Samuel asked Andrew Kaplan:

Hi Andrew. Just finished all your original stand alone novels. My question is this. Robert Harris, de - facto Company handler/liason to Caine, Sawyer and currently Scorpion. How did he come about and what ideas did you consider when creating him and did you forsee him becoming the fixture of your writing that he has evolved into from those early days?

Andrew Kaplan Hi Samuel, Great question and I hope you enjoyed all the books. When I originally conceived the Bob Harris character as little more than a plot device in my first book "Hour of the Assassins," where he plays a fairly limited part. Even then though, I thought of him as a "suit," a corporate type, good-looking, smooth, successful, but despite anything that ever came out of his mouth, really only out for himself. This was a type I had encountered many times in business and government. When I needed a case officer for Scorpion, Harris was already at hand. The only difference was that I made him even more of what he was, more successful, more attractive to women, more effective on the surface and corrupt inside. Again, when I did "Dragonfire" and then back to the Scorpion books, Harris was already there and integral to what was happening. I didn't use him in "War of the Raven," because it was a WW2 work, before his time.

flag