Pendleton resident Jack Lawrence at his first book signing for his new novel “Blood Thorn”.

Submitted Photo

“Blood Thorn,” Jack Lawrence’s first novel.

Submitted Photo

First novel is a mystery, with inspiration drawn from work at an addiction treatment center

By Brady Extin | The Times-Post

PENDLETON — Indianapolis native Jack Lawrence is finally seeing his childhood dream of becoming an author come true.
And the release of his first novel has been a long time coming.
A Pendleton resident, alongside his family, since December 2021, Lawrence officially released his first novel in April of this year, titled “Blood Thorn.”
“It’s always been a dream of mine to write a book, but then when the idea for the book came, I kind of toyed with the idea of it for three or four years before I actually sat down to start the writing part of it.”
Lawrence had always wanted to be an author, but it was his past work that gave him the inspiration for his first book.
He began his career as a family therapist at an addiction treatment facility, before later continuing that work at a private practice.
His time spent as a therapist, the people he would see and work with, and the personal connections that he made sparked the idea for his first book series, which begins with “Blood Thorn.”
“Absolutely, it’s a big part of what inspired the book,” Lawrence said. “You really have a close relationship with the people that you work with, and every so often you have someone that ghosts you, or they decide that they don’t need therapy anymore, and that curiosity of whatever happened to them kind of comes up sometimes.”
That is at the forefront of his first novel, a whodunit mystery in which David Thorne, a renowned therapist from Indianapolis, goes to investigate the disappearance of one of his clients.
“It all kind of inspired this story of him having a relationship with a client who reveals to him that she’s about to make a big life decision and then doesn’t show up, and it’s kind of out of character,” Lawrence said. “That leads to him going far above and beyond being just a therapist to find out what happened to her.”
The novel is the first of what Lawrence hopes will be a long career as an author. The second book in the series is set to release in August of this year, and alongside his current series, he hopes to release stand-alone books as well.
“I’m willing to write it as long as people are going to read it,” Lawrence said. “My goal is to release three books a year: Two, part of this David Thorne series, and one, kind of stand-alone novel.”
Writing a multi-part series isn’t always easy, according to Lawrence. For him, sometimes the ideas just flow onto the paper, and other times it takes a while to perfect things.
“So far, it’s been completely different between the three books. The first one, I had the idea and I just started writing,” Lawrence said. “But I got to the last three or four chapters and took a few month break because I felt like I needed to get the ending perfect. So I kept procrastinating, and didn’t really want to get to that part, but I finished it, and now it’s doing what it’s doing.”
The second book, titled “Bed of Thorns,” was much easier to finish and is tentatively set to release on Aug. 29.
“The second one was much easier,” Lawrence said. “I came up with an idea and general overlay of what I wanted the story to be about, and just sat down and wrote it in about two months.”
He said he plans his third book, which will not be part of the David Thorne series, to go in a different direction, and that has led to a slower writing process.
“For the third one, I did a lot more planning because it’s more of a psychological thriller rather than a whodunit,” Lawrence said. “That one has been more challenging because the tone is different, and I feel as if there needs to be more clues along the way. It’s just been a completely different process because it’s been a completely different type of book.”
Since the first book’s release in April, Lawrence said he has conducted book signings across the state and has seen early success in the overall reception of the book.
Between the Pages, a bookstore in Lebanon, was the first to pick it up, and it sold out within two weeks. That led to his first book signing there, where he sold out every copy once again.
After that, he conducted a book signing at Fallen Leaf bookstore in Nashville, Indiana, where copies are also available at Naughty Dogs bookstore.
“So far, the reception has been good,” Lawrence said. “The reviews have been a lot of five stars, and it’s sold out in a lot of places.”
Along with those small-town bookstores, the novel can be found on Amazon and Barnes & Noble website for order.
Lawrence can be found on Instagram and Facebook at Author Jack Lawrence. He is planning his next book signings for Sept. 23 at Fallen Leaf and Sept. 30 at Between the Pages.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly indicated Lawrence’s third book would be a part of the David Thorne series. That book, titled “I’ve Been Waiting,” is not part of the series, which Lawrence said will always be whodunit mysteries.