Robert Dugoni’s international spy thriller, The Eighth Sister, has been an instant critical and commercial hit, garnering rave reviews from well-regarded crime writers and top reviewers and dominating Amazon Charts, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Roadside Attractions snapped up the television rights for development, with its head of television Jennifer Berman declaring the book “a perfect example of acquiring a bestseller that could not be more timely or topical and tailormade for a series format.”
Ahead of The Last Agent‘s release day on September 22nd 2020, we chat with Robert Dugoni about this sequel, writing, book recommendations, and more.
Hi, Bob! Tell us a bit about yourself!
Well, not to sound too much like Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, but I’m a man on the cusp of sixty with a wonderful spouse, two great kids and despite all the nonsense in the world at the moment, a wonderful life. I wake every morning and get to do what I love to do, which is to write and create stories.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
The Seventh Grade. Sister Kathleen gave us an assignment to write and deliver a speech on slavery. I chose the role of an abolitionist and I fell in love the minute I stood up to play the part I wrote. Sister Kathleen liked it so much she had me give the speech to the class next door and I was hooked. My mother, who was an English teacher, started handing me books like The Count of Monte Cristo, The Old Man and the Sea, Of Mice and Men, and To Kill a Mockingbird, and I thought reading those books were about the best way to spend one’s time.
The Last Agent is the sequel to The Eighth Sister and it releases on September 22nd! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
One hell of a ride!
Can you tell us a little about The Eighth Sister for those who haven’t read the first instalment?
In The Eighth Sister, a former CIA officer is lured back to Moscow by his past station chief to hunt down the person revealing the identities of seven women spying on Russia for more than 40 years and known as the seven sisters. Charles Jenkins soon recognizes that nothing is as represented, and he is running for his life. When he somehow makes it home, he is betrayed again, this time by the Agency he swore to protect, and he is tried for espionage in a nail-biting trial of betrayal and dirty tactics.
Where did the inspiration for the Charles Jenkins series come from?
My law school roommate. Charlie is 6’5” and 230 pounds, and I swore I would someday put him in a book. I got that chance in The Jury Master and he has populated the David Sloane novels. When I got the chance to give him his own series, I jumped at it.
Were there any challenges you faced while writing?
There are always challenges. I travelled to Russia for three weeks, but that was in 1998. So much has changed since the Putin dictatorship took control of the country. It has also changed physically. So I had to rely on Google maps and people who had recently travelled there. I also had to pick the brains of three former CIA officers for the espionage and spy related materials.
What piece of advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Study the craft! Study story structure and understand it backwards and forwards. Books are about great characters reacting to what is happening to them and around them. When you learn story structure, you can focus on making your characters memorable.
Your first published novel released in 2004. What has been your biggest takeaway since then?
You’re only as good as your last novel, so it has to be your best. You can never put out something that is not your best. You make a commitment to the reader, and you can’t break that trust.
With the current state of the world, what are you doing to cope with the changes we’ve had to make with our day-to-day?
I’m embarrassed to say that my life has changed very little. I work from home and it is just my wife and I. Our children are grown and working or in college. So we both work, then we try to do some fun things. Walks, golf, fishing. I’m hopeful for a vaccine because I think Covid-19 is very hard on the young and on the elderly.
Lastly, what are you currently reading and do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I’m always reading others’ work seeking blurbs or books for research on the current topic I’m researching. I haven’t read a book I chose in quite some time, but I did read Barnegat Dark by Dan Waters. It’s part of a series on the Jersey shore with a great police detective. I was hooked on book one and Barnegat Dark is book three in that series.
