True Detective - The Only Way Is Essex for Jessica Jones in Lisa Jewell's first Marvel Crime novel

Known for bestselling psychological thrillers such as Then She Was Gone and The Family Upstairs, Jewell says she initially overemphasised the Marvel Universe’s fantastical elements before realising that she should simply trust her natural instincts. “I went too far on many occasions and had to keep cutting stuff out because I’d end up with stuff like a huge underground lab full of mad scientists,” she laughs.

- By Stephen Jewell

Growing up reading british girls’ weeklies like Tammy and Bunty, the only Marvel character that Lisa Jewell has ever felt any connection with is Jessica Jones. Now the superhero-turned-PI is the focus of the author’s latest novel Breaking The Dark, the first salvo in the new Marvel Crime line – which will be followed by an Alex Segura book featuring Daredevil and a Luke Cage title by SA Cosby.

“When it came to writing this novel, I had to put [any other versions] out of my mind and concentrate very much on Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos’s original realisation of Jessica Jones in Alias,” says Jewell, who set her story during 2003’s Alias issue 21, at the conclusion of the six-part arc “The Underneath”.