On the home front, Kate Freeman is my biggest supporter and loving companion. She encourages me, and that’s worth more than all the gold in the world. And she loves Dido, too (that’s my seventeen-year-old dog). Kate is always one of the first people to read my books—sometimes over a year before the rest of the world—and she always reads them with enthusiasm.

My brother, Stephen Reilly, is also one of the first to read my stuff, yet he does so with a more technical, story-based, critical eye. His advice is always constructive and kind, helpful, never negative. Every writer needs readers like this. Thank you, brother.

Beyond that, let me send out a huge thank-you to all my readers who have joined me on this journey with Jack and his team for sixteen years. Jack’s story was always meant to be about friendship and family—about how a hardbitten team of soldiers could become a family because of this sweet little girl in their midst, and how they could bring out the best in each other—and I like to think readers liked that about it. It’s fun to read about acts of heroism, but when it’s done for family, it’s, just, well, better! I’ve always enjoyed that side of the series and I confess I had tears in my eyes as I wrote the final chapters.

I’m glad you enjoyed the ride.

AN INTERVIEW WITH MATTHEW REILLY

AN INTERVIEW WITH MATTHEW REILLY

SPOILER WARNING!

The following interview contains SPOILERS from The One Impossible Labyrinth. Readers who have not yet read the novel are advised to avoid reading this interview as it does give away major plot moments in the book.

So, it’s over! You’ve ended the Jack West Jr series! Tell us your thoughts on this series, ending it, and whether, just maybe, there could ever be The Zero Something Something.

Ha! I don’t think there will be a Zero Something Something. I think I’m done. I don’t have any more ancient places or myths to write about and I feel that the characters have all reached places where we can let them literally live happily ever after.

I very much enjoyed writing this book, especially the extended epilogue. In fact, that epilogue was one of those rare pieces of writing that pretty much wrote itself: I just gave each character what I felt they deserved, after all their trials and efforts.