by Jamie Day, a mystery writer, considers himself rather mysterious.
The official author bio is sparse and lacks a photo. One of those idyllic seaside New England communities you see in movies is where Jamie Day resides. Additionally, Jamie has two kids and a cute dog to swoon over, just like in the movies.
She pronouns are used in Google’s AI overview. No personal webpage.
Daniel Palmer, the author of some excellent thriller novels set in New England, has done very few interviews, all under his pen name, in contrast to, say, Riley Sager, who writes under the pen name Todd Ritter.
He is the son of Michael Palmer, a medical suspense author and New York Times bestselling author from Boston. After his father passed away, he published a few parts in his father’s series under the pen name Daniel Palmer. (Dr. Palmer, who lived in Swampscott when he passed away in 2013, provided books that gave readers an inside look at the medical field; his obituary was published in the Boston Globe, and the books carried readers inside the city’s hospitals.)
In our most recent phone conversation, Daniel Palmer informs me that he later created family dramas and dark psychological thrillers under the moniker DJ Palmer.
That was entertaining, but I prefer comedy than absolute suspense. From his North Shore home, Palmer, 56, tells me, “I wasn’t really able to bring my true self into those novels as much as I wanted to.”
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Inside the creative circles of Boston s bestselling authors
I felt compelled to brighten the mood when COVID hit. I suddenly realized that I could create works that lean toward mystery, but you wouldn’t be hiding beneath your Adirondack chair for that. I was looking for the ideal balance between family drama, psychological suspense, and beach reading.
He has done just that as Jamie Day, crafting lighthearted suspense stories set in New England that have a mood he correctly refers to as Adirondack chairs with danger.
I adored his popular 2023 Massachusetts-set novel, The Block Party, which is still a Best Mystery/Thriller/Suspense Amazon Editor’s Pick. The Maine-set One Big Happy Family in 2024 was his next project.
Now available is his most recent work, The Lake Escape, which is set in Vermont. Consider Lake of Lost Girls, a novel by Katherine Greene set in the isolated New England countryside, and The Four Seasons.
In summary, David, Erika, and Julia spent their childhood summers at Vermont’s Lake Timmeny. They still take family vacations to the lake as grownups. However, Julia and Erika are horrified to learn that David has destroyed the charming house his grandpa built in favor of a massive, sleek monster this summer. Then David arrives with a new girlfriend who is significantly younger.
Skeletal remains are discovered close by in the meantime. And according to eerie lake legend, the lake takes a victim who disappears without a trace every 30 years. Julia and Erika question not only the lore but also their familiarity with David when his girlfriend disappears precisely thirty years after the last disappearance.
Palmer’s wit and sense of humor, which are evident here as well, were among the things that captivated me about Block Party.
To discuss his Boston rocker days, Lexington roots, and the delight of writing as Jamie Day, I phoned the father of two at his North Shore home, where he resides with his partner Kathleen and their three dogs.
The interview has been shortened and modified.
Jamie Day: My voice is truly authentic. I cracked jokes and gave a lot of book talks as a DJ [while I was writing]. I did an excellent job of making the audience laugh. People would be ecstatic after purchasing the book. They would then be upset when I saw them at another book discussion. Where are the comedy and jokes? This was frightening.
Thus, this simply reflects my personality. It, in my opinion, adds my own comedy and sensibility to the page, which I truly like. There are undertones of danger in these summer beach novels. There is redemption and humor. I enjoy it when the bad guys get what they deserve and the good guys gain knowledge. I love writing them, and I hope you like reading them as much as I do.
It’s not the same as when I only thought, “How can I make it creepier?” when concentrating on these eerie, gloomy thrillers. How can I maintain the seriousness while still adding some humor, I wonder now? How can I maintain the suspense while letting you guess where the story will go?
Yes, I frequently invent a location to get around any geographical difficulties. The setting of Block Party was Meadowbrook, a made-up town that reminds me of Longmeadow. Then, One Big Happy Family is set in this bizarre motel on the Maine coast. I admit that the hotel in the novel Land’s End Innin Provincetown is true. I relocated it to the Maine coast and changed its name to the Precipice Hotel. Although it is based on a genuine lake in northern Vermont, The Lake Escape is set at the fictional Lake Timmeny. Therefore, there are some geographical details that are true and some that I made up.
I never thought of it. Film and music piqued my curiosity the most. Where the wind takes you was my style. Extremely entrepreneurial and willing to do anything. I had no conventional life plan. It brought me everywhere and was more about following the spirit’s lead. Numerous rock bands, entry-level positions, and e-commerce jobs. However, I haven’t turned back since I got comfortable writing. I enjoy the process of continuously producing.
My master’s degree was in mass communication. I was meant to compose copy for advertisements. I had that image. I was a middling rock and roll musician in the Boston club scene.
Not at all.
I think we got one write-up in a newspaper. They called us up-and-coming, and then we went because we broke up right after that.
I think it was The Mighty Swell. But by that time, I had been a brunch chef, worked as a deckhand, then shoreline entertainment, at Bay State Cruise. I managed a storage warehouse. I opened up a juice bar in Brookline Village, called The Juice Cafe. So I had a wild, varied background.
Then I went for my masters at Boston University. I ended up in New York City. Instead of being a copywriter for Madison Avenue, I got swept up in the dot-com boom.
Yeah! I thought I d come up with all the clever lines. But I ended up making sure people could buy stuff over the internet. So I took a long, circuitous wandering route, but I ve come to who I really am. Jamie Day is what feels most comfortable to me.
My father bought a lake house in Ware, New Hampshire. That became a family retreat for my kids, along with my mother s summer house on the North Shore. I took that idea of the family camp, then thought that an isolated lake up in the mountains with dark woods seemed good for a mystery.
I went to summer camp as a kid, and there was always lake lore and camp lore passed down. I thought that d be fun to bring in. I wrapped that around a mystery that spans generations.
But it s really about friendships. I thought about three people who grew up together and vacation together, yet don t really know each other. They re all carrying tremendous secrets.
I think there s something, in the reader s mind, idyllic about a summer Vermont vacation. Readers are from all over, and so I wanted to ground them in something that has familiarity beautiful, lush, green Vermont in the summertime seemed right.
My next book, Beach Thriller, is a suspense from a multi-generational perspective. It s about a writer, Holly, forced to return to her summer vacation home in Beauport, Massachusetts, which is fictionalized.
I m having a blast writing this one as well. I know most of my characters are women, but I feel very comfortable writing female characters. Kathleen has been a tremendous source of support as a creative collaborator, both from the process, bouncing ideas off each other, and helping with the women s perspective.
I always remind myself that we re all very busy, and there s so much competing for our attention these days. I never lose sight of the fact that it s an honor for somebody to take their time to engage with something I ve created. I never lose the appreciation for that. It s really what drives me to do the best work I can possibly do.
Lauren Daley can be reached at[email protected]. She tweets@laurendaley1, and Instagram at@laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebookhere.
Lauren Daley is a longtime culture journalist. As a regular contributor to Boston.com, she interviews A-list musicians, actors, authors and other major artists.
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