Author Spotlight: Welcome, Thriller Author R. John Dingle

What a pleasure it is to to introduce y’all to debut thriller author, R. John Dingle! He’s a brand new Tule Mystery writer and we’re all so delighted to welcome him to the Tule family.

R. John Dingle was born and raised in New England. In fact, despite extensive travel, a move to Australia represents his only bragging right for actually residing outside the six-state area. John and his wife currently call a small island in Mid-Coast Maine “home,” both living, writing, and boating from their restored 200-year-old house (which they continually assure their three adult children is not haunted). The psychological thriller, Karma Never Sleeps, is John’s first novel.

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I had a chance to chat with John recently; here’s our interview…

N: Welcome to the blog, John. I’m so pleased to have you with me today. So, what inspired you to start writing?

A: Years ago (too many to admit), just after my wife and I had our third child we went away to a B&B for a getaway weekend. And while there we each put down the five things we’d like to accomplish in life and writing a book was on each of our lists. Then, kids, family, and life tossed up all sorts of obstacles until a few years ago when I decided I wanted to put more focus to it. And, voila, Karma Never Sleeps was born.

N: You have had an exciting life filled with travel and even living for a while in Australia. That’s a lot of adventure, and now you’ve added writing to the mix. What is the most surprising thing you discovered about yourself while writing Karma Never Sleeps?

A: I’m a glutton for punishment. I just love the writing process itself. I never realized just how difficult it is writing a novel and I’ve surprised myself at how much I love toiling in that process to get the sentence, paragraph, chapter as good as it can be. It’s an incredibly difficult task but the feeling when I’ve gotten something done that I think is good is so fulfilling.

N: What inspired you to write a psychological thriller for your first novel?

A: It’s my favorite genre to read. I love mysteries, but there’s something special to me about a thriller where the reader knows things the protagonist doesn’t and feels immersed in solving the mystery also. And I believe that psychological tormenting can often be more suspenseful and frightening than more blatant / graphic violence. So, combining those two elements in a book is – in my view – gold.

N: Karma Never Sleeps explores secrets, murder, and revenge in a small New England town. Talk to me a little bit about knitting those elements together into a story with so many complex characters.

A: I’ve lived in small towns my entire life so am familiar with some of the dynamics – jealousy, deceit, betrayal – explored in this book. I thought it would be interesting to push these traits in fiction to see how they would manifest in women who were frenemies, wives, mothers. Then nudging this just over the cliff to serial killing in a thriller just seemed interesting to me. And a closed setting like a small town where everyone knows everyone else’s past, secrets, etc. was – I thought – the perfect setting.

N: What was the most challenging aspect of writing a psychological thriller? How did you overcome those hurdles?

A: Karma Never Sleeps is based on a group of women (‘The Posse’) who spent their adolescence at the top of the food chain. Now in their late 30’s, the strain of living around secrets from their past for decades has frayed the fragile dynamic of their tribe. The most challenging aspect of this story was capturing the dynamics of this friend group just right. For that, there were lots and lots of revisions and, luckily, I had my wife and daughter to bounce ideas, traits, and chapters off of to strike it right.

N: Did a lot of research go into your main character, FBI agent and profiler, Gus Wheeler? He is a complicated character and brings his own issues and past wounds to the story.

A: My protagonist, Gus Wheeler, is a jazz bassist who aspires to become a professional musician. After years of living below the poverty line, his former college roommate and head of the Boston FBI office recruits him into the FBI with the promise of sabbaticals when needed to pursue potentially career-defining musical tours/gigs and consistent health benefits.

So with Gus, there were two primary streams of research I had to do. First, the FBI side of things. I had to figure out when and how the FBI is called into a crime then learn their investigative process which led me down the rabbit hole of forensics, etc. It was all fascinating.

The second stream of research involved Gus’s music. Fortunately, I have a son who is a jazz bassist (coincidence?) and professional musician. I couldn’t have written Gus without that intimate knowledge readily available to me.

N: The concept of karma—the Buddhist and Hindu belief that the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence are viewed as deciding their fate in future existences—loom large in this story. Are you a believer in karma?.

A: I am, yes. I’m not sure what it’s called – karma, fate, manifestation, etc. – but I do believe one gets back what one puts out into the universe. I believe that if you put out positive energy, good deeds – basically be a good human – you’ll generally get the same back. And I believe the opposite is true also.

What is your “day job” and what do you bring to your stories from it?

A: I’ve been in energy consulting for my entire career. And, while challenging and enjoyable, I can’t think of how I’ve tapped that for my writing (yet).

N: And now for a few sort of personal questions because readers love to know more about us beyond our writing life: What do you like to do when you are not writing?

A: My wife and I are now empty-nesters so spending time together and with the kids in our 200 year-old home that most of us believe is haunted (my wife is still a holdout on this “fact”). In the winters, having fires in the fireplaces and watching snowstorms out over the ocean is pretty special, as is boating around the coast in summers. And, of course, reading a great book!

N: What did you want to be when you grew up?

A: A forest ranger. When I went to grade school, they had these questionnaires the guidance counselors made you take and my responses resulted in a forest ranger being the best fit. So in fifth grade I’d found my calling.

N: Favorite book when you were a kid?

A: My mother was a prolific reader and encouraged me when I was a child to read but it never really stuck. The first book I read (with her help, I’m sure) was Jonathan Livingston Seagull. And, other than some (not all, haha) books I was made to read in school I really didn’t begin reading until post-college so don’t really have a favorite from those early years. A few of my favorites since getting back into reading in my late ‘20’s include Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons, Justin Cronin’s The Passage, the Villanelle series by Luke Jennings, and the Charlie Parker series by John Connolly.

N: Are you working on anything at the present you would like to tell our readers about? Will there be more Gus Wheeler stories?

A: Karma Never Sleeps is the first in the Gus Wheeler FBI Thriller series. The second book is due out in November 2025 and is based in a small city so has a very urban vibe. That story revolves around a series of women being abducted from a section of the city dubbed Music Row (think a small, less attractive version of The Quarter in New Orleans) and a suspect who is experiencing severe psychological issues as he’s overtaken by psychosis. That book is in the editing process now. And I just finished editing a stand-alone thriller about a group of true crime junkies that stumble on a series of murders and work to solve it with other true crime junkies online. I wrote that novel while Karma Never Sleeps was being shopped to publishers so we’ll be finding that a home soon. And, lastly, I’ve just begun writing the third book in the Gus Wheeler series which has a hardcore religious element to it and takes place in the vast rural areas of northern Maine. That book is due out July 2026.

N: Finally, this is my favorite question to ask my guests: If you could choose three people, living or dead, to invite to a dinner party, who would they be and why?

A: First and foremost: Robin Williams because I love to laugh. And everything I’ve ever read or watched about him tells me he was not only a naturally funny man, but also a very kind and special human.

Next: Steve Irwin. We first got introduced to Steve and his show when we lived in Australia in the mid-90’s and our family fell in love with him and his love of animals. And, like Robin, all I’ve ever seen of Steve suggests he was also a very special person.

And the third person would be my wife, Lisa. She’s the funniest and most intelligent person I’ve ever met and her quick wit matched with both Robin and Steve would be gold!

GIVEAWAY! John is giving away a signed print book and some fun swag to one lucky commenter. Just answer this question in the comments below: What setting would you like to see FBI agents Gus and Vanessa’s next crime be in (e.g., small town, remote inn, etc.)? You never know…your answer could be the inspiration for a brand-new Gus Wheeler FBI thriller!

Karma Never Sleeps

In a small town, the truth can’t always set you free…

When a second woman from a group of friends known as “the posse” is murdered in the woods near the New England enclave of Kendalton, FBI agent and profiler Gus Wheeler and his partner are called in to determine if this is a serial killing. He’s intrigued by a clue hidden on the body: a memorial picture of a teen who died 25 years ago.

Instead of helping with the investigation, the long-term friends stonewall the agents. But Gus can smell fear beneath their calm masks, fake smiles, and politely vague answers. Digging deeper, he discovers they are being terrorized by cyberstalking, spying, threats and mysterious break-ins. When a third member is hospitalized after a brutal attack, Gus suspects someone in the posse is the hunter instead of the hunted.

Is it the alpha leader Jules, her best friend Maria—married to the chief of police—outsider Mel, or weak link Lizzy? Or someone else bent on revenge? Time’s running out, and Gus’s life depends on his skill at determining who’s the best liar in town.

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