Coming up with imaginative ways to publicise my novels can be a challenge. In the case of my supernaturally tinged mystery thriller Death Nest, I’ve run a gamut from the serious (how this is my most personal novel) to pranks (such as this fake interview that I’m pleased to say tricked a few readers, based on the comments). My latest attempt, a short film, is more in the latter category. Death Nest: The Disappearance of Simon Dillon is a meta-mockumentary that imagines the White Nest, a sinister and dangerous organisation within the novel, is real.

Also, this version of the film is slightly different to the version I previously uploaded on Patreon (if you saw it there already). I’ve made a couple of minor changes. Let’s call this version the “Director’s Cut”. We can even start a rumour that I didn’t get to finish it properly originally due to “studio interference”, if you like, instead of the more mundane truth that I wanted to add a couple of cutaways and a scary additional visual tweak at the end (that I won’t spoil).

The film pretends that because I recklessly detailed what they do in the book, the White Nest decided to silence me. Tommy Rogers, a private investigator looking into my disappearance, interviews former colleagues and friends. It degenerates into cheesy pseudo-Blair Witch style nonsense in the finale, but I thought, why not go the whole hog? With any luck, it will intrigue those of you who haven’t read the novel into picking up a copy. It will also make a great Christmas present for that difficult-to-buy-for relative. Here’s the film in full. I hope you find it entertaining.

Death Nest features a gripping central mystery, a romantic subplot, coming-of-age drama, and moments of horror and humour. To further whet your appetite, here’s the blurb from the back of the book.

From the author of Spectre of Springwell Forest and The Irresistible Summons… A nail-biting new mystery.

After his young son Ben writes a disturbing story about murdering a boy in a forest, widower Nick Unwin is alarmed by eerie parallels between his son’s behaviour and that of his younger brother Jason, prior to his inexplicable disappearance twenty years previously. This tragic past returns to haunt Nick when he sees an image of his long-lost brother in a newly released film.

Fearing history will repeat itself, Nick decides to investigate, along with Tanith, an old flame from his early teenage years, with dark secrets of her own connected to Jason’s disappearance. But as they delve deeper into the labyrinthine mysteries of their past, long-buried memories resurface. Nick is forced to face the terrible fear that has plagued him for decades: Was he responsible for the death of his brother?

A riveting coming-of-age thriller exploring traumatic sibling relationships, parental fears, and the misleading nature of memory, Death Nest is Simon Dillon’s most gripping novel yet.

Additional potential Christmas presents can be found in other published novels from my back catalogue. These include horror, thrillers, children’s adventure stories, dystopian sci-fi tales, and my recent forays into fantasy with my novel Ravenseed (about which I have written here) and a companion piece anthology, The Dark Forest Within (about which I have written here).

Death Nest is available in paperback or on Kindle from Amazon here (in the US) and here (in the UK).

(Header image created by author in Canva.)