Never sit down to a TV murder mystery with David Baldacci. He’ll spoil it for you by the first ad-break.

“People hate to watch movies or television with me,” laughs the bestselling thriller writer. “Five, 10 minutes in I’m going, ‘Do you want to know who did it?’ And they’re… ’No, no’…”.

Leaning back in his chair at Dublin’s Merrion Hotel, he elaborates. “I call it the ‘two peek’ rule. A person who comes in to provide information – if they come in a second time… that’s the second peek. The writer is, ‘I can’t have them come in that one time… The killer can’t just be the elevator operator.’ That would be unfair – so… you get the second peek.”