A North Essex author hopes his readers will be scared to bits after branching out into horror for his second novel.

John Ashton delved into the world of fantasy with self-published debut Crystal Castle a year ago.

It earned him rave five-star reviews from readers on Amazon.

John, who is from Clacton, was already working on his follow-up by the time Crystal Castle came out.

He decided on a change of tack to pen something darker and the end result was Hunter, which has just been published.

The thriller is set in the small town of Akesfeld.

Jack Hunter is a charismatic stranger who has a way with words and is intent on bringing change to the town.

As a violent storm lashes down, the only road into Akesfeld is flooded, cutting it off from the outside world.

And as residents start to succumb to Jack’s persuasive personality, letting their darkest thoughts and emotions take control, the body count starts to rise.

Only a local freelance writer realises Jack is at the root of the town’s nightmare – and sets out to stop him before all hell breaks loose.

John says: “I began working on Hunter while I was in the process of getting my début novel Crystal Castle published at the end of 2016.

“As that was a fantasy story, I wanted to write something completely different, a little more mature in content, and quickly came up with the idea of having evil focusing in on a small isolated town.

“It’s ultimately a dark thriller, but has supernatural elements laced throughout and could be classed under horror.

“The villain of the story, Jack Hunter, is one of those suave, charismatic bad guys who, despite being pure evil, is actually a breath of fresh air to write.

“I think creating a good villain gives you complete freedom as a writer and it becomes a joy to actually mould their personality and dialogue.

“Writers who claim that their views and opinions never seep into their writing are lying to themselves because it does, and to be honest, it’s a great way to exorcise some demons, but it’s also a fantastic, almost therapeutic way to run wild if you want to get something off your chest.”

It took more than a year to complete the book.

John says: “I’m proud of Hunter and despite not being a great artist, I know it is the very best work that I can produce right now.”

He adds: “I’m working on numerous short stories for an anthology, and have almost finished writing my third novel, which is an untitled full-on horror story.

“I’ve always wanted to see the definitive haunted house film, and as I’m unlikely to get involved in the movie business, I decided the next best thing to do was to write it.

“It’s proving harder than I thought, but I’m having a blast doing it and upping the ante.”

Hunted is out now in paperback priced £7.99 or 99p on Kindle.