Interview with Mark Pawlosky, author of Friendly Fire (A Nik Byron Investigation)
Today it gives the Indie Crime Scene great pleasure to interview Mark Pawlosky, whose novel Friendly Fire (A Nik Byron Investigation) had its debut in March 2023.
Friendly Fire is the second novel in your Nik Byron Investigation series. To begin with, what can you tell us about Nik himself? What sort of person is he?
Nik is flawed, oftentimes reckless, charming and always flirting with being down on his luck but rises to occasion when a story is on the line. His romances, both past and present, are tension-filled and rocky as he juggles his duties as a reporter and obligations as a partner.
We first met Nik in your debut novel Hack. What happened when he joined the team of reporters at Newshound?
It took Nik time to find his sea legs, coming from a traditional newspaper to an Internet newsroom filled with twentysomethings who were digital natives. Ultimately, Nik realized that at the end of the day the platform didn’t matter. What mattered was the story.
In Friendly Fire, Nik investigates the murder of AI tycoon Geoffrey Tate, one of the world’s richest men. Shot by his trophy wife, Tate’s death seems like an open-and shut case. But Nik starts to uncover a different story – tell us more.
Like everyone else, at first Nik thinks the story is a straight-forward murder trail but over time he comes to realize there’s a much larger narrative at play – and that’s the conspiracy to wrest control of Geoff’s Tate company, Yukon, and indirectly the lucrative military contract known as Bullwhip.
The murder trial threatens to destabilise the Pentagon’s “Bullwhip” program, developing AI war machines. How did you research military-use AI?
I did extensive research, spending countless hours reading the archives of military news sites, the Pentagon’s/US government’s rules governing the use of AI in military campaigns, researching Congressional hearings and reports on AI and the completive landscape of the technology vis-Ã -vis China and Russia. Taking all of the material into consideration, I then used my imagination to invent Bullwhip.
What do you think about the current debate about AI and its potential to help or harm humanity, and how do you deal with it in Friendly Fire?
AI is upon us in a way that it was not when I set out to write Friendly Fire. There was a story in the NYT Sunday, Aug. 27, about the exact issues I write about in the novel (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/27/us/politics/ai-air-force.html). In the novel, I point out the steps the government has taken to adopt rules governing the use of AI in warfare. There is a real risk that AI machinery could add a lethal component to battles never before experienced.
Nik’s investigation leads him into the worlds of Washington lobbyists, the military-industrial complex, and Saudi intelligence. How did you research those areas, and did you draw on personal experience?
I drew on experience insofar as the character Dwayne Mack, the main lobbyist, is loosely based on a very successful DC lobbyist. The rest is basic reporting and imagination.
In Friendly Fire, Nik Byron finds himself with several antagonists: a vindictive boss, a jealous rival reporter and a contract killer. Tell us about these characters and what motivates them.
Journalism is a cutthroat business and anyone who has practiced it has encountered rivals who will do anything to get a story, or to stop the competition from getting it first. That’s Lizzy Blake in a nutshell. As far as Nik’s boss is concerned, he’s small minded and petty and doesn’t want to share the limelight with Nik. I think readers can identify with that kind of manager. As for the contract killer, I’ve known a few and leave it there.
What about Nik’s colleagues at Newshound: who has his back?
Nik’s colleagues adore Nik, but they also realize that he has reckless tendencies and at times needs to be protected from himself.
Pursuing his story, Nik risks alienating Samantha Whyte, chief investigator for the Northern Virginia County Sheriff’s Department – and his lover. How can he reconcile his personal life and the demands of his work?
It’s one of Nik’s thorniest issues. Sometimes he succeeds, sometimes he fails. His instinct, and not entirely in his control, he defaults to putting work over the personal, which he always comes to regret.
As an award-winning reporter, editor, and media executive, how much has your time in journalism shaped the Nik Byron Investigation Series?
It’s imbued throughout, some directly, much indirectly.
Where did the impulse to write fiction, especially crime fiction, come from?
Honestly, it just kinda happened. It was not a long-held desire or plan.
What different challenges does writing a novel offer as opposed to reportage?
There are many. For one, in reporting you have daily commitments that you need to fulfil and that if you forget, editors are there to remind you, often in stark terms. Writing novels is the opposite. There is no one standing over your shoulder demanding you produce. That’s all on the individuals’ shoulders.
Which books are awaiting publication and what are you working on now?
Black Bird is the next book in the series. It’s completed. I’m working on Rendezvous, the next novel in the series.
Are there any writers you love to read, whether of crime thrillers or other genres?
Plenty. Richard Russo, Elmore Leonard, Thomas McGuane, Laura Lipmann.
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About Mark Pawlosky:
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| Mark Pawlosky: photo © Evan+McGlinn |
Mark Pawlosky is an award-winning reporter, editor, and media executive. A former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, editorial director for American City Business Journals (ACBJ), editor in chief of CNBC.com/msn, he oversaw financial news channels in the US, London, Munich, Paris, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. He successfully helped launch several media operations nationwide, including MSNBC, American City Business Journals, and Biz Magazine. A graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, Pawlosky and his family spent the past twenty years living on an island in Washington state before relocating to the Midwest. Website: https://www.markpawlosky.com.
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