BOOK SPOTLIGHT: "Black Ice: The 66 Degree Conspiracy" by Max Morgan

An international conspiracy to gain control over vast Arctic oil and gas resources touches close to home in Max Morgan’s riveting spy thriller Black.

As a senior intelligence officer with the Norwegian Police Security Service, Magnus Ose enjoys both personal and professional success. But his loving family and his career suddenly hang in the balance as he attempts to solve the mysterious deaths of several of his assets.

After discovering that confidential industry data has been stolen from oil and gas executive Finn Aspen, Magnus vows to identify the thief. But his efforts prove too late when Aspen is found shot in the head.

Shortly after, Norwegian diplomat Alf Evenson is found dead in an “accidental” apartment building fire—the second of Magnus’s assets to die in twenty-four hours.

Magnus’s investigation uncovers an elaborate network of spies and double agents that involves assets from North America, the Balkans, Western Europe, Russia, and the CIS.

It’s only as he gets closer to the truth that he realizes he might be too late—and that the web of lies he’s trying to penetrate might have already infiltrated his work…and even his own family.

Max Morgan is a former government official with insight into the workings of security intelligence issues. Having traveled and worked around the world, the author is currently employed as a private consultant. For the author’s outstanding work, Morgan was awarded the State Security and Intelligence Cross of Merit by a friendly country.

Purchase Black Ice: The 66 Degree Conspiracy on Amazon.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Russell Brooks

1. When/why did you decide to become a writer?

I caught the writing bug in elementary school but only took it seriously when I was in high school. I was often sidetracked due since I also wanted to be a professional track athlete. I had a very wild imagination, so story ideas constantly came to me to the point I decided to write them down. Eventually I put together the first of several drafts which--after 12 years--would become PANDORA'S SUCCESSION.

2. What authors inspired you when you were younger? What books do you enjoy reading today?

Vince Flynn was the first author to inspire me after I read TERM LIMITS. Until then I thought that action/thrillers only existed in movies and wasn't something that could be found in books. Flynn opened my eyes to that genre, and it eventually led me to read from others such as Barry Eisler, Joseph Finder, and Eric Jerome Dickey.

3. What was the inspiration behind your novel The Demeter Code?

There were several news articles that inspired THE DEMETER CODE. I won't name them because doing so would reveal several spoilers. However, the first one which really sparked the idea was an article I read two years ago about accidentally creating a biological weapon through (spoiler). After I read it, I began reading several others and also watching documentaries about the same (spoiler) subject matter. I kept a list of all 53 articles and news reports which I then referenced at the back of the book.

4. The Demeter Code is a sequel. Will we see more stories featuring these characters?

Most definitely, and I also have thoughts of writing a sequel to my standalone thriller, CHILL RUN. I can't say when, but they're both in the works.

5. What is it about spies that interests you?

It's mostly the mystery. It's a world of secrecy and covert activities. From an entertainment standpoint, there's excitement when you never know who's who. I'm fascinated by how company and government secrets are obtained by their opposition, as well as the personal sacrifices that are made by the operatives who obtain them. 

6. Were any of the characters personalities or emotions taken from real life?

Some of the characters in THE DEMETER CODE were based on real people who have either gone through or who have taken part in similar activities in real life as in the story. For instance, the arms dealer, Monzer Alghafari, in THE DEMETER CODE was based on the Syrian-born arms dealer, Monzer Al Kasser, who's currently in a New York jail after a successful sting operation by the DEA, thanks to the Patriot Act. I read extensively about him because his life read like a thriller novel. All that was left to do was fictionalize certain elements so that they could be incorporated into the story.

7. What other genres would you like to try your hand at?

I once wanted to write a horror story, but I put that on the backburner.

8. What would you do if you were Ridley Fox?

lol. If I were him I wouldn't give up on tracking down the person who murdered my fiancée and see to it that they're brought to justice.

9. I have to ask you about your short story collection, Unsavory Delicacies. In two of the stories, Ridley Fox is featured. In the other, it's about revenge via food. What inspired that?

The inspiration came from a true story out of Sydney, Australia, where a restaurant owner sued a newspaper because their food critic's review destroyed their business. It's funny you asked me this question because out of curiosity, I just googled this report for fun and just learned that last June, the restaurant won a libel suit against the Sydney Herald Times. 

10. Would you like to see The Demeter Code and its predecessor as a film or TV show? If yes, who do you want to have play your characters?

Currently I'm writing the screenplay for PANDORA'S SUCCESSION after my friend talked me into it. As for who I'd like to play Ridley Fox and Nita Parris in the movie, here are my choices if the movie were released today. 

11. Where do you see yourself and your career in the next ten years?

In ten years I hope to have at least five other novels published and PANDORA'S SUCCESSION in cinemas worldwide.

12. What would you be doing if you weren't writing?

I'd still be working in sales.

13. Can you tell KSR what you're working on next?

I'm still unsure whether or not to write the sequel to THE DEMETER CODE or the sequel to CHILL RUN. My ideas aren't solid enough yet as I'm still doing research.

14. What authors, dead or alive, would you like to collaborate with?

I'd love to partner with David Goyer on a Superman/Wonder Woman script. For a long time I had an idea for one. The only reason I never wrote it was because the chances of it being picked up by an unknown author--such as myself--are one in a billion. 

15. Thank you for participating in the interview. Can you please leave the readers with three things that may surprise them about you?

1) ​I was once on the Canadian Track Team in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay at the World University Games in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 1999.

2) I started back playing the violin after a hiatus of several years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5PTfv65kP8&list=UUGvAga_6rslbyZltozyOYlw&index=2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvTXYesvSng&index=1&list=UUGvAga_6rslbyZltozyOYlw

3) I often like to recite passages from novels and put them on video.

http://youtu.be/qbln3o7Vsgk?list=UUGvAga_6rslbyZltozyOYlw

Find Russell Brooks online via:

Official site (the home page will direct you to all of his social media profiles)

BOOK REVIEW: "The Demeter Code" by Russell Brooks

Crack The Code And You'll Save Lives...But Knowing It Exists Could Get You Killed. 

When two American embassies in northern Africa are bombed, CIA operatives, Ridley Fox and Nita Parris, are assigned to track down the perpetrators. However, when their top asset is killed in a failed op, the agents suspect that there may be a new threat. Their search for the truth puts them on a collision course with a powerful multinational--which will go to extreme lengths to bury its criminal activities. However, the agents soon learn that someone with a personal vendetta against that company not only knows their secrets, but will expose them in a way that could result in the largest single-day attack against America.

Spy novels are not my thing. While I watch NCIS and Spooks a lot, I've never been one to really sink my teeth into a spy novel. I find them to be slow and emotionless. Not so Russell Brooks' The Demeter Code.
From page one you're engaged in action, danger and mystique. Attacks with knives, guns and physical force dominate the first two chapters, and it gets better from there.
I love Agent Parris. I love that she's a woman who can kick butt and look good doing it. I think her inclusion will make more women pick this book up. Think Ziva from NCIS played by a young Viola Davis. That's how cool she is.
Agent Fox we met in Mr. Brooks' short story trilogy, Unsavory Delicacies. He's just as much of a badass here as he was in this two unforgettable stories. Reminding me of DC Comics' Deathstroke, he gets the job done with amazing skill and grace. If there can be beauty in violent death, he brings it.
There are moments where the violence is very heavy, like the brutal murder of a white collar worker and his pregnant wife, do if you're unable to handle brutality, be wary as you start to read this.
A nearly flawless attempt. I'm very eager to read more from Mr. Brooks!

4/5--exciting!

Purchase The Demeter Code via:

Amazon

BOOK REVIEW: "Unsavory Delicacies" by Russell Brooks

While I'm more used to short story collections having five or more tales, Unsavory Delicacies by Russell Brooks doesn't need more than the three he included to be worth your time and money.
It begins with an ex-Mossad agent about to assassinate a man giving her sensitive information and ends with the same man infiltrating a Russian Mafioso's club and finding a strange surprise. In the middle, you have a disturbing story about a chef who avenges his honor on the food critic who cost him his job once before.

Revenge. Espionage. Death. What more do you need for a half-hour's worth of entertainment? The stories are well-written and very well planned out. They're actually little unsavory delicacies in themselves! Like I said, they're eerily disturbing, like Rod Serling could have written them.
There are no monsters, there's no sex, nothing that people think they need to incorporate into their work. It's parts humanity in its most animalistic forms: self-preservation, vengeful and secretive.
A great read!

4/5--delightful!

Purchase Unsavory Delicacies via:

Official site

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Bryce Allen

1. When/why did you decide to become a writer?

I think I caught the bug back in elementary school; I was a big comic book fan all through grade/middle school and got the itch to tell stories around that time. Throughout high school I wrote short stories and had my own comic strip in the school paper about a deranged stick figure that prompted my art teacher to recommend I see a therapist… That’s probably when I knew I was cursed/blessed with a writer’s life.

2. What authors inspired you when you were younger? What books do you enjoy reading today?

I’d definitely say I was a huge spy fiction junkie when I was in high school/college (Fleming, le Carre, etc.) and I also enjoyed the classic sci-fi writers (Asimov, Verne, etc.) when I was younger. I’m still a fan of those writers but I’ve gotten more into authors like Bukowski, Burroughs and Selby, Jr. in recent years.

3. What was the inspiration behind your novel The Spartak Trigger?

As a big fan of both action thrillers and transgressive fiction, I wanted to write something that effectively fused the two genres, creating something as entertaining as possible with an extra layer of satire that made the work more readable and original while mocking its own shortcomings. In essence, I was wanted to do a self-contained parody of spy fiction with simplistic, straightforward prose that would serve as both a deconstruction of and tribute to genre tropes.

4. Will we ever see any of these characters again?

I am working on a sequel right now actually… It’s a little different structurally/tonally than The Spartak Trigger but retains a lot of the same stylistic elements and overall sensibilities.

5. Why make a lead character as offensive as Shane Bishop is? Was there a particular reason for it?

I’ve always enjoyed anti-heroes in fiction and, particularly in the neo-noir genre, the central characters tend to be naturally unlikeable, which makes their ‘character arcs’ easier to follow/plan out I suppose… I wanted to have Bishop undergo the antithesis of that, becoming even more of a jerk as the story went on, but he ended up being about the same, which I suppose belies the archetype somewhat anyway haha.

6. Were any of the characters personalities or emotions taken from real life?

I’d say certain elements of Bishop’s detached sensibilities come from people I’ve encountered but I definitely don’t know anyone as awful as him in real life thankfully.

7. What other genres would you like to try your hand at?

I recently finished a more straightforward thriller that I’m hoping to find a publisher for in the near future. I wouldn’t mind looking at doing some alternate history down the road as well.

8. What would you do if you were Shane?

Hmmm, that’s a tough one – he’s definitely not a character whose skin I’d like to be in any time soon! I suppose if I were Shane my destiny would be pre-determined by the narrator so I’d just go along for the ride much like he does.

9. Was there any intended symbolism behind the fact that the villains were just as involved in cyber crime as they were in actual, physical crime?

As we’ve seen this year/month, cyber terrorism is most definitely something we’ll be dealing with for quite some time. I didn’t set out to echo what was happening in real life but I originally thought that doing something with hackers/online criminals with grandiose ambitions a la a Bond villain would be unique and, as it turns out, I was completely wrong unfortunately.

10. Would you like to see The Spartak Trigger as a film or TV show? If yes, who do you want to play your characters?

I think Josh Brolin would make a good Bishop; he has that rugged leading man/action hero quality but is also capable of adding depth to seemingly-one-dimensional characters and he conveys a sense of vulnerability in his characters that I think would suit the role well. For Svetlana, I think Milla Jovovich would be great and I’d probably go with Michael Fassbender to play Kirill as I think he could be very funny/effective in a role like that. Luke Edwards would be the obvious choice to play The Wizard haha.

11. Where do you see yourself and your career in the next ten years?

I’d obviously love to be able to write full-time but I’m not sure how realistic that is this day and age… As long as I can continue to put out something every year or two and keep the Bishop series going in one form or another, I’d be cool with that.

12. What would you be doing if you weren't writing?

Part of me wishes I’d stuck with music as a hobby (used to play bass in rock bands) but it’s tough to have a more fulfilling side-gig other than this!

13. Can you tell KSR what you're working on next?

Right now I’m working on the sequel to The Spartak Trigger, which will see Bishop returning to the U.S. and engaging in more bizarro hijinks.

14. What authors, dead or alive, would you like to collaborate with?

I’d actually have to say Alan Moore for this one. His creative process seems so unique and off-the-wall, it’d be extremely interesting to see him develop something firsthand. 

15. Thank you for participating in the interview. Can you please leave the readers with three things that may surprise them about you?

- I was once in a Poison tribute band for almost an entire year
- Even though I’m Canadian, I’m a terrible ice skater
- I still know all the words to the McDonald’s Menu Song from the 80s

Find Bryce Allen online via:

Twitter
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