Fatal Exchange (Fatal Series Book 1)

Fatal Exchange (Fatal Series Book 1)

Critical acclaim for Fatal Exchange: "Gritty." "Edgy." "Shocking." "Intense." "A classic." "Sadistically good."

Tess Gideon, a female Manhattan bike messenger with an appetite for the wild side, becomes embroiled in a rogue nation's Byzantine scheme to destabilize the U.S. financial system.

From the sweltering streets of Seoul to the sex-and-drug-driven underbelly of Greenwich Village, attempts at silencing a leak in an international counterfeiting operation leave a trail of butchery that leads inevitably to Wall Street, pitting a counter-culture heroine against a ruthless state-sponsored assassination team that will stop at nothing to achieve its lethal ends.

As the body count climbs, Tess is assisted by Detective Ron Stanford, a NYPD homicide specialist tracking a brutal serial killer whose ritualistic cycle of murder and mutilation targeting bike messengers is escalating to fever pitch.

Tess's battle to survive propels her into a deadly underworld where she must become judge and executioner, challenging her core beliefs about morality, justice and love.

++++

Q & A for Fatal Exchange with bestselling author Russell Blake

Question: Fatal Exchange features a female protagonist in a complex conspiracy/intrigue thriller. What was it like writing a female lead character, & why did you do it?

Russell Blake: I wanted to create a hero who was complex, troubled, but had tremendous inner strength. I conceptualized that character as female, in the mold of an Angelina Jolie-type kick-ass protagonist, & the image stuck with me. Tess wrote herself, & what I thought would be a challenge turned out to be one of the easiest characters to visualize & feel.

Q: Fatal Exchange has two discreet & seemingly separate story lines. Why?

RB: I wanted to push the envelope & try something different. I always wanted to do a serial killer plot, a la Tom Harris. In the end, I decided to experiment with two concurrent stories, & see if I could maintain the suspense of both & then dovetail them in the end. I think it worked well; both keep the reader engaged & build plot tension, and they resolve nicely.

Q: Fatal Exchange is written differently than most thrillers. Can you comment on that? It seems to speed along at a faster clip

RB: Another experiment. I thought it would be interesting to write the literary equivalent of a season of "24" - a series of short, punchy scenes with huge impact ingrained in each. I started the first 50 pages like that & liked the effect, so finished the book that way.

Q: Some of the scenes are so graphic as to make one wince. Have you gotten flack for that?

RB: I had a few readers say they were cringing, reading between their fingers as they hid their eyes. That tells me I did my job. I think good fiction should take you out of reality, & be so evocative as to put you in the story. I wanted something gritty & visceral & shocking. The scenes are paced for specific effect, & I like how they wound up working.

It's a fine line, because what makes one reader uncomfortable will be too tame for the next. But I will warn readers that if they're hoping for some sanitized, anodyne story, they're better served looking elsewhere. This ain't your grandma's thriller...
Country USA
Manufacturer Reprobatio Ltd
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2014-02-01
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Reprobatio Ltd
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2014-02-01
Format	Kindle eBook

Fatal Exchange (Fatal Series Book 1)

You might also like...