Mike Stotter and I were
thankful to Publisher / Editor and Literary Raconteur Otto Penzler, for a
specific book he’s just released, and we got the opportunity to thank him
personally while we were at Bouchercon 2025 in New Orleans.
I first heard of this book
during the London Book Fair when I had a meeting with Otto Penzler. As a long
time reader of Lee Child’s
Jack Reacher novels - I quizzed him about this book during last May’s Crimefest
event in Bristol.
The book I am referring to is ‘Reacher: The Stories behind the Stories’
– a book that I was highly anticipating.
So, what are my thoughts once
I had a copy in my hands?
This interesting book will not only appeal to readers of
the Jack Reacher novels, but also to readers [and writers] who wish to uncover
the physical mechanics behind the writing process; the dynamics that powered
one of the world’s best-selling thriller series.
Written in a series of short chapters [which were initially
short introductions to the limited print run special editions of each Jack
Reacher novel solely written by Lee Child] from the first [Killing Floor] to
the twenty fourth [Blue Moon], this book is so very interesting.
It opens - On Monday September 5th, 1994, at home, at the dining
room table, I sat down to write. An hour later, I gave the first chapter to my
wife. I asked, “Should I continue?”
“Yes,” she said. “I like it.”
Child’s self-deprecating, modest and amusing style at times
raising a smile, while at others forcing the reader to pause for thought and
ponder upon the hand of fate. The combination of the author’s work ethic,
built-in self-reliance, positive [and generous] nature - collided many times
with the hand of fate as he watched the cards fall, not always in his favour –
but he always seemed to play the best possible hand. Case in point – the
circumstances of the purchase of his Property in Southern France, as well as
its subsequent sale.
After completing this slim
tome, including the new Jack Reacher short story “A Better Place” which closes this interesting book – I had a few
questions, and thanks to publisher Otto Penzler, who spoke with Lee – I got my
answers, which are presented below for our readers.
I closed my review –
“This is the most informative and entertaining book I’ve
read so far in 2025. Reacher: The Stories behind the Stories helped recall how
much pleasure reading the Lee Child novels had on me, enriching my own life by distracting me
from my own [at times] Bad Luck and Trouble.”
I understand the importance of
literature - good writing – and the power of stories in helping manage the
randomness of life and its challenges.
Stephen King summed this
importance in his book “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”.
“Life isn't a support-system for art. It's
the other way around”
I managed my life through my
love of books and reading, so over to a story teller that helped me overcome
the challenges that life presented me from 1997’s ‘Killing Floor’ to 2019
and ‘Blue Moon’ – Mr. Lee Child.
Ali: I first heard about ‘Reacher: The Stories
behind the Stories’ in March, from Otto Penzler during the London Book Fair.
Would you tell us about the book’s genesis and was it your idea or that of
Penzler’s Mysterious Press?
Lee: Entirely Otto's idea - both originally and
contemporaneously. Otto did very limited
editions of the Reacher books for his collectors, 126 printed per title, and
asked for added-value forewords for each, year by year. I did them as diaries, really - where I was,
what I was thinking, etc, while I was writing each book. Then he wanted to publish them in a single
widely-available volume. Which felt
weird, frankly. I knew collectors rarely
even open the book - they shelve them reverentially and worry about cracking
their spines. So I thought no one would
read this stuff, so I made the intros quite personal and unguarded. Transworld picked it up as a subsidiary deal
for the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
AK: I see there will be an audio release,
will you be narrating / reading it or will Jeff Harding do the honours again?
AND what’s your take on the growth of Audio Books, and the Reacher novels in
particular?
LC: I narrated the
main part of the audio myself, because it feels a bit autobiographical, like a
memoir. That was the first time ever for
me. Jeff Harding did the non-me parts,
including a brand new Reacher short story we put in as bonus content. Audio is getting huge now - inevitably, I
think, because for most of our evolution storytelling has been oral, and we
seem to be hardwired for it. I'm all in favour
- I'm a storyteller rather than a writer, so I'm happy for people to get the
story any way they want.
AK: I enjoyed the Reacher short story “A
Better Place” that closes “Reacher: The Stories behind the Stories”, so after
last year’s collection ‘Safe Enough’ and previously ‘No Middle Name’, will we
be seeing more short fiction from you?
LC: I'm sure I'll do short stories now and then. There's always someone asking. If I'm around long enough, there could be
enough to make another collection.
AK: As a fellow
bibliophile - I was amused when you mentioned about renovating the manor house
in Sussex, including building a library “…for
the first time in my life, I had more shelves than books….though that moment
did not last long…” So tell us about your own book collecting over the
years, and what is the state of your book collection currently?
LC: I'm not a collector per
se - I have probably ten thousand books here and there, but fewer than
twenty are actual valuable volumes. I
have a Kelmscott Chaucer - folio size, hand-printed by William Morris,
illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones, often called the most beautiful book in the
world, and a first edition, first printing of The Catcher in the Rye, and a signed first of The
Silence of the Lambs. Plus a couple of
James Bonds. Stuff like that. But most of my books have little resale
value, except they're much loved by me.
AK: Naturally, there is little mention of the
Amazon series REACHER due to the time frame [Killing Floor to Blue Moon] – so
what can you tell us about Season Four – and is it based on your novel “Gone
Tomorrow”? And what about the spin off series “Neagely”?
LC: Yes, the TV seasons post-date the forewords in the
book. Reacher season four is almost done
- yes, Gone Tomorrow - and the Neagley spin-off is almost through
post-production.
LC: Like the memoir book [Reacher: The Stories behind the
Stories], the archive is another thing I never expected. UEA is very much "the writers'
university", a bit like Iowa State in the U.S., and I know Henry Sutton,
who teaches there. He asked for my
archive. I wasn't sure I had one, as
such - just a bunch of old boxes with all kinds of stuff thrown in. But they have made wonderful sense of it - it
has turned out to be beautifully curated and quite impressive. I started long enough ago that plenty of it
is on physical paper, not just electronic.
LC: I love festivals, and go to as many as I can fit
in. Readers and writers are like my
family, and it's great to see them periodically. I like to meet the new writers - such
passion, energy, and ideas - and such great books! And yes, I'll be there on
November 8th, at 7pm at Whitby in November.
Now I'm back in the UK, I decided to do stuff I had to miss
before. I like Whitby - I had a nice holiday
there once. And it's a new festival, so
I wanted to help launch it.
LC: By an outrageous coincidence, unknown to each other, I
was their fan and they were mine, and eventually we met. Obviously we immediately pledged to make an
album together - I would write the lyrics, they would write
the music. It took us fifteen
years to get it done, but we did it. A
real high point in my life. Total fun,
with two lovely people.
AK: Thank you for your time, and the trip
down memory lane with Reacher: The Stories behind the Stories. Your work has
always been important to so many readers.
LC: My pleasure as ever.
Shots Magazine would like to pass our thanks to Otto
Penzler of The Mysterious Press / Penzler Publishers and Patsy Irwin of
PenguinRandomHouse for helping organise this short interview and of course to
Lee Child for his time.
5 Min video Below: Lee Child
and Andrew Grant at Crimefest May 2025 Bristol UK recorded in Gonzo-Vision.
History-makers and historical crimes: 2025 Ngaio Marsh Award winners revealed in Dame Ngaios’ hometown.
A quartet of talented Kiwi writers were honoured at a special WORD Christchurch event on Thursday night as they scooped the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards for books meshing compelling narratives with important issues
In the sixteenth instalment of Aotearoa’s annual awards celebrating excellence in crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing, journalist Kirsty Johnston and academic James Hollings won Best Non-Fiction for their in-depth re-examination of our nation’s most notorious cold case in The Crewe Murders (Massey University Press), while Otago-based academic turned author Wendy Parkins scooped Best First Novel for her historical tale of gaslighting, abuse, and one woman's fight in the 19th century in The Defiance of Francis Dickinson (Affirm Press), and Auckland filmmaker and author Michael Bennett made Ngaios history by winning Best Novel for his second Hana Westerman tale Return to Blood (Simon & Schuster).
“It was a great night to cap an outstanding season for the Ngaio Marsh Awards, thanks to a terrifically strong and varied group of finalists,” says awards founder Craig Sisterson. “We were particularly stoked to have the marvellous Court Jesters involved, delivering a wonderful improv murder mystery we’re sure would have tickled theatre-loving Dame Ngaio; a full circle moment back to our original plans in 2010.”
Last night, following the interactive improv murder mystery, the 2025 Ngaios winners were revealed in among readings from the attending finalists. Parkins was stunned to find herself onstage accepting the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel, joining a roll of honour for that debut prize that includes past winners like JP Pomare (Call Me Evie), RWR McDonald (The Nancys), Jacqueline Bublitz (Before You Knew My Name), Michael Bennett (Better the Blood) and last year’s winner Claire Baylis (Dice).
The judges praised Parkins’ novel, which was inspired by a sensational Edwardian trial, as a “skilfully written historical tale that soaks readers in an era and attitudes which have some scary echoes today”.
Hollings, an Associate Professor at Massey University in Wellington, was thrilled to receive the trophy for Best Non-Fiction for The Crewe Murders, on behalf of himself and Kirsty Johnston, one of Aotearoa’s leading investigative journalists. The non-fiction judging panel praised the duo for centring the Crewes in their scrupulously researched book, layered with forensic and legal detail, and went on to say: “Among a small library of writing about the Crewes and Arthur Allan Thomas, this should be regarded as the definitive record of one of New Zealand’s most infamous and troubling crimes”.
The Ngaios evening closed with more history, as acclaimed filmmaker and author Bennett
(Ngati Pikiao, Ngati Whakaue) became the first-ever Best First Novel winner to then go on to win the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel with a later book. He also joined Paul Cleave, the modern King of Kiwi Crime, as the only three-time Ngaios winner, having previously won the Best Non-Fiction category in 2017 for In Dark Places, his stunning account of Teina Pora’s wrongful conviction and long fight to clear his name.
The Best Novel international judging panel, which included several leading critics from Australia, the UK, and New Zealand, praised Return to Blood for its "Excellent characters that populate a nuanced and telling plot that tackles a juxtaposition of ideas of what constitutes justice”, noting Bennett’s second novel featuring Māori sleuth Hana Westerman heralds “what’s already looking like superb crime series”.
Bennett’s Hana Westerman novels have been into several languages, become the only detective series shortlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards, won or been shortlisted for several other prestigious awards in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, United States, and Japan, and are in development for a screen series.
For more information on any of our 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards winners or finalists, or the Ngaios in general, please contact ngaiomarshaward@gmail.com, or founder Craig Sisterson, craigsisterson@hotmail.com
Book reviewers can tell you
how exciting it is to discover a novel that is ‘different’, that engages the
mind and makes one contemplate, provoke thought. Recently I was persuaded to
pick up a book entitled ‘Ordinary Bear’ by an American Author I’d never heard
of – namely Chris C.B. Bernard.
My friends and colleagues Jeff
Peirce of The Rap Sheet, and George Easter publisher of Deadly Pleasures Mystery
Magazine were extolling the novel’s virtues during Bouchercon in New Orleans,
earlier this Month. George went one step further, he thrust a copy into my
hands and said “…read up to page 38, and
if you don’t like it pass it to someone else….” Anyway, serendipitously I took
a front row seat at a book reviewing panel that George was moderating entitled “Crime
Rave: Mystery Reviewers Talk About Their Favorite Crime Fiction” with renowned
book reviewers / literary commentators Meredith Anthony, Oline Cogdill, Larry
Gandle, and Jeff Pierce. At one point, George Easter held up a copy of Ordinary Bear indicating it was one of
his recent favourite reads. George gestured to a bloke seated next to me and
said “…and the author Chris Bernard has
joined us here at Bouchercon…..” I blinked and grabbed my [gifted] copy of Ordinary Bear, and asked [in a conspiratorial whisper] the author
if he’d be so kind as sign it for me, which he did.
On my return to the UK, Ordinary
Bear was one of my early post-Bouchercon reads.
My thoughts?
This extraordinary novel is sadly
currently not published in Europe, but was released earlier this year in
America. I picked up a copy during the recent New Orleans Bouchercon thanks to
the book receiving a Deadly Pleasures Barry Award, and excellent word of mouth
in America.
I was energised by this novel, an
unexpected treat, full of heart but a very tough and hard hitting literary
thriller. Ordinary Bear provoked deep reflection and contemplation as the pages
turned and the tale was told.
Ostensibly, its theme is redemption but
the narrative is far more than purely a journey for the main character Farley
to find inner-peace. The narrative weaves the former army veteran from working
as an oil-field detective in Nanuqmiut [a small village in Alaska], to the
homeless tented camps in contemporary Portland, Oregon.
I concluded my review with the
following paragraph –
Rarely does one receive such a wonderfully
realised literary thriller, one that is sleek like a ricocheting bullet – but
one that makes the reader contemplate life-and-death, fear-and-love, cause-and-effect
in a world that perplexes us further with each passing day.
Hugely recommended even if one has to
order from America.
One of my top reads of 2025, so far [and I
read a lot of books].
As this novel was deeply
thought provoking, I had a few questions for the author, and Chris Bernard
cheerfully answered my queries with thoughtful [as well insightful] responses – which we present below for our readers – Ali Karim
Ali: Welcome to Great Britain’s Shots
Magazine
Chris: Thank you for inviting me.
AK: It was great to meet you
[albeit briefly] during Bouchercon
New Orleans, so can you tell our readers a little about yourself?
CB: Your reputation precedes you, Ali, so what fun to end
up sitting next to you at a Bouchercon panel.
Readers of my books will notice that place plays a key
role. That’s because it’s so important to me as well. America’s a big country.
I’ve moved back and forth across it six times and lived in nine states, and
something tells me I’m not done yet. For the last six years, I’ve lived on the
Rhode Island coast, in New England, but spent much of my adult life before that
in Alaska and Oregon.
When I’m not writing, reading, or talking about books, I’m
usually on the ocean—I love boats and have even built one—or walking with my dog
and wife.
AK:…you make me blush….anyway… How important are books and reading to you,
and are you a crime fiction reader? And what work did you read that made you
consider penning your own fiction?
CB: I was the weird kid who always knew what he wanted to
be. In my case, a writer—and since it took me a while to succeed at it, I guess
I was that weird adult, too.
Books can change lives, right? As a kid, books were how I
travelled. Books were how I learned. Books kept me company and entertained me. Books
taught me empathy and perspective, and helped me realize that the things I felt
and the things that scared me were not unique to me—that many of them were
universal. And that’s a comforting thing for a kid to learn.
As a lifelong reader, I try to be open to all kinds of
books. I find the concept of genre limiting. Write the best book you can and
I’ll read it. Just don’t bore me. But a survey of my shelves would probably
reveal a disproportionate share of crime fiction, literary fiction (whatever
the hell that is), outdoors and climate writing, and books by Irish novelists.
All of which is to say that no one book made me want
to write; every book made me want to write. Books have given me so much.
I just wanted to give something back. Every novelist wants to be a bestseller,
but I’d settle for having something I wrote connect with even one reader as
intensely as I’ve connected with so many other writers’ books.
AK: …and your favourite writers and why they are your favourites, and their
key work?
CB: This may sound like a dodge, but I think books are like
wine. Different types or varietals suit different occasions, so the answer to your
question would depend on my mood.
That said, some writers are automatic buys for me when
something new of theirs hits the shelves. I’ve read everything by the American
writer Robert Stone, and I’ll
continue to read everything by the Australian writer Tim Winton, the Irish writer Kevin Barry, and English
writer Sarah Hall. There’s a guy from
the American Pacific Northwest called Bruce
Holbert, whose books are difficult to characterize but never disappoint.
His novels Whiskey—about two brothers on the run with a kidnapped bear—and
Lonesome Animals, about a tormented sheriff called out of retirement to
hunt a serial killer, are astonishments.
Winton’s got a book, The Riders, about a guy
searching for his missing wife with his traumatized daughter. Like Ron Hansen’s Atticus, it’s the
kind of book that reframed for me what a mystery can look like or what it can be.
And, of course, you can probably find traces of all of these writers’ DNA in Ordinary Bear.
But maybe you’re asking about crime writers? Man, I’m not
even sure how you would go about making a list, there’s just too many great
ones. I loved Robert Wilson’s Bruce
Medway series set in Africa, as well as anything Denise Mina, Tana French,
or Louise Penny write. I recently
read and loved Urban Waite’s The
Terror of Living, Bill Beverly’s Dodgers,
and Gin Phillips’Fierce
Kingdom. My buddy John Straley writes
excellent detective novels set in Southeast Alaska, which bring the place to
life for me. And I’ve got shelves filled with Chandler, Leonard, and Greene.
How about Paz Pardo’s
The Shamshine Blind, because it’s classic detective noir set in an
inventively wild alternate universe—or Michael
Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union for the same reason?
AK: And was this your first Bouchercon? And can you tell us what you got up to in New Orleans?
CB: Ordinary Bear is
my first crime novel but my third book, so I’ve made the rounds of writers
conferences, book festivals, and literary conventions over the years. But this
was my first Bouchercon, and what a revelation to find such a supportive
community of writers, readers, and industry folks all lifting each other up and
celebrating each other’s work and successes. I spent much of the long weekend
in leisurely conversations about books with people like yourself, one of my favourite
ways to pass time. I also got to meet up with some online friends in person for
the first time, and sat in on some great panel discussions.
The Southern crime writing panel with S.A. Cosby, Ace Atkins, Henry Wise, Scott Blackburn, and Mark Westmoreland fascinated me. My
three books have all been set in Oregon, Alaska, or both, so the south itself
is a mystery to my sensibilities. Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to so many
southern writers.
The team behind Deadly Pleasures magazine and Mystery Mike Bursaw were generous enough
to invite me to a dinner with some other writers and readers, where I enjoyed
the company, conversation, and cocktails in equal measure. And I got to spend
some time with your friend Jeff Pierce from The
Rap Sheet, who has been very kind to Ordinary
Bear.
In addition, my wife and I made time to hit some of our
favourite NOLA haunts for oysters and beignets, for drinks at The Hotel Monteleone—which
has a rich literary history—and to listen to live music.
AK: It was winning the Barry
Award 2025 at the National WW2 Museum for Ordinary Bear that brought your
work onto my Radar, so can you tell us a little what it meant to you as a
writer?
CB: It meant the world to me, Ali. Look, I’m pretty
thick-skinned. As a writer, you have to be—the world of publishing can
sometimes feel like a machine engineered to efficiently crush the human soul. I
can take bad reviews and rejections, and I’m going to get up every morning and
write no matter what. But it was a gift to be nominated for Best First Mystery
Novel and an absolute shock to win.
What made it especially meaningful is that, a decade
earlier, my wife and I spent a day at the National WW2 Museum with some close friends,
and I’d been deeply moved by the exhibits. So taking the stage and speaking to
the audience there felt particularly gratifying. Not to mention looking out
into that audience and seeing so many writers whose work I admire.
I’m not going to lie and tell you I don’t read my reviews,
because I do. But I don’t write for critics, I write for readers, and that’s
what made this award such a thrill—it’s a reader vote, and I’m grateful.
AK: Though ostensibly a Crime Novel, Ordinary Bear has a literary air, so can
you tell us a little about its genesis and the writing process as well as
journey to publication.
CB: Blackstone Publishing
gave me a two-book deal when they bought my debut novel, Small Animals
Caught in Traps. Iwrote Ordinary Bear after I turned in that
first manuscript.
Last year, while on a panel at the New Hampshire Book
Festival with Sarah Stewart Taylor,
Margot Douahiy, and Edwin Hill—all
fantastic mystery writers—someone in the audience asked if we knew the endings
of our books when we started writing them. I told them that I didn’t even know
the beginning of Ordinary Bear. It’s such a difficult book to discuss
without giving spoilers, but there’s a scene—you know the one—that came to me
first. Not only did I have to write my way out of that scene, but I also had to
write my way into it.
As you know, the entire book changes after that—tenor,
tone, setting, all of it—so the first 20 pages or so are a bit of a feint. As a
novelist, the challenge then became stitching those two parts of the book
together without leaving a seam high enough for readers to trip over.
I don’t think I sat down to write a mystery so much as to
send Farley, the lead character, on a kind of odyssey. Like in Dante’s Inferno,
but instead of Virgil, a different character guides him through each circle of
the particular hell in which he finds himself, each damned in his or her own
way. As the story began to take shape, I saw the opportunity to mirror a detective
story as Farley sets out to try to save the kidnapped girl, but also to have
some fun with it by putting him through some things along the way.
AK: I felt one of the major strengths of Ordinary Bear was how distinctly
painted were the minor characters like Lady McDeath, like Edge [aka George
Edgeworthy], Wayne and the cross-dressing former Army Veteran – turned
bartender, Dolly, to name just a few. So tell me how you managed to control
such an unusual array of background characters and make them so distinct in the
readers mind?
CB: It wouldn’t make for an interesting story if Farley
only encountered buttoned up accountants and people who have their shit
together, right? Anyone who’s ever spent time in Portland, Oregon, will know
what I mean when I say that it’s a city that punches above its weight in
characters. I don’t know whether Portland draws them like pilgrims to Mecca or if
it manufactures them, but they thrive there. That’s part of why I set the book
there.
Farley is hurting. He’s bereft with grief, crippled by
guilt, physically damaged, and actively trying to punish himself by sleeping on
the streets. When he sets out to find the missing girl, his physical well-being
diminishes as he gets deeper into his odyssey. At the same time, each character
he meets opens his mind a little, awakening his empathy and reminding him that,
as all-consuming as his grief and guilt are, they’re universal human emotions. Everybody’s
hurt in some way, all of us.
The trick with writing characters like that is to highlight
but don’t limit them to their quirks. Show what makes them human and readers
will connect—and if readers connect with characters, they’ll remember them.
AK: You are a big bloke, but perhaps not as hulking as your main character
Farley, so where did this protagonist come from?
CB: I don’t want to give too much away, but an extended metaphor
runs throughout the book, a kind of relationship between Farley and the bear of
the title. Polar bears are marine mammals. They spend most of their lives on
ice. But as climate change melts the ice, they find themselves increasingly, jarringly
out of place on land, mingling with humans. This leads to more negative
interactions.
Not to draw a line in ink that’s too dark here, but
Farley’s a huge bear of a man forced to leave the Arctic village where he lives
for the urban streets of Portland, where he definitely does not belong. And in
the end, when he absolves the bear for the impact it has had on his life
because it was just doing what bears do, he’s absolving himself, in a way.
I liked the idea of kind of flipping a Jack
Reacher story on its head. A giant ex-military type who lives out of a
bag and helps someone in need, except he kindda
sucks at it. Despite his size and obvious proclivity for violence, Farley
makes it as far as he does in his search for the missing girl only because of
all these characters who help him along the way.
AK: I see you have been writing a whiles before Ordinary Bear, can you tell
us a little about your writing?
CB: As I said, Ordinary Bear is my third book and
second novel, but my first crime novel. Small Animals Caught in Traps is
set in a rain-soaked runt of a town in rural Oregon and follows an
ex-boxer-turned-fly-fishing-guide grieving the loss of his wife as he tries
like hell to help his daughter find her way in the world, even as he loses his
own.
Obviously, I tend to skew dark in my fiction, but there’s
always humour. Humour is critical—not just in fiction, but in life. As a
novelist, if you’re going to write dark, you can use humour to give readers
room to breathe. Like a bell between rounds of a fight. You can also use it as
a jab to distract them so they don’t see the haymaker punch coming.
AK: And the backdrops in Alaska and Portland are vividly drawn, so I assume
you are familiar with the Pacific Northwest of America?
CB: In 1999, I moved from Massachusetts to Alaska and fell immediately
in love with the place. Not long after, I caught wind of an ancestor who’d done
the same thing during the Gold Rush a hundred years earlier. Having failed as a
miner, he became an explorer at a time when the Arctic still had a lot of blank
spots on the map and lived a remarkable life, spending two decades exploring,
shipwrecked, or frozen over in the Arctic. My first book, Chasing Alaska: A
Portrait of the Last Frontier Then and Now, tells the parallel stories of
his exploration and my own to show the Alaska we both knew and loved and how it
changed over the century between us.
After I left Alaska, my wife and I lived in
Oregon—twice—for more than a decade. As I said, place matters to me. The
landscape of the Pacific Northwest resonates at the same frequency as my heart.
But Rhode Island is beautiful, too—woods and waters—and we’ve built a good life
here, for now.
AK: So what’s next for Chris Bernard….as I noticed there could be a
possibility for a sequel, or am I mistaken?
CB: At the moment, I have no plans for a sequel, but never
say “never,” right? My next book veers away from crime fiction because I needed
a change in the months after I turned in Ordinary Bear, and because I
like to challenge myself. But after that one, I plan to get back to it—the
community of crime writers and readers feels too much like home for me not to
want to return.
AK: Thank you for your time
CB: This was a lot of fun. Thanks for the opportunity, Ali,
and thanks for all you do for writers and readers.
Shots Magazine thanks Chris Bernard
for his time and insight – more information about Ordinary Bear and his
work can be found HERE and HERE and in
the video interview below from “Must Read Fiction”
AND for information about next
year’s World Crime and Mystery Convention [Bouchercon] click HERE
We’ve been readers of Joe Finder’s espionage thrillers at Shots
Magazine for some
time now, and have bumped into him many times both in America at Thrillerfest
and Bouchercon Conventions but also in the UK as he’s been a guest author at Theakston’s
Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate several times. In fact in
2017, Joe Finder joined our quiz team adding his weight to his fellow Journalists
– sadly we came an honourable [and very close] second. Well in our defence, the
winning team had a secret weapon - the writer of AppleTV+
Slow Horses Mick Herron. The creator of James
Bond Antidote - Jackson Lamb who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the crime
fiction genre – though he dresses better than his creation - Jackson Lamb.
Anyway,
I digress……..It’s been a while since we’ve read one of Joe’s
thrillers, so both Mike Stotter and I were delighted to meet up with him during
Bouchercon
2025, in New Orleans, both watching his panel as well with Gerald Petievich at Otto Penzler’s Mysterious
Press anniversary party held on Bourbon Street.
We learned that Joe’s latest
bestselling novel The Oligarch’s Daughter
has just been released in Paperback in the UK from his British Publishers, Head
of Zeus. On return to the UK, I managed to read this extraordinary novel over
two sittings [which is saying something, considering the heft of this thriller].
Here are my thoughts -
Joe
Finder’s latest novel is a literary throwback to the 1970s cold war
espionage-action thriller but given a high-tech upgrade to pull it into our
contemporary times. Ostensibly a cat and mouse chase that traverses
trade-craft, technology, time and terrain, it is greater than the sum of its
parts because it makes the reader ponder on what it takes to vanish and escape
‘the grid’.
The
chase commences in New England, when boat-builder Grant Anderson takes a client
out on a sea fishing trip. Little is as it appears, for the client is actually
a hired assassin contracted to eliminate Anderson. It is revealed that Grant
Anderson is a non-de-plume for Paul Brightman, a New Yorker who vanished many
years ago. It seems that Paul Brightman’s cover is blown.
Following reading The Oligarch’s Daughter, I had a few
questions for the author, and he graciously answered my queries which we present
for our readers.
Joe
Finder: I know, and it’s good to be back, Ali – thank you for having me!
AK: It was good seeing you at Bouchercon
New Orleans in
September, so tell us what you got up to in ‘The Big Easy’?
JF:
Besides breakfasts at the Ruby Slipper café and a couple of excellent dinners,
I was able to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones.New Orleans was a great setting for the
conference, and I always love Bouchercon. I love my community of
mystery/thriller writers and readers.
AK: ….your long awaited novel THE OLIGARCH’S DAUGHTER has just been
released in Paperback in the UK, so tell us where your fascination with Russian
Political Intrigue stems from?
JF:
I’ve been interested in Russia since before my college days, when I discovered
the works of the Great Russian novelist and short-story writer Nikolai
Gogol. I was fascinated by a culture
that could produce such a writer, and in college I majored in Russian studies,
with a focus on Soviet politics and intelligence. That led to my first book, a
nonfiction book about the most prominent American businessmen who had personal
connections to the Kremlin . . . which in turn led to my first novel, THE MOSCOW CLUB, which centred on a coup
in the Kremlin. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, I moved on to other
topics in my thrillers but remained interested in Russia. It took me a while, but I finally got back to
it in THE OLIGARCH’S DAUGHTER.
AK:THE
OLIGARCH’S DAUGHTER is rather prescient, when you consider the Russian
special operation in Ukraine and the curious Russian financial matters internationally
since the fall of the Soviet Union; so did you have any fears
setting this novel with such a backdrop?
JF: I’ve
written
about a curious break-in at my office a few years ago that followed my criticizing
Putin and the Russian secret services on live Russian TV.After which, the FBI warned me not to visit
Moscow again. So yes, I was apprehensive about writing another book that dealt
with Russian matters. But I did it anyway. Though I don’t plan to be visiting
Russia any time soon.
AK: When I read THE OLIGARCH’S DAUGHTER it reminded me of a Robert Ludlum
international thriller, but with updated technology and faster velocity. Would
you care to comment?
JF:
Thanks, Ali – I take that as a compliment, because I’ve always loved Ludlum’s
novels.High literature it ain’t, but
Ludlum was unparalleled in the way he created and sustained tension throughout
his stories.Ludlum – who was a friend,
by the way – was also skilled at conspiracy novels, stories in which a
conspiracy is gradually revealed and becomes larger in scope, involving higher
and higher circles of power, in an atmosphere of growing paranoia.I tried to do something like that with THE OLIGARCH’S DAUGHTER, and I’m
delighted that you think I succeeded.
AK: ..wow
friends with Robert Ludlum……and so which of Robert Ludlum’s thrillers would be
favourites of yours and why?
JF: I
have particular fondness for THE HOLCROFT
COVENANT, which starts in a classic conspiratorial way: an American
architect meets with a mysterious stranger on a train in Geneva.He then meets his father, a man he never
knew, and discovers a massive plot involving the children of Nazis. I’m also
quite fond of THE MATARESE CIRCLE, in
which a CIA agent and a KGB agent are forced to work together to try to defeat
a far-reaching conspiracy whose origins date back more than a century.And of course THE BOURNE IDENTITY is just a solid-gold classic that begins with
an irresistible premise – a man awakes one day with amnesia, having no idea who
he is.The only clue is a piece of
microfilm with the numbers of a Swiss bank account.
AK: One of my favourite Ludlum works is THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND….one of his slimmer thrillers [and as
adapted for the screen, it was sadly
Sam Peckinpah’s final directed film]…anyway,
putting you on the spot…can you name a few thriller writers that influenced you
[or impressed you] when you were young, and their most important work [in your
opinion]?
JF: There
are a number of thriller writers who made a deep impression on me: Eric Ambler
(THE
MASK [aka COFFIN] OF DIMITRIOS, JOURNEY INTO FEAR), Frederick Forsyth (THE
DAY OF THE JACKAL), Ken Follett (EYE OF THE NEEDLE), John le Carré (THE SPY WHO
CAME IN FROM THE COLD) are just a few of them. And when I was younger, I loved
the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming.It’s a rich genre.
AK: Back to THE OLIGARCH’S DAUGHTER, I found some of the supporting characters
such as Grant Anderson / Paul Brightman’s girlfriend Sarah Harrison; his
estranged father Stan, his nemesis the former CIA Asset Geraldine Dempsey among
many others are interestingly delineated – can you tell us how you paint
characters so distinctly in such a fast-moving plot-driven thriller without
slowing the pace?
JF: It’s
a funny paradox: in a fast-paced thriller it’s quite difficult to establish
full-blooded characters, yet a suspense novel doesn’t work unless we care about
the central characters.These characters
– particularly Paul’s father, Stan, and his nemesis, Geraldine Dempsey – came to
me in the round, so to speak. They felt real to me. I think the trick is to employ
brush strokes of characterization, highly specific bits of description, lines
of dialogue, reactions – so that they come to life in the reader’s mind, as
real as they were in the writer’s.
AK: Your work has been filmed, with amazing
casting such as Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd in High Crimes and Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford in Paranoia, so have you any news of film
options on your other works?
JF: Yes!
I recently signed a deal with a terrific producer, Carl Beverly of
Timberman/Beverly (producers of Justified, Masters of Sex, Elementary, Seal
Team, and Kidnapped) for a TV series based on my Nick Heller character,
starting with an adaptation of my Nick
Heller novel GUILTY MINDS. And I
also have signed a deal for another TV series based on THE OLIGARCH’S DAUGHTER. Both deals are with excellent producers,
but this being Hollywood, anything can happen . . .
AK: Are you still active with International Thriller
Writers [ITW] as you were a founder, and still involved with the Association of Former Intelligence Officers?
JF:
I’m very active in ITW, recruiting writers for anthologies that help underwrite
ITW’s activities that assist beginning and mid-career thriller authors, and of
course I always go to ThrillerFest
in New York.And although I’m less
active in AFIO, the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, I remain
friendly with former CIA officers (I was not one) and often call upon them to
help me research my novels.
AK: And finally, what’s on the horizon for
Joe Finder?
JF:
I’m deep into a new book, the beginning of a new series, and as usual, it’s
taken me over . . .
The Oligarch’s
Daughter is now released in the UK and Ireland in Paperback, and
for more information on the work of Joe Finder
> https://josephfinder.com/
Here’s an interesting video [below] where Joe Finder discusses
The Oligarch’s Daughter with the editor of The New Yorker David Remnick.
