Chris Barkley, Edinburgh Book Festival’s former Writer in Residence, has joined with Joe Reilly on the Joe Reilly Podcast—which boasts a reach of 1.5m people.

In the episode, which you can listen to in full here and here, they discuss the purpose and power of fiction and how the lessons gleaned from novels—like a Shakespeare play—aren’t instantaneous but require time and space to sink in. Chris also provides advice on how to write your first novel, and they end the discussion on Chris’ upcoming novel: The Man on the Endless Stair.

When troubled but talented young author Euan meets decorated novelist Malcolm Furnivall, he feels his luck has finally changed. Malcolm takes Euan as a protégé, inviting him to spend time on his secluded island in the Hebrides, nurturing his skills, and vouching for him in the rarefied literary scene of the 1950s.

But lately, Malcolm has not been himself. He cuts an increasingly isolated figure, consumed by his work, and has become convinced that something strange and terrible will befall him. Sensing the end, he summons his loved ones and—to everyone’s surprise—entrusts Euan with the task of completing his masterpiece.

Malcom’s suspicions soon prove well-founded; he is discovered brutally murdered in his study, and his invaluable unfinished novel has vanished. Cut off from the mainland, with the killer on the loose and the island’s inhabitants circling, Euan feels both his mentor’s legacy and his only chance at greatness slipping away—he must venture deep into Malcolm’s labyrinthine mansion to find the manuscript before it falls into the wrong hands.

But what he doesn’t yet know is that the closer he comes to solving the mystery, the tighter he will bind himself to a fate sealed in time…

You can pre-order your copy here and here, or, better, via your local bookshop and Bookshop.org.

Follow Chris on Twitter @TufferBarkley.