WHERE IN THE WORLD...?

The new breed of dictatorial politicians represent more than another adventure for special agents Tripler and Clarke — TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2005) — or Koski and Falk — QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016). They represent what's going awry in a world that is increasingly losing its core humanity. In a phrase, that's what's at the very heart of many contemporary thrillers. Not dystopia. Not violence. Not abuse. Not sex, money, power or arrogance. Without what makes humans human -- joy, musicality, dance, and happiness -- it isn't freedom. 

Tripler and Clarke, Koski and Falk (and, yes, even Kate Keenan) aren't just imaginary protagonists, they represent these qualities that make freedom not worth dying for, but worth living for. They're not super-heroes. They're people who want to live fully and freely, but most importantly, as "real," complete human beings. 

Antagonists are often presented as "animals," but from where I'm seated, I have to disagree. Most if not all animals possess not only an innate innocence, but a natural sense of ethics, politics, society, joy, musicality, dance and, yes, happiness, making them more "human" than many of today's humans. And what is their fate at our hands, I ask? 

In this day and age, I feel it necessary to write thrillers, if for no other reason to remind us of our own innate sense of innocence, ethics, politics, society, joy, musicality, dance, and most of all mutually shared happiness. That's me, being a thriller author is all about.