Obviously it is a timely subject, but you managed to put a twist on it that I must admit I would never have thought of, the idea of joining illegal immigration, I.D. theft, and terrorism into a single plot. Where did you get the idea for the plot from?
I am a news junkie, and I enjoy taking stories out of the headlines and asking, “What if?” and weaving several threads together into one suspense story. I also use the technical expertise of many in law enforcement, including two FBI Special Agents and six police officers. Chief G. Mitchell Reed served as a technical expert throughout the writing of the book, providing information on cigarette smuggling, illegal immigration and sleeper cells. After my book’s release, I noted an August edition of Newsweek magazine, in which the writer provided details of Pakistanis purchasing cigarettes in Virginia and North Carolina at warehouse stores and reselling them in Illinois and New York at huge profits, which then funds terrorist activities. Cigarette trafficking now rivals drug trafficking as a fund-raising method used by various terrorist groups.
Ricochet is a fast and furious story. I must admit that what went through my mind was that it would make a great movie. I could see it fitting nicely in 120 minutes of action. Have you given any thought to moving in that direction?
Yes, I traveled to Hollywood last November and met with two movie producers. Neither was interested in a movie on terrorism, thinking it was too close to the truth right now — but one is interested in an earlier work, The China Conspiracy, which has been compared to both The Manchurian Candidate and Three Days of the Condor, and the other is interested in an historical suspense scheduled for release this fall entitled Songbirds are Free. I am a visual person, and I write my books with the same action-packed sequences as we see in the movies.
Sheila and Steve are well-developed characters. Are they destined to re-appear in a future book?
Sheila made her first appearance in my debut suspense, Kickback. I had not intended to write a series but so many people liked Sheila and wanted to see her return in a future book that I decided to write Ricochet as a sequel (although I also wrote it to stand on its own, in case readers were not familiar with my earlier work). The only reason Sheila and Steve did not have more of a romantic involvement was because my FBI technical advisors told me Steve would lose his job if he fraternized with one of his Academy students. Now that Sheila has graduated, though, the future is open for Steve and Sheila to pursue a romantic involvement.
Article comments
1 - Nukapai
Writing is definitely addictive, in the way that scratching a scab is addictive. ;)
More seriously: it's quite chilling to think that mystery and crime novelists may have to face the moral dilemma of whether there will be copycats.