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Archives for December 2021

Thomas Caine returns in… CODE GREEN!

December 11, 2021 by Andrew Warren Leave a Comment

Whew! Well THAT took longer than I planned. I know many of you have been waiting a while for this one. For that, I apologize. Between the general craziness of the last year, some personal triumphs and challenges, and life getting in the way, the next book in the Thomas Caine Thriller series hit more than a few snags.

I also had some major life changes occur this year… All good stuff, that I can’t wait to tell you about in a later post. But the important thing is this:

The wait is finally over…

January 2022, Thomas Caine returns in… CODE GREEN.

CODE GREEN… Coming this January!

From Singapore to Vietnam… From the towering heights of a luxury hotel, to the submerged depths of the world’s largest cave… Thomas Caine races against time to stop a deep state conspiracy from infiltrating America’s intelligence community.

A few long-time readers took an early look at the manuscript, and all agree – it may be the most action-packed Caine novel yet! In fact, I’m happy to say that the pre-order has already burst it’s way into Amazon’s Hot New Release List! I certainly wasn’t expecting that, but I’ll take it. Caine fans kick butt!!!

The book will go live on Amazon January 25th. I’d recommend pre-ordering now to ensure you can start reading the moment it is published. You can pre-order your copy here:

PRE-ORDER CODE GREEN ON AMAZON

In the meantime, to thank everyone for their patience, I’d like to present a sneak peak at an early chapter in Code Green. In fact, it’s the chapter that explains the meaning of the title, and why I chose it. I hope you enjoy, and I hope you’ll join me for Thomas Caine’s next adventure, January 25th, 2022…

______________________________________________________

Paulis took a sip of coffee. “Frankly, I’ve never seen anything like it. A privatized intelligence network. HUMINT, SIGINT, Spec Ops… Grissom can pull off anything from boots on the ground to sophisticated cyber-warfare. And despite your efforts, the Senate Intelligence Committee still doesn’t seem to grasp the threat that’s been sitting under their nose.”

Caine stared back at him. “So if you believe me, why the third degree? Why the armed men on the hill, and the cameras, and all these damn tests. What more do you want?”


Paulis leaned back in his chair. “Isn’t it obvious?”


Caine laughed again. “Enlighten me.”


The older man pointed a finger at him. “See, I think that’s part of the problem right there. You’ve been working on your own for so long now, you can’t see it. Hell, even your last few years in active duty in SAD/SOG, you were under Bernatto’s thumb. A secret division within the CIA, carrying out unsanctioned operations. Missions you hid from Rebecca, and anyone else in the official command structure.”


“I paid the price for that, didn’t I?”


Paulis set his coffee cup on the table and steepled his fingers under his chin. “Maybe. But at the end of the day, what I need to know is, can I trust you? And more importantly, can you trust me? Or anyone, for that matter.”


“Trust? Afraid that’s in short supply these days, Director.”


“Indeed it is. More than you know. I understand Rebecca briefed you on the raid Grissom arranged in DC.”


Caine nodded. “To set up something like that… the men, the planning, the firepower… Takes a lot of money. And the right people in your pocket.”


“Based on your reports, and what little we’ve been able to uncover, Grissom’s influence reaches into the highest levels of this country’s intelligence apparatus. He’s been able to compromise high ranking NSA officials, the former Director of National Intelligence, countless private military contractors and local officials… Hell, even operatives within China’s MSS.”


Caine clenched the side of the table with a white knuckled grip. “So why are we sitting here and talking?”


Paulis gritted his teeth for a moment, then sighed. “If I send you after Bernatto, Grissom, or anyone else… Well, like we used to say in JSOC, it’s ‘Weapons Free’ out there. I have neither the time nor the inclination to babysit you. I can’t micromanage your every move. If I can’t trust you to make the right decisions, if you’re permanently damaged and broken by the things Bernatto did, the betrayal you suffered… If you can’t trust, you’re useless to me.”


Caine stood and placed his hands on the table. “You’ve had me caged up here for months. That’s months of Bernatto and Grissom doing who knows what out in the real world. So don’t talk to me about trust. I trust Rebecca. I trust DuBose. As for you, if you want my trust, maybe you should try earning it for a change. I don’t give it blindly anymore.”


Paulis looked up at him. “Sit your ass down, or you can go back to your room.”


Caine glared back at him, but said nothing. He remained standing.


Paulis shifted in his chair and cleared his throat. “DuBose is part of the reason we’re here,” he continued. “All the doctors and psychological tests in the world don’t mean shit to me, Caine. I need to look a man in the eye before I make a decision like that.”


“And?” Caine growled.


The Director stared back at him.


“According to the staff here, you’re suffering from classic PTSD symptoms. Paranoia, nightmares, mood swings. You lash out at anyone and everyone who tries to get close, because you don’t want to remember what happened to the people you used to give a damn about. How am I doing? Sound familiar?”


Caine returned the man’s stare. “Why do I feel like there’s a ‘but’ coming?”


Paulis gestured to the chair. “For the love of God, Caine, will you please sit down!”


Caine slid into the chair. “Well?”


Paulis slid the folder of papers out of the way and rested his hands on the table. “Clayton DuBose is down. He’s alive, but he’s not returning to active duty anytime soon. And given Grissom’s track record of infiltrating US Intelligence agencies, that narrows down the list of people I can trust to exactly three… My D/NCS, an FBI Special Agent who’s barely able to contact me… And you.”


Caine narrowed his eyes. “What happened to DuBose?” he asked, unable to hide the note of surprise in his voice.


Paulis pushed the bridge of his glasses up with one finger. “While you’ve been cooling your heels in debriefings, Walter Grissom has been systematically wiping out loose ends. Anyone who could hurt him or his organization, or that could be vulnerable to CIA pressure, is winding up dead. Or missing, without a trace. We sent DuBose as an undercover observer on one of Special Agent Zavala’s operations. The raid in Texas. They took down a warehouse belonging to a Blackwing front company called Agromex.”


Paulis slid another folder across the table. Caine flipped it open, and held up a picture. He whistled when he saw the satellite photo of the obliterated warehouse.


“What the hell did this?”


“Some kind of high-grade explosive, military for sure. We believe the building housed a massive data server for Blackwing. The FBI Cybercrimes unit is sifting through the rubble, but there obviously isn’t much left. They haven’t released their findings yet, but whatever was on those servers, someone clearly didn’t want it to be found.”
“Which begs the question,” Caine muttered. “How did you know it was there?”


Paulis grunted. “An asset in Singapore tipped us off…. He used the codename ‘Larkspur.’ For obvious reasons, we’ve been keeping his identity classified.”


Caine continued flipping through the photos of the obliterated warehouse. “Larkspur, huh? Apparently his intel was good. So who is he really?”


Paulis tapped the table with his fingers for a moment, then sighed. “His real name is Andrew Seng, a financier Grissom used to launder money. After you blew up their operation in South Sudan, I guess Seng saw the writing on the wall. He wants to cut a deal, protection in exchange for what he knows. He contacted my office and revealed the location of that warehouse, to establish his bona fides. Then he turned himself over to the Internal Security Department in Singapore.”


“Which means he’s probably next on Grissom’s hit list.”


Paulis leaned forward and stared at Caine. “That’s right. Unless we get to him first. So I don’t have time to read a stack of reports about your nightmares, or a list of your physiological anxiety symptoms. I can’t make sure you’re eating properly. ”


“I’ll save you the trouble,” Caine replied. “The food here is shit.”


Paulis adjusted his glasses. “You suffered. You were betrayed. I get that. But right now, my only link to Blackwing is holed up in another country, with a target painted on his back. So I need to you to look me in the eye and tell me… Are you code green or code red? Go or no-go. That’s the only answer that matters to me right now.”


Caine closed the folder and looked up at Paulis. “Honestly? I have no idea.”


Paulis stared at him in silence for another few minutes. Then he stood up, gathered his folders, and marched towards the exit. “You leave Dulles Airport in three hours. Car’s waiting outside. Pack light clothes. Gets hot in Singapore this time of year.”


He closed the door behind him. Caine remained in the chair. He looked up at the ceiling.


Code Green… Go or no-go…


“Guess we’ll see,” he muttered to himself.

_______________________________________________________

PRE-ORDER CODE GREEN ON AMAZON

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Filed Under: Caine News, Thrillers, Uncategorized

Thriller Author Interview: DV Berkom

December 2, 2021 by Andrew Warren 1 Comment

DV Berkom is the USA Today bestselling author of action-packed, fast-paced thrillers. Known for creating resilient, bad-ass women characters and page-turning plots, her love of the genre stems from a lifelong addiction to reading spy novels, action/adventure books, and crime thrillers. I’ve been hooked on her Leine Basso series of thrillers for a while now, and I thought readers might be interested in learning more about the woman behind the words…

Tell us about yourself… how did you become a writer?  Did any other writers influence you?

I’ve written short stories since I was a kid, but didn’t tackle a full-length novel until 2005. A fantasy/satire, no less. That one took a year to write, and although it’s still in a virtual drawer, once completed, I was hooked on long-form writing. The next book, Touring for Death, which ended up being the third novella in the Kate Jones thriller series, took four months to write and over a year to edit as I learned the craft. I showed the finished manuscript to a friend who suggested I write a prequel to explain how Kate got to where she was. At the time, news reports of drug cartels and their growing influence were beginning to trickle across the border into the media. Having lived in Mexico for a time I was horrified at what was happening, so I wrote that into the storyline. That book became Bad Spirits, the first novella in the series. Bad Spirits was published by an online publisher in 2010 and sold well. I wrote three more novellas followed by a full-length novel in the same series. In February of 2012 I released the first Leine Basso thriller (now book #2), Serial Date. Both series did well enough that I was able to quit my job that summer. I haven’t looked back.

As for influences, there are several. One of my favorite authors is Carl Hiaasen. His books showed me that you can write an entertaining story while still tackling social issues. I don’t use quite as much satire or scathing social commentary as he does, but I still like to keep a hand in—subtly, of course. Thrillers tend to be a tad more…serious. Another author, Ken Follett, was one of my early influences—his WWII-era novel, Eye of the Needle, was an epiphany for me, and introduced the first gutsy heroine I could identify with. I devour Michael Connelly, Daniel Silva, Joseph Wambaugh, Gregg Hurwitz, John Sandford, Vince Flynn, Lee child, etc. You name it, I’ve probably read it. I also really enjoy your books—there’s a certain cinematic quality to your stories that allows me to get lost in the pages.

DV Berkom

What drew you to the thriller genre? Are there any other genres you’d like to write in someday?

Thrillers, especially spy novels and action adventure stories, have always been my go-to genre. I love the immediacy and the excitement of racing the clock, the fast pace and the life-or-death situations, the double-crosses and setbacks, the weapons and the fight scenes. Growing up, there was a dearth of great female role models in the books I read, so when I started writing I set out to create a female character I would have loved to read. All three of my main characters were created with that in mind.

Recently, I wrote a series of novellas set in the Wild West that feature a woman who loses everything, then learns how to navigate in a “man’s world” by becoming a gunfighter (the Claire Whitcomb Western Series). She gets to meet Doc Holiday and Wyatt Earp along the way, and a bunch of other historical figures, which was great fun to research. Claire, the main character in the series, is a witness to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral with Doc’s mistress. Turns out, the mistress wrote a memoir in real life and mentioned that she and a friend watched the gunfight from a boarding house window. She never named the friend, so I took the liberty of placing Claire at the scene.
I’ve thought about trying different genres, but keep coming back to action-oriented stories. I tend to get bored with books that don’t immediately capture and hold my attention, so I’ll most likely continue writing in the same vein.

Leine Basso Book 11

Leine Basso is one kick-butt thriller heroine…. What inspired you to create her? And what do you think makes her so popular with readers?

Leine Basso is a kick to write, too. I think that’s one of the biggest reasons readers love her. The books are fun to read (so I’ve been told.) Another is her unshakeable sense of justice. She’ll have your back as long as you do right by her. She’s trying to atone for her past by righting wrongs and defending those who need defending. She’s got her flaws, too. Throughout the series, she’s had to deal with guilt, PTSD, her unusual parenting skills, and a whole host of other issues. One astute reader/reviewer pointed out that in the last book, A Plague of Traitors, Leine was dealing with her own trauma by helping another character with hers.

The inspiration behind the character is bizarre in its own way. I woke up from a super vivid (and bizarre) dream involving serial killer Charles Manson and a reality show, which became the kernel idea for Serial Date. I needed a strong female character who could go toe-to-toe with a serial killer, so I bounced a bunch of ideas off my husband and came up with a former assassin who was trying to atone for her early life. I thought the interplay between a serial killer and an assassin would be super interesting—how would one play off the other? Would one killer understand the other, even though their motivation for killing was different? How would that affect either killers’ agenda? I ended up writing the book in record time. It’s a bit different in tone from the rest of the series, incorporating more black humor and satire than the others, but it’s still a thriller.

Serial Date was supposed to be a one-off, not the start of a series. But several readers emailed and messaged me on social media, asking for more. The next book materialized after I went to a child sex-trafficking documentary at my local college. The subject matter made me so angry that I decided to dedicate the next book in the Basso series to raising awareness of such a heinous crime against children. That became Bad Traffick, and launched Leine into a new role that incorporated her particular skillset in eradicating anyone who got in her way of protecting the innocent. Eleven books in, and she’s still going after traffickers, along with terrorists, gun-runners, and lots of other villainous targets. I tend to write about subjects that piss me off—the angrier I get, the better the story ☺

Kate Jones Book 1

Leine travels to some fascinating (and sometimes dangerous) locations. Have you done a lot of traveling yourself? And how do you research locations you haven’t visited personally? Where do you (or your characters) plan to visit next?

I LOVE to travel, and I curse the pandemic. Luckily, my parents liked to travel, so I started early. That being said, I have based several of the Basso books in countries I’ve never visited, like Libya. And although Google Earth and the internet are both fantastic resources, it’s not the same as being there. I’m fortunate to have friends who either live in or have traveled to places I’ve never been, and am able to mine their experiences in a “boots on the ground” way. I also have several military and law enforcement advisers—one in particular has been a long-time collaborator in regard to weapons and military actions. Their expertise help make my books so much better. And last but not least, I have an eclectic group of kickass advance readers who have a ton of life experience from which to draw. As for new scenarios, I have several ideas for different settings in the works, so stay tuned.

What do you think are the key ingredients of a page-turning spy thriller?  What do you look for when you read for your own pleasure?

Definitely fast-paced action. For example, it’s super irritating when a writer slows down a fight scene to explain exactly what the characters are doing and/or thinking. I don’t need so much detail—e.g.: what a certain move is called or what the character thinks about their opponent, unless it’s pertinent to the plot. There’s a fine line between giving too much information and showing the reader what’s happening in broad strokes. Keep the pace going. In a fight, you’re laser-focused on your opponent’s next move and your survival. I also think you need plausibility, to a point. Yes, most readers will suspend their disbelief, but you gotta make them think it’s possible. On the other hand, give the reader a pause in the action on occasion, let them catch their breath. Not too long, mind you. It’s all about pacing. Use the downtime to reveal something about the plot or character(s). Two more ingredients to a page-turner would be plot twists and end-of-chapter cliff hangers. Keep the reader guessing and you’ll keep them reading. I also suggest not having a major cliff hanger at the end of the book. Tie up the main conflict or your readers are going to be pissed.

As for what I look for when I read, it’s easier to tell you what I don’t like. I skim over dense paragraphs of description. I know plenty of readers who enjoy descriptive prose, but I’m not one of them. I’m also not a fan of the slow burn. Grab my attention from the first page, and I’ll keep reading. Give me action, action, action, a dash of humor, and a hero/heroine who can get the job done, and I’m there. I’d rather read about a flawed character who knows their shit than one who’s perfect or bullet proof. And don’t get me started on the authors who skim the surface of their characters. Telling me a character had a crappy childhood is not the same as showing me his/her character because of their childhood.

Claire Whitcomb Collection

What’s up next for you and your writing? Any new projects or endeavors you’d like to highlight?

I’m currently plotting/writing the next Leine Basso. One of the best parts of writing for me is creating secondary characters. I’ve got a couple new ones in this one that I really like. Who knows? I may just spin them off into a series of their own. Then, who knows? I rarely plan too far ahead of time. Usually, I’ll read something in the news that pisses me off or inspires me, and I’m off to the races. Keeps things fresh!

I’d like to thank DV for taking the time to answer these questions, and share her insights into writing, thrillers, and kick-butt heroines with me! To find out more about DV and her books, visit her website, dvberkom.com.

Her latest release, A Plague of Traitors, is available now on AMAZON.

You can also get two FREE books in her pulse-pounding Leine Basso series HERE…

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