Run: A Debut Thriller

Run by Matthew Becker

Author Interview + Book & Author Info + Author Pet Corner!Don’t miss any debut author interviews, click the link here for more.Run by Matthew Becker

What do you do when the past catches up to you?

‘I LOVE YOU. I JUST NEED YOU TO KNOW THAT.’

When Congressional staffer Ben Walsh receives this cryptic text from his wife he initially doesn’t think much of it.

But while waiting to hear from her again, Ben discovers that the text came an hour before a shooting that occured along her daily running route. Veronica won’t pick up her phone, and when she doesn’t return home, he knows she is somehow involved.

If she isn’t one of the victims, then where is she, and what did she know?

While Ben searches for his wife, he stumbles upon another violent death, with clear connections to the shooting. The police name Veronica as their main suspect, and when more evidence suggesting his wife’s involvement appears, even Ben has to reconsider what he knows about her.

Unbeknownst to Ben, a killer from Veronica’s past stalks his family, with his own reasons for wanting to find her. What Ben does know is his best chance at saving Veronica, and keeping her out of prison, is finding her and the truth before the police-or this killer-do. But what if the truth is even more deadly than he could imagine?

RUN is a psychological thriller full of twists and turns that questions if you ever outrun your past. From the mind of debut author Matthew Becker, find the truth behind a string of murders in a novel perfect for fans of David Baldacci, Alex Finlay, and Isabella Maldonad.

To purchase Run, click on the following link: AmazonRun Author Interview with Matthew BeckerRun centers on a Congressional staffer whose wife is involved in a shooting. What would you like readers to know about Ben Walsh:

Ben is your classic everyday hero thrown into a bad situation. A good guy who thought the most exciting part of his life would be enacting policies. But when his wife goes missing and the police turn on her…

 

Where do you see your book in terms of genre? Are there any books or authors that fill the same niche in the crime fiction world?

We’ve marketed it as a psychological thriller, and it does have aspects of that whereby the protagonist is unsure what is true or not, but this novel straddles the intersection of several thriller subgenres. It has political, action, and domestic elements as well. I think of it as political-adjacent, since while there are plenty of politics happening, the main plot is about a husband and his missing wife. 

In my mind the story lives in between Harlan Coben and David Baldacci’s niches. The domestic setting and emotional gravitas of Coben coupled with the macro-level DC reverberations of a Baldacci thriller. Obviously, those are two of the brightest luminaries in the thriller world, but why not try to compare yourself to the best?

 

Tell us about your road to publication for Run:

I took the long-trodden road of sending queries to sit in slush piles, hoping for that one break.

After over 100 passes from agents, I had put this book back on my proverbial shelf and started querying a separate stand-alone. Last December I saw a note in an Authors Publish email saying that Aethon Books had recently created a thriller imprint (Aethon Thrills) and were willing to read unagented submissions. I sent them the manuscript, they told me they liked it, and in the time between that and a contract being sent over, I finally did manage to get an agent as well.

Like so many author stories, everything went from 0 to 100 very fast and within the space of a couple weeks I went from querying a separate novel to having my agent, Gina Panettieri at Talcott Notch, negotiate a 3-book deal for me with Aethon based on Run. 

 

You are a mathematician, that’s a very different discipline than creative writing. What led you to writing your first novel?

I have been an avid reader as long as I can remember, and it has been predominantly mysteries and thrillers ever since I found a Robert Parker novel in my grandparents’ house in Michigan in the early 00’s.

I have no formal writing training, but eventually in my late 20s I thought I’d read enough thrillers that I could come up with a decent enough plot of my own. Flash forward about five years and here we are! I like sprinkling little bits of math into my books here and there, which is why Ben’s wife Veronica is a mathematician, but nothing so crazy as to scare away the layperson. 

 

You and your family live in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. What’s it like living overseas in such an exotic (to most US readers) location? Hiking in Ala Archa Park just outside Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

It’s an incredible adventure. By the time readers see this, we’ll actually have moved back to Washington, DC, temporarily, before we move on to Nicaragua next summer. Being married to a diplomat means every 2-3 years we’re moving to another embassy or consulate

A quick selfie outside the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul

somewhere in the world, and as the Foreign Service tagline goes, we are worldwide available, so nothing is off limits. It’s the epitome of leaving your comfort zone.

The Registan in Samarkand, the most iconic structure in Uzbekistan

 

I enjoy being in places where there’s no assumption the locals will speak English, and you have to sink or swim on the basis of your language proficiency. We learned Russian to go to Uzbekistan and we’ll be in the States learning Spanish before flying off to Nicaragua. It’s not an easy life, but the perks are extraordinary. In the two years we’ve lived in Tashkent we’ve spent time in incredible Silk Road cities, and also traveled to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Türkiye, Moldova, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, and the UAE. 

Strolling through the old city of Bratislava, SlovakiaWhat can we find you doing when you aren’t reading and writing thrillers?

I am a massive sports fan, especially Liverpool Football Club. The amount of my happiness that depends on 11 men in England who have never heard of me is concerning!

Besides that, I have two girls, a three-year-old and a six-month-old, and they keep me very busy. 

 

Final words of wisdom for aspiring writers:

Every author you love was once exactly where you are now.

 

Author Pet Corner!Trajan!

We have an 11-year-old tabby, Trajan.

I got him as a 6-week-old while I was in graduate school, and we have had lots of adventures together as we drag him around the world.

Matthew Becker — Author of Run

Matthew Becker is a mathematician, and formerly worked as part of the national Covid-19 response. He has a doctorate in applied mathematics from the University of Maryland, College Park, and is published in the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology.

Matthew currently lives with his wife, a U.S. diplomat, and their two children in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. An avid thriller reader, he loves stories with dense, twisted plots and emotional gravitas.

Catch up with Matthew by visiting his website.

 

 

Elena Hartwell/Elena Taylor

Header image from Pixabay

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