Two Thriller Writers and Former Spies On Writing and Living Espionage ‹ CrimeReads

ALMA: When people find out you once worked for CIA or the Defense Department, I think they're surprised to find out you've written anything else, but one thing we have in common is that we've both written in a variety of genres. For you, it's been historicals, crime thrillers, and now espionage. How did you come to write a spy thriller?

KATHLEEN: Before I committed to writing full time, I lived and worked in New York City for over twenty years. Ten of those years were spent as a civilian contractor to the Dept. of Defense working in Belarus and Kazakhstan dismantling weapons of mass destruction. I grew up reading Russian spy thrillers, but as relations between the West and the reformed Soviet Union became friendlier, novelists turned their attention to other countries posing a threat to national security. Unfortunately, recent events have once more resurrected tensions between the U.S. and Russia.