Jeff Abbott's new book lives up to its title. Sometimes book titles imply action or urgency but fall short. Not Adrenaline. This one hooked me and didn't let go. I was reading this at the same time I was reading Jeffrey Deaver's new James Bond novel, Carte Blanche, (interview on that in the works) - I mention this because Bond books and movies are fast-paced and this one by Austin resident Jeff Abbott made that one look like it was slow going in comparison.
Like coffee this book should not be read before you go to bed unless you truly don't want to go to sleep. It's the kind of book where if you think you can stop reading at the end of a chapter, you are deluding yourself. Each chapter seems to end with a cliffhanger so you have to read on to see what happens next, and soon you realize you've just read another 30 pages and you can forget about getting a good night's sleep.
Abbott does a great job with pacing and switching perspectives. Check out this book, Adrenaline - you will thank me later.
One other thing: I ask in the interview about the television series Burn Notice because it reminded of the best parts of it. Both are about company men in trouble, who explain to the reader ways to disarm people, fix potentially violent situations, etc., that you are not aware of. Calling it "educational" would be a stretch but it adds another interesting element. If you like Burn Notice I think you'll also like this book. If you don't watch Burn Notice then you should check it out.
But first get this book. See why it's getting praise and hype and be happy that this time — unlike so many hyped books — it's well deserved.
Don't believe me? Let me share two blurbs.
Laura Lippman, who I last interviewed here and respect greatly, wrote this:
"This is a wonderful book and the start of one of the most exciting new series I've had the privilege to read. Jeff Abbott has been one of my favorite writers for more than a decade and Sam Capra is now on my short list of characters I would follow anywhere. Adrenaline provides the high-octane pace one expects from a spy thriller, while grounding the action with a protagonist that anyone can root for. Sam Capra is the boy next door — assuming the boy next door to you is a CIA-trained agent who will do whatever is necessary to find and protect his loved ones."Harlan Coben writes, "Adrenaline has everything-relentless action, mind-bending intrigue, and twists and turns you won't see coming. It's exhilarating, and confirms Jeff Abbott as one of the best thriller writers of our time."
After hearing Abbott speak at the great Book People in Austin I asked for an email interview with him which he gratefully did. Here's the resulting interview:
Would you mind setting the stage for readers curious about this book?
Adrenaline is a thriller about family. It opens with CIA agent Sam Capra, who lives in London with his seven-months pregnant wife. She calls him one morning at his office and asks him to come outside. When he does, the office behind him explodes and he sees her in a car, driven by a stranger, roaring away from the carnage. Accused of treason by the CIA, Sam must escape from government custody and find out who has taken his wife and child, all while being hunted by the CIA.
How did you go about doing research on this book? I'm particularly curious if you tried to learn how to do any of the parkour moves described in the book?
One of Britain's top parkour runners, Dan Edwardes, kindly helped me with that aspect of the research; it's amazing to watch what he can do. I also spent a lot of time in London and Amsterdam, where most of the book is set.
How would you describe the protagonist, Sam Capra, and in what ways are you similar and different from him?
Sam is rather young to be the hero of a new suspense series; he's only 25, and has been with the CIA for three years. He grew up wandering the world; his parents worked for a relief agency so he had an unusual childhood. He joined the CIA out of Harvard when his older brother was killed doing relief work in Afghanistan. He's finally believing he has a perfect life with his new wife and soon-to-be-born child and he's very determined to get his family back.
What's it like to get so much praise for this book including a starred review in Publishers Weekly, a Good Morning America summer read and Entertainment Weekly Book of the Day, and an Amazon Best Books of July pick?
Adrenaline was the only book this summer to be both a Today Show and Good Morning America best summer read pick and an Amazon Best Books of July, and all that happened within a week. It was amazing, and with all the other reviews it felt like winning the publicity Triple Crown. I have no control over how people respond to the book, but it was all very exciting and humbling.
What was it like to make The New York Times bestseller list? I saw and publicized your piece on that distinction. Was that a career high? What are some other career highs and lows?
It was a career high, just in that you know your book is reaching a lot of people. And also nice because my books have been bestsellers in other countries for a while now, so it was nice to know I was really reaching readers here at home. But the next day, it was, well, got another book to write, get back to work. Re career lows, I think those just come if the writing is going badly. You just have to work through those periods, work is the only cure.
I'm curious what you think of the TV series Burn Notice which, like your book, has a company man get burned and trying to get back into their fold while dealing with personal issues? I like both the series and your book.
I've not seen the show, sorry, but have heard that it's very entertaining.
Is this book the start of a series? Why start a series? What are the advantages of writing a series vs your usual style of standalone books?
Yes, it's the start of a series. The next one is called The Last Minute and will be out next summer. I only wanted to do a series if I thought of a character who was well-suited to multiple books, and I'm having a lot of fun writing about Sam. I think readers really do enjoy series; people have been telling me they can't wait to read the next Sam. I always like it when they say "the next Sam" instead of "the next book."
Why is the book coming out in England before it comes out here in the U.S.? What book number in the series are you currently working on?
I changed publishers in the U.S., hence the time difference. I'm currently writing Sam #3.
I'll end with what I call my bonus question: What question do you wish you would get asked in interviews but that you are not asked? Here's your chance to ask and answer it.
I'll quote Amy Tan, when Stephen King asked her the same question in On Writing: No one ever asks about the language. At least they don't ask commercial fiction writers. And the choosing the language in stories is the hardest part of writing. Probably because talking about craft doesn't lend itself to the short and snappy answer. But the best thriller and mystery writers think a great deal about craft, and select their words with care in creating the effects that readers expect: suspense, terror, relief, romance, and more.
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In The First Order, Jeff Abbott has written yet another great thriller about his protagonist hero, Sam Capra, and his continuing adventures and mishaps.
This is Abbott’s fifth novel in the Sam Capra series and I keep thinking one of these is going to be a dud – no offense, Jeff – but he keeps pulling it off. Each has enough excitement that it should come with a warning: Don’t read before going to bed… because there’s enough adrenaline to keep you awake.
“Usually when an idea with this many facets comes to me, I know it’s one good enough for a book.”
The series began with Adrenaline, Capra’s first appearance. Abbott jumps right into action at the book’s start with a mysterious warning from Sam’s wife, telling him to leave his workplace. As soon as he gets outside, the building explodes, killing everyone within. Capra’s wife does a runner, leaving Sam behind for the CIA to blame as a murderer and traitor.
In Abbott’s latest novel, Sam works to determine if his brother, Danny, is as dead as Sam and his family have been led to believe… or if Danny may be still alive. Meanwhile, someone is being paid $20 million to kill the leader of Russia.
Will these two stories somehow collide? If you don’t say yes then you have not read these books, a fact you must rectify. I talked to Jeff about The First Order, which comes out January 5th, just in time for Jeff’s upcoming visit to the store.
Mr. Abbott will be speaking and signing his latest this Tuesday, January 5th, at 7 PM on BookPeople’s second floor. You can find copies on our shelves on the day of the event, or pre-order a signed copy via bookpeople.com.
Interview with Jeff Abbott
Scott Butki: How did you come up with this story?
Jeff Abbott: I wanted this thriller about two brothers to have both personal and global stakes. So I thought: Sam Capra has to stop his brother from killing the Russian president during a state visit to America. That’s the spine of the idea. But then I have to execute the idea in a way that feels fresh and compelling to the reader. There have been lots of great books about assassination attempts, what can I bring that is new? In this case, it’s Sam Capra and his brother. Of course, readers of the Capra series know that Sam’s brother has been presumed dead for years. What did he do during that time, why did he choose to let Sam and his family think he was dead? Sam made all these choices in his life: to join the CIA, to try and honor his brother’s sacrifice, and those choices changed Sam’s life forever and that was all based on a terrible lie. So there’s a huge emotional component to this thriller. Sam wants to keep his brother from starting a war, and he wants the brother he loved back. Usually when an idea with this many facets comes to me, I know it’s one good enough for a book.
SB: As you get further into your series of Sam Capra stories is it becoming harder or easier to find new plot lines?
JA: I have more ideas than I have time to write them. The challenge is deciding which are the right ones to use.
SB: You have now written stand alone books and books in a series. What are the pros and cons of each?
JA: I think it goes back to characters. In a standalone you get to explore characters and situations that might not work as part of a series. In a series you get to revisit old friends and go deep into their lives.
SB: How do you do research for books like this? Are you researching, for example, Russia since there’s a plot-line about killing a Russian leaders?
JA: I research a whole variety of topics: being a relief worker overseas, the history of political assassination, antique Afghan weapons, super -yachts, just to name a few. I had to research the peculiarities of Russian politics, the role in the government that several ex-KGB agents who have become billionaires play in Russia, what the changing role of the president is there. But this is fiction, so I change it up to make it clear that this is a different world than the one we live in. For other aspects, I have readers who help me with this; for instance, for a scene with US soldiers searching a village in Afghanistan, a college friend of mine who did two tours of duty in Afghanistan read that chapter and gave me detailed comments. I tend to do more research than what I need, but even what I don’t put into the book seems to inform my writing.
SB: One of my favorite things about reading your books is the impressive advanced technology. Is the technology in your book new things most don’t know about yet or are some fictional or a mix?
JA: I don’t really make much stuff up. For instance, I got a lot of help from a man whose company sets up satellite internet access and networks for super- yachts, since part of the book takes place on one owned by a Russian billionaire. He shared all sorts of details about satellite internet technology specific to maritime use that provided me with a plot complication, as well as what daily life is like aboard such a luxury craft. Experts love to talk about what they know, it’s just finding the one who is happy to help you.
SB: Seems like several of your books in this series came out just in time to be summer reads but this ones coming out in January. Was that intentional to change things up?
JA: The timing of a release of a book by a publisher is always intentional, these are scheduled long in advance. My 2017 book is already scheduled for a specific release date and I’m still writing it.
SB: What’s next for Sam?“I research a whole variety of topics: being a relief worker overseas, the history of political assassination, antique Afghan weapons, super -yachts, just to name a few. I had to research the peculiarities of Russian politics, the role in the government that several ex-KGB agents who have become billionaires play in Russia, what the changing role of the president is there. But this is fiction, so I change it up to make it clear that this is a different world than the one we live in…”
JA: He gets a break for one book. I’ve put him and Mila Court through a physical and emotional wringer for five books and so much has changed for them by the end of The First Order, I wanted to give them a chance to breathe for once. I know what the sixth Sam novel will bring but I’m writing a standalone before that.
SB: What’s next for you? Any plans for stand alone books?
JA: The next book is a standalone psychological suspense novel, set in Austin. It will be out January 2017.
SB: What’s the status of your books (Adrenaline, Panic and Collision) becoming movies?
JA: I have the film and TV rights back to the Sam Capra books and I have a plan for bringing them to the screen. Panic and Collision are still in development. A short story I wrote, “Human Intelligence”, has been optioned for a TV series and is also in development.
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Article first published as Interview: Jeff Abbott, Author of The Last Minute on Blogcritics.
I wasn't sure if Jeff Abbott would be able to follow up the adrenaline and excitement of his last book, appropriately titled Adrenaline, but with The Last Minute he has pulled it off.
The Last Minute is Abbott's second book in his series about Sam Capra, a betrayed CIA agent and parkour enthusiast. I was moved to read Adrenaline and interview Abbott after hearing him speak at a booksigning at BookPeople in Austin in June 2011, when that book was published.
The fellow Austin author agreed to let me interview him again for his new book, which comes out this week. He is speaking and signing books at BookPeople again on Monday July 9 and the employee, Scott Montgomery, who helped arrange that first interview just published his own positive review of The Last Minute a few minutes ago. Scott's review is spot-on but does contain spoilers.
Both books about Sam Capra move fast and easily fit the definition of a thriller. You, the reader, can't help but get caught up in the excitement and adventure as Sam deals with criminals and CIA agents, and at times it's hard to tell which ones are worse.
Adrenaline starts off with a great plot device: Sam's seven-months pregnant wife calls him at work and tells him to get out of the office--he does so and almost immediately the building explodes, killing everyone inside. Meanwhile, his wife is gone--he saw her being taken when he ran out of the building. While she saved his life it looks suspiciously like he had inside information, as did she. Without giving away too many spoilers let's just say he learns things in his life, especially with his wife, were not what they seemed. He is chased and tortured by the CIA and others as he tries to prove his innocence while also trying to sort out what exactly is going on.
The Last Minute continues the action as Sam works to get his baby back from a shadowy international criminal organization called The Nine Suns, which has members working for the CIA and other government agencies.
The good news is The Nine Suns offers to give him back his baby--the bad news is what they are insisting he do in exchange: He has to hunt down and kill someone and even if he does so he can't be sure he will even get his son back. Meanwhile, the CIA wants Sam to turn over Milla, a partner who has been helping him. This, of course, leads to lots of good action scenes taking place all around the world.
Without giving away any more I will encourage you to pick up this book--if you like good thrillers you will like Adrenaline and The Last Minute--and proceed to the interview.
Would you mind setting the stage for The Last Minute is a direct sequel to Adrenaline, the first book in the Sam Capra series. In it, former CIA agent Sam Capra is trying to find his infant son, hunting the international criminal network that has kidnapped his baby. He's told he can have his son back as long as he commits an impossible murder: finding and killing the one person who has the evidence to destroy the bad guys.
How did the ideas for this new book come about?
Since The Last Minute directly follows Adrenaline, many of the ideas for it (but not all) came from thinking about the first book. One that wasn't, though, is that I take a very minor unnamed character from Adrenaline who only appears in one scene and make him a major character in The Last Minute. That was an unexpected idea, and since it wasn't planned when I wrote Adrenaline, it was a fun challenge.
Was it hard picking a plot line that kept up the frenetic energy and, well, adrenaline of your last book, Adrenaline?
No, not at all. A parent searching for their child is a very emotional and propulsive plot, inherently. I am glad readers seem to find the book frenetic, but all that energy is wasted if there is no emotional investment in Sam and his search for his son. So I can't just think about the action, the muscles, I have to think about the heart as well.
Do you outline your books extensively before you start or are you one of those writers who writes and then waits to see where things go?
I outline in some detail, but even after the outline is done I often get a new idea that is an improvement, so the outline is a living, breathing thing as well. I also re-outline when I'm two-thirds done, to be sure that there is an emotional payoff from all the plot lines and to be sure the story is as tight as it can be.
I read somewhere that The Weinstein Company has kept up the film option on your novel, Panic, and is now looking to adapt it into a television series. What do you think of that option? I know some writers, like Craig Johnson, who seem thrilled by how (at least so far) the television adaptation has been done on his books, while other authors like Robert Crais fight adaptations of his books. Do you have any thoughts along those lines?
No one forces me, or any other writer, to sell a film option on the books. If you don't want to run the risk that the filmmakers may adapt your work in a way you don't like, then you don't sell the option. You know when you sell it that they will have to make some changes, just because film and TV are different media than books. Panic, Collision, and now Adrenaline have all been optioned, and are in varying stages of development, and I'm happy about that. It's their movie or TV show, but it's my book. The book is the book, and no adaptation changes that.
What kind of research did you do for this book? Do you have someone in law enforcement or espionage who you are able to show your books to in order to help keep things as accurate as possible?
I travel, a lot, to research the locales for the books. I have professional contacts that I can ask questions of, or show them scenes to vet. You meet a lot of interesting people this way, and as long as you've done your prep work so you're not wasting your time, the experts are usually really happy to help.
Should readers read Adrenaline before this one? I notice you provide some backstory but would you hope readers start with that one or does it matter?
Since The Last Minute is a direct sequel to Adrenaline, yeah, I think readers will get the most out of Sam's story if they read Adrenaline first. I do know of readers in Britain who read The Last Minute first and enjoyed it, and every single one of them that emailed me said they immediately went and read Adrenaline, not realizing they'd read the books out of order. I also wrote a e-book only short story that bridges the time between Adrenaline and The Last Minute, called Sam Capra's Last Chance, which was fun to do. It's not required at all to read it but it was an interesting experiment in e-publishing for readers. But for readers who come to The Last Minute first, I did try to give them information from the previous book without it being pedantic.
What did you learn from all the praise you got from Adrenaline? When I interviewed you for that one and asked about critical acclaim you wrote, "Adrenaline was the only book this summer to be both a Today Show and Good Morning America best summer read pick and an Amazon Best Books of July, and all that happened within a week. '
It was amazing, and with all the other reviews it felt like winning the publicity Triple Crown. I have no control over how people respond to the book, but it was all very exciting and humbling."
Looking back now can you take away anything from that experience beyond perhaps pressure to repeat that success?
People can't buy a book they haven't heard of, as my fellow author M.J. Rose says, so the attention is nice just because it makes people aware of the book. And it is exciting and humbling. But it doesn't change the daily work of writing. You can't believe the praise, or the damnations, you get. You just have to sit down and write the next book. I mean, it's not all uncommon for a writer to get a ton of publicity for one book and then not get as much for the next one. I don't worry about that because I try to worry about the one single part of the job I can control: the writing of the book. If I do that well, I feel, good tidings generally will follow and readers will stick with me. I mean, this is typical: I got some really great news on the book one day, and five minutes after getting off the phone I was scooping dog poop out of my yard. Balance is a good thing. I think, and you were working on the third in the series.
What are you working on currently? The next book in this series? Are your books still coming out earlier in England than in the U.S. due to your change in publishers? Last time I interviewed you this book was already done, I think, and you were working on the third in the series.
I am in the final rewrites on Sam Capra #3, and it will come out simultaneously in the U.S. and the U.K. in 2013, and have started Sam #4.
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