A Novel Approach

Featured Author Interview:

Trust Me
An Interview with Jeff Abbott
By Dorinda Ohnstad

Jeff Abbott is the international-bestselling, award-winning author of mystery and suspense novels. He is published in twenty languages and has been a bestseller in the US, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, Portugal, and other countries. Many of his books have been nominated for prestigious awards, such as the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Anthony Award and Thriller Award.  Jeff's first novel, Do Unto Others, won both the Agatha Award and the Macavity Award for Best First Novel. His novels Panic and Collision have been optioned for film and are in script development.

Jeff is a native Texan residing in Austin with his wife and two sons. Jeff graduated from Rice University with a degree in History and English. At an early age Jeff realized he wanted to be a writer. He wrote his first “novel” in high school, which consisted of about five hundred handwritten pages. Although he didn’t formally study to be a writer he became serious about writing in 1992 with his first novel published only two years later in 1994. Since then he has gone on to publish another ten novels.

There are two things I look for when reading fiction—story and voice.  If the plot doesn’t draw me in and keep me engrossed throughout the book you’ve lost a potential fan.  On the other hand, if you give me a compelling story I may pick up another one of your novels.  What ultimately determines whether I become a devoted fan is the author’s voice.  In particular, I like humor in my thriller reads.  It provides balance. The humor humanizes the protagonist’s otherwise horrible situation. It also helps me as a reader handle the suspense without feeling overwhelmed. That’s why when I read a blog post by Jeff Abbott, where his sense of humor shined through, I knew he was an author I had to check out.  I’ve since had the opportunity to read a number of his books, none of which disappointed. 

Jeff’s newest book, Trust Me, is a gripping read that kept me up into the wee hours of the morning, but I don’t regret the lost sleep. From the first sentence to the last line, Trust Me moved at breakneck speed. Trust Me plays on the growing awareness of terrorist networks that use the internet to as a primary tool in conducting their clandestine activities, making it difficult for law enforcement to monitor their actions. Against this backdrop, Jeff successfully crafts a thriller that is both riveting and realistic. His protagonist, Luke Dantry, is a graduate student bent on understanding the evil that lurks behind terrorist minds. Working for his stepfather’s think tank, Luke taps into and monitors the members of extremist websites he calls “the Night Road.”  Luke believes he’s working on the side of good in the ultimate fight of good against evil. However, when he is kidnapped he is forced to face the possibility that he was duped into working for the wrong side. Luke escapes his captor, but must run for his life. Only through unveiling the truth, and taking on “the Night Road” can he get his life back and prevent a major catastrophic terrorist attack that could bring the country to its knees. 

Pick up the book and read it. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

Q. Tell us about your writer’s journey. Where did it start? Where is it now? Where do you hope it will be in the future?

A. I started writing at a very young age after a teacher told my parents they needed to focus my creativity into positive channels (I was telling very tall tales during Show and Tell, such as spending the weekend fighting aliens alongside cowboys in Montana.) They got me a Husky pencil and a Big Chief tablet and I’ve been writing ever since. The future? I’ll keep writing forever, in some form. I have never understood writers who set down their pen and walk away.

Q. At what point in your writing career did you finally realize you had made it as a writer? 

A. I guess when I was able to support myself, and my family, entirely as a writer. Not many can do that and I have been very lucky. But I still don’t know that I’ve “made it”. You always have a sense you can and must do better. Complacency is poisonous to a career.

Q. For you, what are the pros and cons of being a writer?

A. I love getting to make stuff up for a living. I love the freedom of writing. I love working at home and getting to have more time with my family than I would have in a normal career. I love getting to constantly learn new things in terms of researching books. I love being self-employed. I love it when readers tell me I kept them up late, just to read one more chapter. There are zero cons, not a one. Seriously. Writing books was my dream ever since I was a small child, and I’m getting to live it. Most people never, ever get to live that dream.

Q. Part of studying the craft of writing is reading.  Which authors have helped you improve your writing, and which authors do you still think you still have something to learn from?

A. I learn something from every writer that I read. You can always see how they’ve chosen their words to create an effect, or how they’ve shaped the structure for greater impact on the reader. You can learn from other writers’ mistakes, as well, and from your own. It’s hard to narrow to just a few, but I’ve learned about pacing and character development from John D. MacDonald, plotting from Eric Ambler, characterization from Jane Austen. That is just the tip of the iceberg, there are so many wonderful authors I love to read. I’m guessing the authors I still have something to learn from are those that I haven’t read yet. My to-be-read stack is so big, it has its own gravitational force field.

Q. If you were a book blurb, how would it read?

A. “A determined protagonist in a fast-moving, ever-changing plot.” I never feel that my life is boring.

Q. How did you come up with the premise for Trust Me?

A. I wanted to write about a young man whose life had been devastated by losing his father in a random act of violence. He would be obsessed about answering an unanswerable question: why do people commit evil acts? At first, I thought I’d make him a profiler. But so many books, since The Silence of the Lambs, have covered that ground, using profiling to stop and unmask serial killers. But since it was a random act, I wondered: what if his father was killed by an extremist? Where are the profilers for extremists and terrorists? How do we find and stop the next Timothy McVeigh, the next Unabomber, the next Madrid bomber? This would be a new kind of hero in suspense fiction.

When I started learning how many extremists groups are providing propaganda and training videos online (there are 50,000 extremist websites, and they offer forums and videos to indoctrinate and to show make bombs and use weapons), I knew I’d found a way for my hero, Luke Dantry, to infiltrate their world in an attempt to understand them and stop them. Of course, Luke thinks he’s safe on the other side of the computer—but he soon discovers that the people he has targeted have in turn targeted him.

Q. I became a thriller junky after I picked up a Robert Ludlum book back in college. Trust Me reminded me a lot of Ludlum’s writing, except you use an ordinary, non-military expert, reluctant protagonist to take on a similar set of overwhelming events. What were the limitations and advantages of using such a protagonist to take on The Night Road?

A. I get a lot of inspiration from the classic Hitchcock films where an ordinary person finds themselves in extraordinary danger: Notorious, North by Northwest, The 39 Steps. You have to come up with more interesting strategies for a guy like Luke Dantry to fight back than if he’s a trained operative. He has to use his brain more than his fists, and he has to outwit his enemies. His only advantage is that his enemies, because he’s a young grad student, are constantly underestimating him. He is always proving them wrong by doing the unexpected. When they adjust tactics, he outhinks them. To me the drama of the story is heightened immediately because Luke shouldn’t be able to survive this ordeal, he shouldn’t be able to win. We have to read on to see how, and if, he does.

Q. The ending of Trust Me left open the possibility of a sequel.  Do you have one planned?

A. The dark world that Luke fights has become so vast that it couldn’t all be dealt with in one book. I have had several readers already ask for a sequel. We’ll see, I’m open to the idea.

Q. The first Jeff Abbott novel I read was Panic.  I enjoyed it and wanted to read more of your novels.  Of all of your novels, Trust Me stands out as your most complex, riveting, suspenseful plot.  How do you keep elevating your writing? Does it make it more difficult when you tackle the next book?

A. Thank you, that is very kind of you. This may sound strange: I am very conscious of my readers and my characters when I write. Re my readers, I know they are giving me their time and money and they want to be entertained. That is my job. And my characters, well, I created them, so I better give them the roles of a lifetime. This is their moment on the stage; I can’t let them down.

Q. An internet presence, including blogging, has become an important vehicle for authors to promote their work and put their name out there to the public. How have you used the internet to your benefit?

A. I’m on Facebook and Twitter, which is a nice way to stay in touch with people. I have a web site, along with related sites for my British and French readers. I do have a blog, where I have discussed everything from organizational strategies for writers and the creative process, but now it’s going more towards being a weekly update where I recommend good books. I think if you want readers to come to your blog, you have to give them a reason. The best honey to draw readers is to tell them about books you love. I also think there is a danger for writers in spending too much time online and not enough time on the books. Far more people will read your book than will ever read your blog.

Q. Can you tell us a bit about your next book and when we might see it hit bookstore shelves?

A. All I can say about it is that it will be start of a new suspense series. I’m still working on it right now and don’t want to say more.

Q. Are you currently on tour for Trust Me? Where are you appearing next?

A. I’ve just finished the tour for Trust Me, so it’s back to the computer and the writing studio.