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"Dennis Nilsen, the serial killer, turned my book into Braille," says Jon Ronson. It’s exactly the kind of alarming and surreal revelation we expect from the writer and broadcaster, whose Radio 4 show Things Fell Apart returns next year.

But there’s more to the story: "I can’t remember if Nilsen was in prison or a mental institution at that point, but when I discovered he was translating Them [Ronson’s 2001 book about extremists], I wrote to him and made a little joke – because I was writing to him and Jeffrey Archer, who was also in jail at the time – about being one of those women who wants to marry a prisoner. And he wrote me this furious letter saying, 'That’s not funny. I thought you were a serious man,' then broke off communication with me."

You might think that antagonising an infamous necrophile murderer – not to mention exposing the US army’s secret paranormal programme, being unmasked as a Jew at a jihadi training camp, and getting chased by men in dark glasses when he investigated the Bilderberg Group (all of which happened while researching previous books) – would mean Ronson wasn’t too worried about chatting to an eccentric would-be playboy who owns a castle in New England for his new tome. But this time, as they say in movie trailers, it’s personal.

"So I wake up one morning to a series of disturbing texts from my son Joel," he says. "He and three friends had been invited to a party held by a stranger they met on Tinder, and when they turn up at this guy’s house in Connecticut, it’s a giant, newly built castle with way too many turrets, ostentatious even by ‘Gothic castle’ standards. They cross the drawbridge and discover there is no party, and the owner says, ‘Oh no, I’ve invited you here for a different reason. I want you to take part in my reality show, 101 Princesses. I’m the lord, and I’m looking for my queen and I’ve got 101 princesses to choose from. Go downstairs and put on some princess costumes…'"

Joel and his friends initially go along with it all – the girls putting on princess costumes; the boys, tuxedos – but become increasingly uncomfortable when it’s suggested the girls "make out together". Instead, they leave. "But some stranger had put my son in a perilous situation," says Ronson, "and I felt a rare stirring of a masculine urge to protect him" – as well as, he admits happily, a familiar twitch in his investigative-journalist muscles. "So I go to the castle, and a strange cat-and-mouse game unfolds between me and the owner, where he starts sending me ominous messages.

"The first conclusion I come to, based on speaking to some of the women who went there, is that this is a man trying to be [Playboy founder] Hugh Hefner, but at simply the worst moment in human history to be Hefner." But once again there’s more to the story, which takes in Argentina, Poland and even Mongolia.

Though The Castle is mainly concerned with what’s going on at – the clue’s in the name – the castle, Ronson elegantly extrapolates out to the wider "man crisis". There are eye-opening chapters on Ronson’s strange, strained relationships with Armie Hammer, the Hollywood actor accused of cannibalism in 2021, and Father Ted writer turned culture warrior Graham Linehan. But there’s a sensitive, insightful investigation into how "ordinary" men are struggling to find purpose in a changing world, too – not least the author himself.

At one point in the story, for instance, Ronson (who comes from Cardiff but now lives in New York) receives a series of texts from the castle owner saying, "I’m going to be sending you some of my friends that were in prison for killing somebody… One of my good friends who got out of prison is on his way today… You don’t want to see him angry. He just got out of jail like a week ago and has been in there for like 15 years… Carlos and Brandon are on their way to New York right now."

But Ronson’s reaction wasn’t fear – or, at least, not just fear. "Yeah, Carlos and Brandon – they don’t sound like a very likely murder couple, do they? They seem like they come from two very different demographics. So I’m feeling fear, curiosity, amusement…" But also, crucially, "purpose" – because "the hardest and darkest things produce the most interesting stories".

So, "the worst-case scenario wasn’t Carlos and Brandon lying in wait for me," Ronson reasons, but them not lying in wait for him, and there being no story to pursue. "Actually," he adds, "the worst-case scenario was Carlos and Brandon lying in wait for me, but my wider point stood."

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