Interview with Gary Born, author of The File

 

Today it gives the Indie Crime Scene great pleasure to interview Gary Born, whose first novel The File has its debut on March 28.

The File is your first work of fiction. For twenty years, you have worked in international law and are described as one of the world’s leading international arbitration advocates and authors. When you came to write a novel, what challenges did that present?

Writing fiction is both challenging and exciting in very different ways from legal writing.  Legal writing involves very structured assignments (i.e., draft a complaint or an answer; write a memorandum of law), that are restricted by the facts and by the law.  A lawyer must follow very specific rules about his or her writings, using rather limited sources.  In contrast, fiction writing happens on a blank piece of paper, with literally anything and everything available as material: even a chapter about, say, a meeting or a gunfight can be set almost anywhere, with almost anything happening.   That freedom is enormously exciting and exhilarating, but also daunting.  

Fiction-writing also requires being more accessible – writing for a broader and non-specialized audience in a way that keeps the attention and interest of all one’s readers.  In contrast, legal writing is often for an audience of one or three judges (or other decision-makers) who are highly specialized.  Additionally, legal writing is a zero sum game: one side wins, the other loses.  Fiction-writing aims for everyone to win (and to enjoy the process in doing so).

The protagonist of The File is Sara West, a young botanist on assignment in the Congolese Jungle. While there, she stumbles upon the wreck of an aeroplane and some dangerous information. Tell us about Sara and what inspired you to make her your main character.

Sara is a combination of many people I have met, both among friends and family, over the years.  She combines the courage, intelligence, creativity and beauty of many different people.  But, more important, she also grew into her character as I wrote.  I know it sounds a little odd or curious, but as I wrote, she would literally fight back in places, insisting that I not write one thing or that something else happen, than what I had in mind.

I also wrote about Sara because I thought she reflected the best in all of us.  She seems very ordinary at first (maybe a little academic and a little exotic, growing up on jungle expeditions), but she was a normal American or European 30 year old, with a normal life, fiancee and financial worries.  But, through no choice of her own, she is thrown into a world she never imagined, surrounded by evil adversaries out to kill her or worse.  How she found the courage and resourcefulness to first resist and then fight back was what attracted me most to her.

The secret Sara finds sees her pursued by two equally ruthless spymasters: Former KGB agent Ivan Petronov and Franklin Kerrington III, deputy director of the CIA. What made you create these two antagonists and what motivates them?

I have encountered many not very nice people in my professional career – often people who are in positions to abuse their power and authority.  Petronov and Kerrington did so, albeit in very different ways.  They are, like many other evil-doers, motivated by greed and power.  I also wanted two villains who were outwardly different in many ways – Kerrington, a patrician American holding high government office, and Petronov, a street-fighting Russian, but both equally evil with similar motivations in the end.

The File takes place in exotic locations: the East African Jungle, the Sahara desert, Zurich and Italy. What inspired you to choose these particular places and how did you research them?

I am fortunate that my work (and play) has taken me to countless exotic and interesting locations around the world.  I hiked the Rwenzori Mountains (where Sara finds the Nazi plane wreckage and the file) when I was just out of university, and never forgot the extraordinary beauty or the amazing people.  I also drove across the Sahara around the same time, and again was stunned by the incredible harshness of its beauty.  My work has taken me to Italy and Switzerland many, many times.  It is impossible not to want to spend time in Italy and, whenever I was there, in Venice or Florence or Lucca, I took notes for The File.  I have also spent as much time in Zurich as most other places and again I took mental notes on the banks and the city for the novel.

Sara has an apparent ally, an American CIA operative called Jeb Fisher, who may not be all he seems. Who is Jeb and what can you tell us about him?

Jeb is a lot like Sara.  He is a bit older (37 v. 28), but of similar background, raised in the U.S. in a middle class family, but with lots of later international experience (as one would imagine at the CIA).  He turned down fancy and well-paying Wall Street job offers after graduating from college, and instead went to the CIA, because he wanted to fight bad guys and help protect his country; those things meant more to him than money.  He then went to work for Franklin Kerrington because he believed that he could make an even bigger difference, and contribution, there than at the CIA.  

Along the way, though, Jeb discovers Kerrington’s evil past and future plans.  He also meets Sara and, while not trusting her fully, falls in love.  For most of their time together, Sara and Jeb circle each other warily, neither really trusting the other and both trying to protect themselves, as well as each other.   In the end, though, they go all in, on trust and everything else.

The File itself leads to secret Swiss bank accounts and hidden Nazi wealth. Is it correct that you have personal experience of such subjects? 

I have had lots of professional experience with numbered bank accounts, especially during and around World War II.  Many other novels, as well as some true accounts, can be written about that era and those subjects.

In the 1990s, it seemed the Cold War had ended. With a new breed of spies in Russia and the States, how did you go about researching their methods?

I deal with many interesting people in my work, and that was the best source of information.  Of course, the biographies and memoirs that are available also provide useful information and checks.

Crime Fiction Review says ‘‘The File’ is the best action thriller I’ve read since Robert Ludlum’s original Bourne series, and that’s no exaggeration.” Will The File appeal to fans of Ludlum and how do you see your target audience?

That is a very flattering review!! I do think that the fast-paced action and the plot will appeal to Ludlum fans, as well as those who like other spy thriller authors – like le Carre, DeMille, Deighton, Vince Flynn, David Ignatius, David Baldacci and William Buckley.  

I also think that fans of crime and mystery fiction will like The File – Grisham, Dan Brown, James Patterson, Lisa Scottoline and Thomas Harris.

How easy was it to put yourself in the shoes of a young person - a woman - being pursued by ruthless killers?

It was surprisingly easy, although that may sound strange.  Sara is a compelling personality, and once she gets going you get swept along – whether you are a reader or an author…

Why does the theme of lost Nazi gold continue to fascinate us, so that even now people claim to know where it lies?

I think it is for the same reason that other themes of lost treasure fascinate us – whether it is Spanish gold, or Viking treasure, or lost cities in South America or elsewhere.  We all are excited by the possibilities of vast wealth hidden away, waiting to be found – not just for the money and material part of it, but also the connection to past generations and cultures.  I think that the Nazi gold theme is especially compelling because it is recent and highly plausible.

Is there an underlying idea of the danger of tainted or cursed treasure, from Raiders of the Lost Ark back to Chaucer’s The Pardoner's Tale and beyond?

Indeed… There is definitely the notion that treasure is cursed, bringing with it misfortune and worse.  Faust’s bargain with Satan, bringing damnation along with treasure, is a variation on the theme, but more generally the curses of wealth are a universal theme.  Perhaps that is part of what makes hidden treasures so alluring – the thrill of danger, as well as wealth.  That is also part of what makes Sara so enchanting – that she can do the right thing with the secrets she discovers, and thus avoid the curse.

How long have you wanted to write and what prompted you to write a thriller?

I think since kindergarten… when I first discovered the possibility.  I chose thrillers (after also doing legal writing) because I find them so accessible and engrossing.  I also like the almost inevitable international aspects and settings of spy thrillers.

 

What novels do you enjoy reading and are there any you would recommend?

I love everything that Lisa Scottoline writes.  I am also a real fan of Nelson DeMille.

What are you working on now?

I am working on a second thriller – about China – titled The Priest.  And, there is another work in progress, that I need to keep under wraps for just the moment.  

Bookshop | Amazon

About Gary Born:

Gary Born is widely regarded as the world’s preeminent authority on international commercial arbitration and international litigation. He has been ranked for more than 20 years as one of the world’s leading international arbitration advocates and authors. “The File” is his debut novel.

LinkedIn