Hansville author making national name with crime-fiction set in Kitsap County

On a recent Wednesday in July, Adam Fuller awoke to some big news. “The Bones At Point No Point,” a serial-killer novel he’d written — and set — in his adopted hometown of Hansville, was ranked No. 1 on Amazon, in both the mystery and crime fiction categories.

The designation put the author’s independently published thriller — written under the pen name D.D. Black — ahead of the latest works from some traditional heavyweights in the crime-fiction genre, such as Jeffery Deaver, Lisa Unger, Ruth Ware and Henning Mankell.

“It was a thrilling moment,” said Fuller. “I pumped a fist or two in the air, then called my wife.”

The ranking was a crowning achievement in a journey of more than a decade for the 44-year-old Fuller, a Bay Area native who has written more than 25 novels, most in the crime and thriller genres, since moving to Kitsap in 2010.  He’s spent much of that time sharpening his writing craft and studying book publishing as a business on a PhD level.

Like most authors, he started out trying the traditional route, landing a New York literary agent in hopes of securing a deal with a big publishing house. After that relationship bore no fruit, he prepared himself for the breakthrough moment he always believed was coming by confidently taking control of all aspects of his writing career.

“I knew I was writing a series that had the potential to find a lot of readers because I read a lot of books and watched a lot of TV and movies in the genre,” Fuller said. “And that’s as far as I let myself think about it.”

But then things started to happen in a way they never had for Fuller’s previous novels.

In August 2022, Fuller released “The Bones At Point No Point,” through his home-based company, Darkness and Light Publishing. It was the first novel in his series about Thomas Austin, a New York police detective who retires to Hansville to run the town’s grocery and grill, only to get pulled in to consult on serial murders all over the county, and beyond, by a number of Kitsap law enforcement agencies.

A second volume in the series, set in Seattle, came out two months later. And shortly after releasing the third series entry, “The Fallen At Foulweather Bluff,” near the end of the year, Fuller “started realizing that the series could be much bigger than I’d let myself consider.”

He added: “Because I manage every aspect of the business, I’m constantly tracking sales, marketing, and so forth. And in January I started seeing all sorts of spikes in sales that I couldn’t explain.”

To what, in hindsight, does he attribute that breakout? To the best friend of every author, independent or traditional: word of mouth.

Getting to that point was a robust team effort between Fuller and his wife of 21 years, Amanda Allen. She’s a Kitsap native who’s now an author in her own right, with a Hansville-based serial-killer novel of her own, “The Girl From Area One,” starring a Hansville-based nurse practitioner who joins an investigative unit of the Washington State Patrol. A visiting home hospice nurse herself, Allen has second and third novels in her Macy Ellis series coming out this fall.

While Fuller handles the business and global marketing aspects of Darkness and Light, Allen takes charge of what Fuller calls “the local stuff.”

She’s ensured that more than a dozen book and gift shops in Kitsap County and beyond have the books, spearheads the couple’s prolific local Facebook presence, and has set up a number of joint author events this spring and summer. They’ve appeared at Barnes & Noble in Silverdale, Western Red Brewing in Poulsbo, and the Kingston Sunset Market, among other venues.

“It’s a team effort all the way down, and is both our passion and profession,” Fuller said.

In addition, they write together when time allows, and edit each other’s manuscripts.

“We like to take walks on the beach and hash out ideas and storylines together,” Allen said.

It also doesn’t hurt that as independent publishers, Fuller and Allen can release their novels pretty much as quickly as they can write them. That’s in stark contrast to most corners of traditional publishing, which rarely publish series novels — even the hottest ones by their biggest-selling authors — more than once a year for fear of oversaturating an author’s brand.

By contrast, Fuller and Allen finding that doing their best to meet what he calls “the cravable virality” of the books as fast — well, almost — as readers can consume them, they help perpetuate demand.

Said Allen: “What I’ve learned is if you make a good product, eventually people will catch on and want a piece of the hype.” She added: “’If you build it, they will come’  has a lot more to do with the attention that we’ve received than the shouting into the social-media void I have done.”

The series, which is most often compared in online reviews to the works of crime-fiction rock stars James Patterson, Michae Connelly and J.A. Jance, has been such a surprise hit that it’s pushed back Fuller’s plans to launch an epic fantasy novel series into next year at least. For now, he’s preparing to release the sixth volume of the Thomas Austin series, “The Drowning At Dyes Inlet,” set in Bremerton, in early August. He plans to wrap up the series at nine books by early 2024.

And the books, along with the spirited local promotions, are resonating with Kitsap readers.

Terry Todd Clutter, a Suquamish resident and lifelong county resident, is one such admirer. “I am a fan of mystery and true crime stories,” she said, “and the Pacific Northwest settings in these books make the stories even more engaging and familiar to me.”

She added: “”I don’t always like the gruesome nature of the crimes, but I love reading how they get solved.”

As for the appeal of Kitsap as a fulfilling setting for fictional murder?

Allen, who grew up in the Eglon neighborhood of North Kitsap, put it this way: “One time somebody told me, ‘Kitsap? Isn’t that where people go to live when they want to hide?’ There are a lot of nooks and crannies, trees and long driveways in these parts.

“That,” she said, “is where the skeletons live.”

Meet the authors

Saturday, August 5, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.: Adam Fuller, aka D.D. Black, and Amanda Allen, aka Eva Blue, will sign their books at the Kingston Sunset Market, 25960 Central Ave. NE.

Wednesday, August 16, 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.: Adam Fuller, aka D.D. Black — will discuss his first Thomas Austin novel, “The Bones At Point No Point,” with wife and fellow author Amanda Allen at Moe’s on Liberty Bay, 19041 Front St., Poulsbo. The event is part of the “Books & Beer Club With The Author” series at staged by Away With Words Bookshop. Tickets are $20, and include book discounts, beverages and snacks.

For more info: awaywithwordsbookshop.com, ddblackauthor.com

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: D.D. Black's Northwest-based crime-fiction novels set in Kitsap