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 21/02/2025

In London: a birthday treat for my son. Very excited!

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 05/02/2025

As a heads up for US readers, Barnes & Noble have a 25% off pre-order sale on for the next couple of days, which includes The Man Made Of Smoke. www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-man-ma...

The cover of The Man Made Of Smoke by Alex North, with the information that there is a pre-order sale at Barnes & Noble, 25% off, from February 5th to 7th, using the code PREORDER25.

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 15/01/2025

A single image from a film that immediately makes you hear a song from a soundtrack playing in your head.

A close up shot from inside a house, with a man crashing through a window from the outside and someone off to one side ready for him.

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 14/01/2025

I loved ‘We Live Here Now’ by @sarahpinborough.bsky.social. A modern gothic about a haunted house - and the haunted couple who move in. Clever, beautifully-written (of course), and creepy as fuck. When you reach the gut punch ending, you can imagine Edgar Allan Poe himself applauding. Out in June.

The cover for Sarah Pinborough’s book ‘We Live Here Now’. The text is white, over a red, brown and black image of an isolated house with ravens flying in the sky around it.

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 23/12/2024

The US proof copies of my next book have arrived. It’s real! And also very beautiful. (The exterior, I mean. What’s inside is obviously terrifying and hideous and dark, and so on and so forth.)

A proof copy of The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North. The name and title are on the front in red lettering. Most of the rest is black, apart from a swirl of white smoke in the centre, with a small black hooded silhouette standing at the very bottom.

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 22/12/2024

I really loved Red Rooms, a psychological thriller about two women following the trial of a serial killer. It’s incredibly chilling. Even without any real onscreen violence at all, it’s been a long time since I’ve been as disturbed, unsettled and challenged by a film. Highly recommended.

A still from the film Red Rooms. A close up of a woman sitting in the public viewing room of a trial. She’s dressed in black, wearing an inverted cross necklace, clearly watching events attentively. The two people visible on either side of her are looking down.

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 10/12/2024

Self-promotion alert! For US readers, my third book, The Angel Maker, is an Amazon Deal of the Day: just $2.99 there and from other US ebook retailers for the next 24 hours. How do you stop a killer who knows the future? Time will always tell… celadonbooks.com/angel-maker-...

The US cover of The Angel Maker by Alex North. It’s mostly red, with a burning match in the centre, the flame drifting off the charred top of the match like a white and orange feathered wing.

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 02/12/2024

Facebook has just reminded me of the nativity scene my son drew when he was 6, which started well and then took an unexpected turn.

A chaotic, nightmarish landscape filled with angels, devils, aliens, ninjas and spaceships firing rockets at everything.

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 01/12/2024

An early Crispmas present! (And this isn’t random packaging: it’s exactly what the box says it is.) Thank you very much indeed @theregoestheday.bsky.social.

A large box of Worcester Sauce flavoured French Fries crisps.

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 27/11/2024

Heading down to London for an exciting afternoon of crime fiction festival planning.

A view out of the window of a train: tracks, sky, a few buildings.

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 24/11/2024

Proof pages. Interview questions. Book planning. Panel research. A good weekend - but the highlight might be catching this beast. Not perfect by any means, but you take what you can get.

A screenshot from Pokémon Go showing a powered-up Dialga with Roar of Time as a charged move.

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 21/11/2024

For me, Story Of Your Life by Ted Chiang is a perfect story, and also an extremely unlikely candidate to adapt for film. But Arrival is absolutely sublime.

A still from the film Arrival, with two people looking at a strange circular image drawn on misty glass.

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 14/11/2024

If you see this, post a vampire

Still from the movie “Let The Right One In”.

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 09/10/2023

Also (because for some reason I’ve found it difficult to read longer fiction recently) I’ve been reading this: a collection of over 100 true crime poems about missing/murdered women in the US. “Enjoyed” is the wrong word, but I found it extremely powerful.

Cover of INTO THE FOREST AND ALL THE WAY THROUGH by Cynthia Pelayo.

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 09/10/2023

I read this book on the way to #ChilternKills and recommend it. A short book on the ‘hard problem’ of consciousness: why and how a bunch of matter like the human brain doesn’t just exist blankly in the universe, like a rock, instead of experiencing something, the way it seems to.

Cover of the book CONSCIOUS by Annaka Harris

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Alex North @alexnorth.co.uk · 21/09/2023

Tough times in children’s publishing, with Stick Man reduced to carjacking to feed his stick lady love and stick children three.

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