Author of 'Killer Next Door' Alex Marwood gives story behind her 'scary as hell' book

The latest book from British author Serena Mackesy will make you question just how well you know your neighbors.

A psychological thriller, "The Killer Next Door" follows six residents living in a crummy apartment building in London and the sinister things one of them is doing behind closed doors.

Mackesy, who writes under the pseudonym Alex Marwood, said the story was loosely based on London serial killer Dennis Nilsen, who killed at least 12 people between 1978 and 1983. Nilsen would often dissect his victims' bodies and store them beneath his floorboards, earning him the nickname "British Jeffrey Dahmer."

The incredible thing was, Nilsen was living in an apartment house in proximity to multiple neighbors, Mackesy said.

"The thing that interested me is just how these people living in this house managed not to notice," she said. "I wondered about the people living in the house and what was going on in their own lives that made them not realize what was going on around them."

The characters in "The Killer Next Door" are all, for one reason or another, attempting to live under the radar, trying to take advantage of the anonymity of a big city. The killer is revealed to readers early on, but the characters remain unaware throughout most of the book.

"It's not a Whodunit, it's a Howdunit," Mackesy said.

Mackesy will speak at the University of South Carolina Beaufort's Lunch with Author Series on Nov. 19 as part of her five-city U.S. book tour. "The Killer Next Door" is her second book under the pseudonym Alex Marwood. It was a way for her to break away from being branded a "chick lit" author, she said. Her first book, "The Temp," was a humorous look at the lives of temporary employees, in the vein of "Bridget Jones's Diary." But she had always had a dark side that she wanted to explore in writing, so she created Marwood.

"Something about the dark stuff has always appealed to me. Maybe the endorphin rush from being frightened," she said.

Mackesy was able to frighten legendary thriller writer Stephen King, who earlier this year called "The Killer Next Door" "scary as hell" with "great characters."

Spookiness aside, the book is also an anthropological look at people living on top of one another yet still being intensely private, Mackesy said. It's "more an explanation of how human beings living in cramped circumstances maintain their individuality."

And in this case, cover up their murders.

Follow reporter Erin Shaw at twitter.com/IPBG_ErinShaw.

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This story was originally published November 15, 2014 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Author of 'Killer Next Door' Alex Marwood gives story behind her 'scary as hell' book."