We chat with author James Byrne about his new thriller release, The Gatekeeper!
Dez Limerick is a very memorable character, to put it mildly. Is he based on anyone real, or perhaps on someone else from fiction? What was the inspiration for such a unique character?
I really wanted to do an action/adventure novel in the tradition of Gregg Hurwitz, Meg Gardiner, Mark Greaney, Robert Crais, Lee Child, and so many others, but I needed a hook. Something to make him stand out. After about a trillion iterations, I landed on this: Dez is a happy guy! He has no angst, no deep, dark secret. He’s a guy with a guitar, and a few war wounds, and who thinks he’s about the luckiest bloke alive, who just happens to stumble into trouble.
Does Dez have some kind of personal code? How is he trying to live his life?
He really, really can’t stand bullies. In THE GATEKEEPER, he runs into kidnappers and white supremacists, and murderers, and terrorists, and takes them as he comes. Then someone stomps on the ankle of his mate, Alonzo, who’s a dancer. It’s the only time we see Dez get emotional. The dude just cannot abide bullies!
He also loves loyalty. Alonzo is loyal to Petra. He later meets a city council member loyal to her small town under siege. Each time, he’s drawn to those people who put loyalty to others above themselves.
He also really enjoys having sex. Is that a personal code? I think it might be. Yeah. He’s into that.
Could you describe what a ‘gatekeeper’ is? How did Dez become one?
Dez was never a mercenary (although almost every reviewer has assumed so). He was a soldier for a service I’ve hinted at but not out-right revealed yet. And he’s had training on how to open any door, keep it open as long as necessary, close it when the time is right, and control who does — and does not — go through. In military parlance, a “breach expert.”
His training has included both civilian and electrical engineering, and code-writing. He has a tattoo on his forearm of the Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and gates, transitions and time, duality and doors, passages and endings.
How hard is it to write a contemporary thriller in which the protagonist never fires a gun?
Ah, you caught that! Yes, Dez shoots at windows and empty cars, but he never fires a gun at a person. I thought that would be a fun writing challenge. I’ve finished the first draft of the third Dez novel, and so far, I’ve kept to challenge.
One reason, for me, is that he’s a superb fighter, highly trained, unusually fast and strong. So he’s already primed to win almost every fight. Giving him a gun only compounds that writer’s problem.
I told an editor early on, “You could give Captain America’s shield to Superman, but why would you want to?”
Tech corporations have appeared as villains in thrillers before, but no devious company was ever like Clockjack, where the executive suite prefers torn jeans over power ties. Is there anything about modern tech startup culture that made you think, there’s my SPECTRE?
First, I have a bachelor’s degree in political science, so to say most technical things are over my head is way, way too soft. I don’t know how a carburetor works, let alone cryptocurrency! Arthur C. Clarke told us that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” And for most of us, that’s true of the high-tech world. So since it’s arcane and mysterious, it just lends itself to chicanery!
Plus, look at the nutty behavior of the “billionaire bros” in the real world? Elon Musk recently had a rocket blow up, a robot car run over someone, and he cratered a major social media. And that was his Tuesday!
Did you research technology or real-world companies when creating Clockjack? With Deadlock, are you offering any insights into the technologies that pervade our lives?
Okay, this is gonna sound a little dumb, but in THE GATEKEEPER, my bad guys come from the far right of the political world. (I wrote it before the deadly, Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, by the way.) I wanted to have bad guys in DEADLOCK who come from the left, for the very simple symmetry of it. I think craziness, corruption and psychosis exists at every point on the political spectrum. Thus Clockjack Solutions.
Deadlock is largely set in Portland, where you live, and has a Portland vibe. What are some of the Oregonian elements you wanted to include in this book?
My wife, Katy, and I love Portland so much. She was born and raised here. There is no other city on Earth I want to call home. It’s gorgeous here, and people are laid back. (Hey, my people are Irish. A little overcast never bothers me!)
The notion of a very green, very progressive high tech firm seems very, very Northwest to me. Plus, little elements like Portland’s awesome coffee scene and micro-brewery beers; the fleet of electric scooters; the world’s greatest, sweetest potable water; the proximity to the Pacific Ocean. I wanted to showcase a city that we love, but which got a bit tarnished during the pandemic, the protests, the economic downturns, recent wildfires, etc.
Who are some thriller writers that you like?
Gregg Hurwitz is killing it with the “Orphan X” series. It’s nuts. Nick Petrie’s Peter Ash stories are great. Meg Gardiner is awesome, has always been awesome, but she found a new gear in “Heat II,” her sequel to the Michael Mann film “Heat.” (Wow, that book was … wow!) I was just flat-out blown away by Meg.
Also: Robert Crais simply cannot write a bad novel; if you challenged him to write without any, say, verbs? The dude could do it!
And about once every ten years, I go back and re-read Michael Crichton’s “The Andromeda Strain.” The story structure is so good, so solid. He built that one to last.
What is a non-thriller book that you think readers–and writers–of action-packed adventures should read?
“Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA,” the autobiography of Amaryllis Fox, reads like a John Le Carré novel. An absolutely riveting read of a teenager who gets recruited into the Agency after 9/11. I’ve never read anything else like it.
Dez has taken on some powerful organizations with global reach. What are some of the challenges in store for him in future books?
We get a hint in DEADLOCK of an international assassin known as Thiago, who will play a much bigger role in the next book. The story also heads to Washington, D.C., and to a political clash of powers inside the Beltway. After that, I’m contemplating writing a “bottle” episode told entirely, or almost entirely, on board a deep sea oil rig. I think the claustrophobia in such a spot would be awesome. But, alas, after doing books set in Paris, Milan and London, I’m pretty sure Katy wouldn’t follow me for the research on that one.
