What is the title of your latest release?
DEAD FIRST
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
A private detective is hired by an eccentric, seemingly unkillable billionaire to find out why he can’t die.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I live in Texas and always imagined the book taking place in various parts of the state.
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Absolutely.
What are three words that describe your hero?
Loyal. Secretive. Witty.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I’ve loved the idea of combining horror and crime fiction for longer than I initially thought. My first exposure to something approaching this combination came when I read the H.R. Wakefield short story “Used Car” when I must have been about seven or eight years old. Likewise, I saw the film Angel Heart when I was far too young, and my first attempts at writing short stories as a ten-year-old kid centered on an undead gangster returning from the grave to avenge his murder. I somehow never really considered truly how much these things influenced me until I wrote this book.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I partially edit as I draft and then undertake multiple larger scale edits after I’m done.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I don’t know why I’m drawing such a blank on this, but I am. I’m sort of basic when it comes to the foods I love, so I don’t know how much of a “foodie” that makes me. Let’s say pizza.
Describe your writing space/office!
A relatively small room upstairs in my house, although it’s probably not that small, just a little cluttered. One ladder-style bookcase, one tall corner bookcase, a half-sized corner bookcase opposite that one, a couple of other shorter bookcases along the walls, and currently five different art pieces reflecting my love of all things spooky. The doll face with empty eyes is usually behind me, over my shoulder, when I’m doing a video interview, and every now and then it steals the focus of my camera.
Who is an author you admire?
Tananarive Due. Absolute legend.
Is there a book that changed your life?
The Between by the aforementioned Tananarive Due. It made me reevaluate the quality of my own writing. Well, to put it more bluntly, all those years ago when I read it, it made me realize I needed to get a hell of a lot better if I ever wanted to make it as an author.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I have a great agent who positioned me to field a few offers. The day the first call came in, he woke me up early. It was the same week as the big winter storm that shut down the power grid for most of Texas in 2021. I can’t remember the exact day, but I know it was during that storm, and the first call I got from him readied me for an entire day of updates as we decided who would be the right fit for my first novel, The Spite House. Still a somewhat surreal memory.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Horror. Always. I like a good mystery / thriller too, and coming in third would be non-fiction disaster accounts.
What’s your favorite movie?
Overall? Probably Ocean’s 11. My favorite horror movie is Alien.
What is your favorite season?
If I’m actually at the beach, it’s Summer, but apart from that, it has to be Fall.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I usually don’t celebrate it. Not for any particular reason, it’s just never been much of a thing for me. That said, a few years ago I invited several of my friends out to go see a screening of Jaws in a theater I was able to rent out, and I wouldn’t mind doing something like that again with another favorite film that I previously hadn’t seen on a big screen.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Book recommendation: On Sundays, She Picked Flowers by Yah Yah Scholfield.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Italian.
What do you do when you have free time?
Watch movies, go to parks. Pretty simple stuff. This year I plan to get more into photography, and when I get a little older, in about ten years or so, I’m planning to get fully into some late-middle-aged-male hobbies, like watchmaking.
What can readers expect from you next?
After DEAD FIRST, my next book upcoming is a sci-fi horror novella, titled Chimera Skin, which is currently planned for release in November of 2026.
DEAD FIRST by Johnny Compton
From the Bram Stoker award-nominated author of The Spite House comes a bone-chilling new novel about a private investigator hired by a mysterious billionaire to discover why he can’t die.
When private investigator Shyla Sinclair is invited to the looming mansion of mysterious Texan tycoon Saxton Braith, she’s more than a little suspicious. The last thing she expects to see that night is Braith’s assistant driving an iron rod straight through the back of his skull. Scratch that—the last thing she expects to see is Braith’s resurrection afterward.
Braith can’t die, it turns out, but he has no explanation for his immortality, and very few intact memories of his past. Which is why he wants to pay Shyla millions to investigate him, and bring his long-buried history to light.
Shyla can’t help but be intrigued, but she’s also trapped by the offer. Braith has made it clear that he knows she’s the only person he can trust with his secret, because he knows all about hers.
Bold, atmospheric, and utterly frightening, Johnny Compton’s Dead First is spine-chilling supernatural horror about the pursuit of power and the undying need for reckoning.
Thriller Paranormal – Supernatural | Thriller Psychological [ Putnam, On Sale: February 10, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593854310 / eISBN: 9780593854327 ]
Buy DEAD FIRST: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Books-A-Million | Indie BookShops | Ripped Bodice | Walmart.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR
About Johnny Compton
Johnny Compton’s (he/him) short stories have appeared in Pseudopod, Strange Horizons, The No Sleep Podcast and many other markets. He is an HWA member and operates the podcast Healthy Fears, which covers how our fears are explored through horror fiction. The Spite House is his first novel.
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