Andrew Warren

Thriller Author

Depth Charge: Location Report 1

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THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN…

Depth Charge, the new thriller in the Caine: Rapid Fire series, is launching soon! In my latest collaboration with author Aiden L Bailey, we had a blast taking Thomas Caine to more international locations than in any of our previous books.

While a standalone story, Depth Charge is set a short time after the events of Sandfire. Many of the characters introduced in other books in the Thomas Caine series are also brought together here for the first time.
What has been particularly exciting about this book is most of the locations have been places either Aiden or I have visited. I drew on my travels in the United States, China, Colombia and Indonesia, while Aiden drew on his experiences in Bolivia, Peru, Hawaii and Indonesia. We’ve peppered the story with scenes and sights we experienced first hand.

With the book launch only a few days away, it’s time for Part One of the Depth Charge Location Report (you can read Part Two on Aiden’s website) …

Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

Formerly a British colony, Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China located just across the bay from Macau. This vibrant, densely populated and modern city is where Caine escapes after a close brush with death against the MSS.

Hong Kong is often considered the center of espionage because of its unique legal and immigration system. No visa is required for travelers from more than one hundred countries to enter Hong Kong, and unlike mainland China, there is no laws in Hong Kong that define espionage as a crime.

Caine meets up with CIA Case Officer Rebecca Freeling, and the two might have just discovered that six months of secret operations against China might just have been blown wide open.

 

Baltimore, United States

Baltimore is an important coastal city of America and located 60km northeast of Washington DC. Due to the city’s proximity to the Federal Government and the CIA headquarters, Caine has made Baltimore his home. In Depth Charge, for the first time we get to see Caine in a domestic setting, cooking a meal for the special someone in his life in his minimalist apartment. Of course, the evening doesn’t turn out how Caine expects it to…

 

Amazon, Peru

Caine and Tyler take a quick trip across South America, via a small plane piloted over the Amazon rain forest. Covering an area of 5.5 million square kilometers, the Amazon is the largest rain forest in the world and renowned for its biodiversity. Caine and Tyler spend the night in an isolated airfield in the heart of the Peruvian jungles, sharing a bungalow with thousands of insets and a python.

 

West Virginia, United States

West Virginia is famous for its beautiful pine forests and rugged mountainous terrain. The isolated nature of the state, despite its close proximity to Washington DC and the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, make it an ideal location for remote safe houses.

In Depth Charge, one such heavily secured safe houses becomes home to a Chinese defector. It is not long before the defector feels isolated, and realizes she might have just be in over her head. Rebecca Freeling has a tough job convincing the uneasy young woman that she made the right decision.

 

Xinjiang, China

The largest and remotest region in China, Xinjiang is located in the far west of the country. The landscape consists of rugged mountain ranges, sandy deserts and vast grasslands. It is home to a number of ethnic groups, including the Uyghur people who are being oppressed by the ruling Community Party, and incarcerated Chinese in ‘re-education’ camps appearing across the region.

Separatist conflicts and radical Islamic groups have plagued the region in recent years, as has terrorist attacks and clashes between the separatist and government forces.
Into the tumultuous environment, Rebecca and Tyler illegally enter Xinjiang on a rescue mission, but soon find themselves betrayed and incarcerated by the Chinese authorities.

 

Singapore

Singapore is a modern island nation in South East Asia on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It is a technological, logistics, entertainment, tourism, shipping and finance hub and a global leader in so many aspects of modern life. The cultural diversity and security of the nation make Singapore, like Hong Kong, an ideal hub for international operatives like Caine.
Caine reunites with Rebecca and Tyler in Singapore after their grueling adventures through Asia and South America. But the dynamics of their relationships have changed, and not everything is as it seems…

These are only half the amazing locations we visited in Depth Charge! At nine countries and three continents in one book, we realized this is a new record in frequent flyer mileage for Caine. To read the other half of this location report, visit Aiden L Bailey’s post at his website, www.aidenlbailey.com .

Have you read the other exciting book in the Caine: Rapid Fire series?  grab the first box set here, and get all three volumes for a bargain price!

Depth Charge launches Dec 11th, at all your favorite online ebook vendors.

Techno-thrills with Aiden L. Bailey

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We’re just a few short days away from the release of the next Caine: Rapid Fire adventure, SANDFIRE. This is my first collaboration in the Rapid Fire series, and I really enjoyed working with fellow thriller author Aiden L. Bailey. I’ve been a big fan of Aiden’s books for a while now, and I was thrilled to join forces with him to bring readers a new take on Caine and his mysterious past. I thought it would be fun to interview Aiden, and let readers see what it was like to dive into the shadowy world of betrayed assassin Thomas Caine…

ANDREW: Tell us about your experiences writing Thomas Caine. Did collaborating with another author change your writing process in any way?

AIDEN: Writing Caine was both an exciting and daunting process. On one hand Thomas Caine is such a great character and it was fun to put him through the adventure we created for him in Sandfire. I couldn’t say no to an opportunity like that. On the other hand, if I got it wrong, I’d be the guy who forever ruined the Caine series.

Caine’s character was the most challenging aspect for me in Sandfire. He’s a tough guy who brings justice to those who abuse positions of power. He’s also sensitive to the needs of people trapped in difficult situations and self-reflective to his own nature. It was about finding a balance between all aspects of his personality.

The writing process itself ran like a dream. We worked well together perhaps because we already write in similar styles and tell the same kinds of stories. We ‘got’ what each of us was trying to achieve with SANDFIRE. If one or the other didn’t like some aspect to the story, we just came out and said it. We always ended up going with the option that was best for the story and the character.
What was most helpful was watching how you revised and edited the drafts, making the language shorter, sharper and more succinct while refining Caine’s character. I’ve adapted that approach to my writing now, and I’m writing faster as a result. It was a great experience and I am grateful I had the opportunity to write in the Caine series.

On a final note, early reader feedback has been positive and encouraging, so hopefully I won’t be the guy who ruined Caine.

ANDREW: What do you think is the key to crafting a hard hitting, fast paced story in the novella format?

AIDEN: There are several elements I try to incorporate into every story I write — novels or novellas — to remain true to the conventions of the espionage action thriller genre. These included starting and ending the story with the main character so readers are immediately and always invested in the hero. End every chapter on a cliff-hanger or surprise revelation. Keep an underlying sense of danger and tension in every scene. Put the main character in situations that seem almost impossible to escape. Ensure all major characters have strong motives and that their own journeys aren’t always in alignment with any other character. Keep backstory to a minimum and when required bring it out in dialogue where I can. Lastly, transport readers into exotic locations and be creative with action sequences.

I’m never sure how well I do this, but with SANDFIRE, we worked hard to get as many of these elements into the narrative. Hopefully we succeeded.

ANDREW: Your next book, Blood Ivory, is scheduled for release shortly after Sandfire. What can you tell us about this new thriller on the horizon?

AIDEN: Blood Ivory is a short action adventure thriller novella featuring the hero Simon Ashcroft from The Benevolent Deception and The Assyrian Contraband but is set before both those adventures. There was also a strong emotional hook in the story that compelled me to write it.

Ashcroft is a former Australian Army soldier employed as a counter-terrorism officer with the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS). He’s tasked with identifying the links between Philippine terrorists and Tanzanian ivory smugglers. In East Africa he’s trying to stay dispassionate about the plight of elephants who are being slaughtered wholesale across the continent, but he can’t.

I’d seen elephants in the wild in East Africa when I traveled there, even came face to face with one in the bush without meaning too. They are incredible animals and you sense immediately that they are very intelligent and very emotional creatures, who feel and hurt and love as strongly as humans do.

In the past 100 years African elephant populations have been reduced by 97%. They are near extinction. It is such a tragedy that some people place greater value on dead tusks than they do on the value of living, caring elephants. This is the theme of Blood Ivory.

ANDREW: Tell us about your character Simon Ashcroft. What do you think sets him apart from other thriller heroes?

AIDEN: Ashcroft is an Australia soldier turned spy turned security contractor who across four books just can’t seem to find his way home to his family. He has two young daughters he barely sees and a job that is dangerous, working for incompetent people who don’t always have his back. Past missions have taken him to all the worst danger spots in Africa and Asia. But he’s not afraid to confront threats and deal with those who impart unjust misery on others. He’s a man of action often getting into difficult situation requiring creative means of escape. I like to think he has a sense of humour.

As to what sets him apart, I’m not sure. I’m probably too close to the character to give an objective view on that one.
Feedback from readers however is that Ashcroft is able to feel and express empathy but can lock those feelings completely down in dangerous situations. He isn’t haunted by his deeds like many other thriller protagonists evident in him being able to have a family despite his shadowy work. Readers have also said they find him charismatic, which is nice, and the complete opposite of the secluded stoic personality type common in this genre.

ANDREW: I’ve been a big fan of your Benevolent books since the beginning… what are your plans for this mind-bending techno-thriller series?

AIDEN: The Benevolent Series is an espionage technothriller that features Simon Ashcroft from Blood Ivory and The Assyrian Contraband.

In the first book, The Benevolent Deception, Ashcroft is assigned to find and protect Casey Irvine, a tourist on safari in Kenya. After saving her life, they discover wildlife poachers, corrupt police and even the local military have targeted Casey for assassination. She has no idea why and neither does Ashcroft.

As Ashcroft and Casey run for their lives across East Africa, a new global threat emerges. Cyberterrorists have unleashed a digital weapon known as ‘Shatterhand’. An insidious program that can command the world’s military forces, manipulate the media and impersonate the President of the United States.

The sequel and concluding novel is tentatively titled The Shatterhand Code. It’s written now and I’m going through the editing phase. There are several twists and turns to keep readers guessing right up to the last chapter as to what really has been going on over the two books. A conspiracy behind the conspiracy. I hope to release the full series towards the end of the year.

ANDREW: Both of our books feature lots of travel, and exotic locations around the world… what are some locations you plan to feature in your upcoming books? Any travel plans in your future?

AIDEN: Blood Ivory is set in Tanzania and Kenya, specifically the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Tsavo West National Park featuring shootouts with poachers and wildlife aplenty. Other scenes include an assassination in the Tanzanian city of Arusha and an confrontation at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro.

The Shatterhand Code features a chase through the slums of Mumbai, a perilous pursuit on the roof of a fast-moving train in the tropics of Western India, gun battles in the streets of Abu Dhabi, a dangerous journey across the deserts of Saudi Arabia and paramilitary action in the tropical scrub of northern Australia, to mention a few locations. I try to make exotic locations feel as real as I can, while simultaneously looking for what is unusual or unique about each place, then sharing those experiences with readers.

Although I have no travel plans for the immediate future, I do plan to return to Africa one day and see the places I missed last time I went. About half the ideas I have for adventure thriller novels are set in that continent, so it’s not really surprising I’m eager to return.

ANDREW: I know we’re both big Ian Fleming fans, and you asked me about my favorite Bond novel. Now it’s my turn… What is your favorite Bond novel, and what scene stands out for you the most?

AIDEN: While Live and Let Die was the first Bond novel I read in my teenage years, and it left a lasting impression, I would have to say Dr No is my favorite novel. The scene where Bond battles the squid was so unexpected, surreal and typically Bond. I don’t know why that scene hasn’t been adapted into one of the films yet, but I can see why in 1962 when the Dr No film was made it would be near impossible to do with the technology available at the time.
Incidentally, the squid scene heavily influenced a sequence in The Assyrian Contraband where Simon Ashcroft comes head to head with a bull shark.

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SANDFIRE releases May 22nd, and will be free in Kindle Unlimited. You can check out the other Caine books HERE.

You can learn about Aiden L. Bailey and his books at his website, HERE, and his Amazon Page, HERE.

SANDFIRE launches May 22nd…

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Thomas Caine returns in SANDFIRE, launching May 22nd. But as a special “Thank You” to my readers, you don’t have to wait that long for a taste of the action! Please enjoy this sneak-peek of a mission from Caine’s past…

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CAINE PUSHED ON HIS POLES and kicked his skis, gathering speed as he headed down the trail. He followed Argyle’s tracks as they disappeared down the steep mountainside. She had escaped down the opposite side of the trail he had taken to reach her. If he could catch up, he might still convince her to turn herself in. But first he had to escape the helicopter and its soldiers.
Gunfire chattered around Caine. Snow exploded from the compacted drifts.

He pushed harder, increasing his speed, following the fresh ski tracks in the snow. His body curved into an athletic stance, with his knees and elbows slightly bent, and his body leaning forward into the wind. Soon he was parallel skiing, shifting his weight from one leg to the other as he gathered speed. He must have been doing forty-miles-per-hour or more.

Caine stayed on Emily’s trail. He had no idea what lay ahead, but he knew he had to follow, or risk losing her. Sharp cliffs and rocky outcrops leered along either side of the trail. There was only one safe route down the slope, and it was growing steeper and steeper the longer he followed it. Yet he had to trust Emily had already scouted a safe path out of here. That was what he would have done.
When he reached a straight stretch, Caine took the opportunity to look behind.

The three soldiers were also skiing hard after him. They too had planned ahead, and they were gaining.

His fears realized, he squatted closer to the ground and leaned hard into the descent.

Fifty-miles-per-hour.

Suddenly the open stretch disappeared, and he plummeted through the air.

He hadn’t seen the cliff in time.

He was falling.

Caine held his breath and tensed, until he realized that was the wrong approach. He had followed Argyle’s tracks and she had skied off the same point. There was a snowfield below him. He relaxed his knees, letting his legs absorb the impact as he hit a steep slope ten yards below. He crashed into a snowdrift, barely managing to retain control as he again picked up her trail.

At the last second, he noticed Argyle’s tracks veered to the right. So Caine did too.

He churned snow in a fast stop, realizing he was only a few feet away from propelling himself over another sharp cliff. Once he was steady on his feet, he looked down, feeling the vertigo as he did. The next drop was over five-hundred-feet at least, and ended in deadly, jagged rocks. There would be no surviving a fall here.

A sudden whooshing noise caused Caine to turn and look behind him.

One of the pursuers had jumped the same cliff edge Caine had.

He was bearing down fast on Caine, so Caine pushed off with his skis, sliding out of the way.

The foe landed behind Caine, close enough to touch. He stumbled for a second as he struggled to regain his balance.

Caine saw his opportunity. He reached out, grabbing the assailant’s assault rifle, and twisted the man in a circle across the snow. The soldier lost his balance, and tumbled over the five-hundred-foot drop. His screams echoed through the cold mountain air as he plunged into oblivion.
With the M4 carbine in his grip, and his ski poles hanging by their wrist cords, Caine spun around and fired towards the cliff. The two remaining pursuers had not jumped the cliff above. They stood perched on the edge, preparing for a clean shot when they thought Caine wasn’t watching. They hadn’t expected Caine to return fire so rapidly. One took a bullet in the chest and tumbled down the cliff. The other was fast enough to duck back out of sight behind the drifts of snow.

Caine took off again, skiing fast along the top of the cliff. He followed the narrow snowdrift Emily had taken between both the rising and falling cliff faces. The route offered little room to twist and turn or to control his speed. One wrong move would end in a high-speed collision into the rock edge on his left, or a long fall to his death on his right…

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I hope you enjoyed this excerpt from SANDFIRE, Caine: Rapid Fire Book 3. SANDFIRE launches May 22nd… see you all then!

PS: If you’re a Goodreads member, could you please add SANDFIRE you your “Want to Read” shelf? Just click here: https://goo.gl/Xwvf7G

Thank you!

Andrew Warren

SANDFIRE: Location Report

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One great thing about collaborating with Aiden L. Bailey on Sandfire, is that we both have a love for international travel and thrilling locations. I hope you’ll agree, we came up with some some stunning new locales for Thomas Caine to visit. With the book launch less than a month away, it’s time for Part One of the Sandfire Location Report. For Part Two, please visit Aiden L. Bailey’s site, HERE…

Sandfire is an early adventure in Caine’s career, set when he was still a member of the CIA’s Special Operations Group. He’s younger, less experienced, and forging relationships that will become important later when he is disavowed and on the run. Even back then, he was a global traveler. This story takes Caine on a perilous journey from the frozen heights of New Zealand’s Southern Alps, to the burning depths of the largest sand desert in the world…

SOUTHERN ALPS, NEW ZEALAND
Caine treks into the picturesque snow-capped mountains of New Zealand, in search of a fellow CIA agent on the run. The range extend over 500km along the majority of the Southern Island with peaks reaching 3,000 meters. The region is renowned for its adventure sports, including skiing. Caine soon finds himself involved in a treacherous downhill chase, pursued by heavily armed mercenaries…

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Sydney Airport is the busiest airport in Australia handling over 40 million passengers and 350,000 aircraft movements every year. It was modernized for the 2000 Olympics, and is the favorite airpot for foreign tourists visiting Australia. Unfortunately, Caine doesn’t get to see the local sights, as he’s confined to the terminals and a hotel complex with a CIA case officer he’ll get to know rather well in later novels.  Considering the intimate nature of his debriefing, he shouldn’t complain too much…

SANA’A, YEMEN
During the events of Sandfire, Sana’a is the capital of Yemen. It is a city under siege, plagued with violence as various religious and political factions battle for control of the region. Sana’a is the largest city in Yemen, and the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.  It is also one of the world’s highest capitals, with an elevation of 2,300m. The Old City of Sana’a is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with distinctive architectural character including multi-story buildings decorated with geometric patterns.

Caine is sent to Sana’a to find a missing CIA plane that was shot down in the northern deserts with an explosive secret on board. In the rundown, dangerous city streets, Caine takes part in a brutal urban warfare battle against Al Qaeda terrorists, whose power base is growing in this increasingly political and ecumenically failing metropolis.

EASTERN HIGHLANDS, YEMEN
After teaming up with a feisty Australian UN aid worker and a mourning Bedouin mother, Caine escapes Sana’a and enters the Eastern Highland, a rocky mountainous region under Al Qaeda controls and under siege by Houthi rebels from the north.


While arid, the region is fertile enough to support crops and farming. A drought has plagued the region, causing widespread famine and disease. Caine and his companions must pass through an Al Qaeda checkpoint without revealing their true identifies if they are to reach the Empty Quarter to the northeast…

Whew!  All those amazing locations around the world, and we’re only halfway done!  For Part Two of this report, and more incredible locations, please visit my co-author, Aiden L. Bailey, at his website: Aidenlbailey.com

Sandfire launches May 22nd.  In the meantime, you can check out the other books in the Caine series HERE.

That’s all for now… Stay tuned for more Caine news, coming soon!

Andrew Warren

RAPID FIRE ACTION

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Caine: Rapid Fire is here!

Cold Kill launches this week, and the re-branding of Devil’s Due is complete. The original, fast paced Caine adventure is back with new covers, and a newly edited edition for 2018! But what exactly is Caine: Rapid Fire?

A few people have asked me what this new series is about. And the answer is… Just about anything!

I know that may sound like a joke, but the truth is, I started the Rapid Fire series for a few reasons, and the biggest one was flexibility… I wanted a series of books where I could tell any story that sprang to mind about Caine, his allies, or even his enemies. And I wanted the ability to get them to readers as fast as possible!

The result was a series of lightning-paced, fast reading tales of espionage, crime, and revenge. I’ll still be writing longer Caine novels, of course, like Red Phoenix and Fire and Forget (I’m working on Caine novel #4 right now!) But these Rapid Fire books are quick reads you can devour in a single sitting, or sip a few pages at a time on the way to work, or before bed. These aren’t short stories… each novella is around 140 pages. Just enough, I think, to dive in, take a quick mental vacation, and enjoy some thrills and suspense.

And it all started with the idea for Cold Kill… I have been dying to tell this story ever since I finished writing Devil’s Due. When I typed the final words of that story, I instantly knew that Caine would be traveling to Russia in the near future. But that story was set in Caine’s past. The following novels all took Caine’s search for redemption forward in time. I thought it might seem confusing or anti-climatic to jump around, and go back to Caine’s exile in Thailand.

But a separate series could do that. Each Rapid Fire book is self contained, and they will all be set before the events of Tokyo Black. The novella format allows me to fill in the gaps of Caine’s mysterious past, and explore other characters that have drifted in and out of his life.  And I can jump to any part of his history I like… His time working as a smuggler in Thailand, or as a paramilitary officer in the CIA’s Special Operations Group.  Or even his years spent undercover in Tokyo, Japan.

And finally, having a new series gives me the ability to collaborate and work with other writers… there are so many awesome thriller authors out there, and some of them have pitched me ideas for Caine stories that I know you guys will love. These shorter books are the perfect place to experiment, and experience new styles and viewpoints that will keep Caine’s world fresh and exciting for years to come.

Many of you know I’m a huge fan of Ian Fleming’s original James Bond novels. Well, the other day, I was checking the print proof for Cold Kill, and I realized its almost exactly the same length as Casino Royale, the spy novel that started it all! That wasn’t something I did on purpose, but I do think it’s the perfect size for a relentless action tale like this. So at least I know I’m in good company…

I hope you all enjoy Cold Kill. And stay tuned – more Caine novels, and more Caine: Rapid Fire action are heading your way very soon!

COLD KILL: Location Report

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We’re just a couple short weeks away from the launch of Cold Kill, and the Caine: Rapid Fire series. So that means it’s Location Report time!

The Caine: Rapid Fire series focuses on short, action packed novellas. But Caine still visits plenty of exciting locales in this quick, fast paced adventure. I hope you enjoy a look at the thrilling locations of Cold Kill…

ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

The villains lining up against Thomas Caine launch their sinister plan in the beautiful metropolis of St. Petersburg, the second largest city in Russia after Moscow.

The city is known for it’s stunning buildings & cathedrals… as well a spectacular array of clubs and bars, and worldclass nightlife. Here, the head of a Russian Mafia family plots his revenge, in a bar made entirely of ice. But things are soon going to get much, much colder. After all, revenge is a dish best served cold…

PATTAYA, THAILAND

Cold Kill picks up soon after the events of Devil’s Due.  Betrayed assassin Thomas Caine is still living off the grid, in Pattaya, Thailand.

This tropical paradise is a popular tourist destination. But it is also a city with a dark side, hidden in the shadowy alleys between the dance clubs and beer bars… as Caine is about to learn.

SIBERIA, RUSSIA

Caine soon finds himself on the run, stranded in the frozen wasteland of Siberia, Russia. This massive territory accounts for over seventy percent of Russia’s landmass, and yet it is home to less than thirty percent of the population. Well known for its prisons and labor camps, the mountainous region has a harsh, unforgiving winter season, where temperatures plunge to -25 Celsius or lower.

Caine must survive this brutal, punishing climate, while somehow finding a way to turn the tables on his enemies. Along the way, he traverses a strikingly beautiful frozen lake, much like this one:

Well, that’s all for now. Cold Kill launches February 16th on Amazon, and will be free in Kindle Unlimited.

In the meantime, you can read the other books in the series, Devil’s Due, Tokyo Black, Red Phoenix, and Fire and Forget. They’re all free in Kindle Unlimited, and most are available on Audible as well!

I hope you enjoy Cold Kill, and the new Caine: Rapid Fire series. As always, thank you for your reviews and emails…I read each and every one, and they keep me going!

Cheers,
Andrew Warren