Joseph Finder's Blog
November 9, 2018
Meet Juliana Brody . . .
Of all the characters I’ve written, I have to say Juliana is my favorite. She’s a brilliant judge, a good friend, a devoted mom. She’s always considered herself a “Rules Girl” — she never drives above the speed limit, never cheats on her taxes, always does things right. Until one night in Chicago when she meets a kind and gentle man and has a one-night-stand with him. Which they both agree must never happen again.
But then, back in Boston, the man walks into her courtroom. He’s on the defense side in a high-profile sex discrimination lawsuit. And Juliana realizes she’s become a pawn in a terrifying scheme. Now Juliana has to take matters into her own hands — and maybe even break the law, if she has to. But she’s not going to remain a victim.
Juliana Brody is a kick-ass character that I think you’ll really enjoy getting to know. And root for.
October 30, 2018
Hey, top Goodreads reviewers — did you get a copy of JUDGMENT?
October 18, 2018
JUDGMENT arrives on January 29
JUDGMENT is a standalone thriller that features one of my all-time favorite protagonists: Juliana Brody, a Massachusetts judge. She has a husband and children she loves, a great house, and a career that’s moved from one success to the next, with no end in sight. But in a moment of weakness, she spends a night away from home with a kind and gentle stranger. It won’t change her life, she tells herself — but then the man shows up in Juliana’s courtroom, as part of a high-profile sexual harassment lawsuit.
Someone’s set out to trap her, and Juliana soon discovers it’s not just her career at stake; it’s her family’s lives, and her own. Saving them all will require Juliana to be as ruthless as her adversary.
David Baldacci called JUDGMENT “an exquisite game of cat and mouse,” and I can’t wait for you to read it. Watch for a Goodreads giveaway of early copies in late October, or try your luck at an e-book giveaway here. I hope you’ll also sign up for my newsletter at my website for more news about JUDGMENT, including previews, giveaways, and tour plans.
May 10, 2018
Hello World
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Nunc maximus, nulla ut commodo sagittis, sapien dui mattis dui, non pulvinar lorem felis nec erat. Aliquam egestas, velit at condimentum placerat, sem sapien laoreet mauris, dictum porttitor lacus est nec enim. Vivamus feugiat elit lorem, eu porttitor ante ultrices id. Phasellus suscipit tellus ante, nec dignissim elit imperdiet nec. Nullam fringilla feugiat nisl. Ut pretium, metus venenatis dictum viverra, dui metus finibus enim, ac rhoncus sem lorem vitae mauris. Suspendisse ut venenatis libero. Suspendisse lorem felis, pretium in maximus id, tempor non ipsum
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April 28, 2016
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June 28, 2014
A Veteran Spymaster Answers Readers’ Questions, Part II
Earlier this month it was my privilege to interview Jack Devine, a founding partner and President of The Arkin Group LLC. Jack’s memoir, GOOD HUNTING: An American Spymaster’s Story, written with Vernon Loeb, was published by Macmillan in June and is already being hailed as a modern classic.
In his 32 years with the Central Intelligence Agency, Jack Devine held numerous senior positions, including Chief of the Latin American Division, head of the Counternarcotics Center, and both Acting Director and Associate Director of the CIA’s operations outside the United States. He received the agency’s Meritorious Officer Award for his role as head of the CIA’s Afghan Task Force, which countered Soviet aggression in an operation immortalized on film as “Charlie Wilson’s War.” With Stanley Arkin, he now heads The Arkin Group, an international risk consulting and intelligence firm.
Jack came to the Harvard Book Store to discuss his book and answer questions, and before the event, I asked my own readers what they’d ask him, given the opportunity. My conversation with Jack took off, however, and we had so much to talk about in our limited time that I never got to ask any of my readers’ questions. He was kind enough to take some time a few days later to answer some of the best questions, and I’m delighted to be able to share them with you. These questions came in via my Facebook page, and I have condensed, clarified and combined them — thanks to everyone who submitted one!
Because we covered so much ground, I’m posting this interview in two sections. Part I was posted yesterday.
PART II
1. What did we hope to gain in Afghanistan?
Devine: My objective after 9/11 was to bring down the Taliban and get bin Laden. I would have left CIA infrastructure behind, but I would not have been involved in nation-building. I’ve been in disagreement about nation-building. The latest developments are not surprising in Iraq, and I expect similar results in Afghanistan. The people on the ground have to want democracy.
2. Do you feel that our intelligence gathering is adequate, and has it been hampered after the Snowden revelations?
Devine: We have an ample [intelligence] budget. The problem is that we’ve been involved in wars for ten years, and that sucks up a lot of energy. NSA has been a great source of information, and Snowden has dealt a huge blow to our ability to discover adversaries and potential adversaries.
Everybody’s collecting and exploiting data, but how is it actually used? It may not be perfect, but there is a process for how the government uses this information. When you see the reforms, it’s going to be honest people making very modest changes. [NSA surveillance] isn’t the intrusion that people believe it to be, and it’s indispensable.
Edward Snowden knows exactly what he did, that’s why he ended up in Russia. He’s not coming back because he knows he did a great deal of damage. NSA called his bluff. He had many channels to pursue, other than the one he followed, to offer an official complaint. He thought he was doing a public service? By compromising our platforms? Someone explain how that’s a public service.
3. What is the most surprising aspect to working in the CIA that no one would believe? What is the most attractive aspect of working for the CIA?
Devine: Its great sense of professional integrity in reporting, and its sensitivity to the law. I don’t think people realize how much internal oversight we have. For the last ten years of my career, I had a lawyer at my elbow whose job it was to make sure that everything I did was legal. You don’t want to be doing things that aren’t legal within the US system. People would be surprised at how much time and energy is spent on staying within the lines.
The thing that brings most people in the front door is a sense of mission: “I am nobly serving my country, and my country stands for a high set of principles.” If you’re looking for fame and glory, you’re going to the wrong place. If you want to serve your country, that’s where you should be.
4. What makes a good spy?
Devine: Well, good-looking . . . (laughs). There’s a high premium on judgment: judging people, judging risk. You have to have good, not necessarily flamboyant interpersonal skills. You must be able to interact with people and you must be flexible with foreign cultures — you must be able to enjoy the experience of living in a foreign culture. You also have to be able to close a deal, to convince somebody that it’s in their interest that they work with us. Some people are very good at everything else, but they can’t close the deal.
At a slightly higher level, it’s the entrepreneurial energy — you have to build a network, you have to build a team. You should have that at level one, because you’ll need it to stay challenged.
5. Do you believe you made a difference for the better, for mankind?
Devine: That’s something I certainly would hope for, and the place where I would draw the most direct line is when I ran the Afghan Task Force in the late 1980s.
6. What is your idea of the ultimate conspiracy?
Devine: My job was often to conspire. It is because I conspired that I approach most public conspiracies with a high degree of agnosticism. When you have a tragic incident, you’re going to have hundreds of different versions of it.
What I’m most adamant about is those who believe that their government conspires against them. I have not seen conspiracies inside the U.S. government. The idea that agencies within the government would conspire with each other is so unlikely, not only because of the legal framework, but because people come from such different backgrounds. The idea that you could have a conspiracy with no one reporting it is completely inconceivable, in terms of how our government operates.
Jack Devine’s memoir, GOOD HUNTING: An American Spymaster’s Story, is in stores now. Read more about it here. Joseph Finder’s bestselling novel SUSPICION is also on sale.
June 27, 2014
A Veteran Spymaster Answers Readers’ Questions, Part I
Earlier this month it was my privilege to interview Jack Devine, a founding partner and President of The Arkin Group LLC. Jack’s memoir, GOOD HUNTING: An American Spymaster’s Story, written with Vernon Loeb, was published by Macmillan in June and is already being hailed as a modern classic.
In his 32 years with the Central Intelligence Agency, Jack Devine held numerous senior positions, including Chief of the Latin American Division, head of the Counternarcotics Center, and both Acting Director and Associate Director of the CIA’s operations outside the United States. He received the agency’s Meritorious Officer Award for his role as head of the CIA’s Afghan Task Force, which countered Soviet aggression in an operation immortalized on film as “Charlie Wilson’s War.” With Stanley Arkin, he now heads The Arkin Group, an international risk consulting and intelligence firm.
Jack came to the Harvard Book Store to discuss his book and answer questions, and before the event, I asked my own readers what they’d ask him, given the opportunity. My conversation with Jack took off, however, and we had so much to talk about in our limited time that I never got to ask any of my readers’ questions. He was kind enough to take some time a few days later to answer some of the best questions, and I’m delighted to be able to share them with you. These questions came in via my Facebook page, and I have condensed, clarified and combined them — thanks to everyone who submitted one!
Because we covered so much ground, I’m posting this interview in two sections. Part II will follow tomorrow.
PART I
1. How did you swallow your fear of being exposed and being killed? What kind of mind set does it take to be able to organize a mission? Do you just put the "what could go wrong" issues away in a compartment in your brain, and close the door?
Devine: Every time you’re making a clandestine meeting, there’s a risk — and while there’s a risk for you, the risk is greater for the person you’re meeting. [To be an operative], you must have a certain level of confidence . . . when you’re making a clandestine meeting, you’re putting the other person at risk, and you’re so focused on that, you displace your own fear.
Secondly, when you’re in a place that’s in turmoil, the thing you have to be very careful of is that if you live there, you get increasingly more comfortable with the level of instability. There’s a problem with highly volatile environments: the human body and mind get used to it. The bigger problem is that you have to watch people so they don’t get overly confident, that they’re not appreciating the full risk. I don’t think that I often had gut-wrenching fear.
2. Do covert agents typically reach a point where it feels like a normal job to them? Or does the risk prevent it from ever becoming routine?
Devine: That’s my concern, and that’s why for headquarters or the backbone of an operation, responsibility rests on them to not over-weight the confidence they hear from people in the field. Experienced managers realize that you cannot rely on their judgment, and you need to be the arbiter, and call off the operation if necessary. You rely on them [the field operatives] for local judgment, but in a dangerous or volatile environment, the call should rest in Washington.
The body does adapt to all types of anxiety and fear. In the book, I talk about how this happened to me in Chile. I describe it as one of my worst personal judgments — telling my wife how she could defend herself, when the family should have gone home. People in our business want to stay and duke it out, complete the mission. But when families are at stake, it’s not a hard call. When officers are at stake, it needs to be done prudently.
3. Does it frustrate you that our leaders don't seem to consider blowback while planning strategy, and do you think this will ever change?
Devine: I think that’s an unfair description. Most of the people I’ve known over the years, particularly public servants, are experienced professionals. They consider the consequences pretty carefully; what most people get hung up on are the unintended consequences . . . As a class, your government officials, your policymakers, are pretty thoughtful.
One of my recommendations [in GOOD HUNTING] is that when you have policies, you air them with the appropriate government officials. You need to be challenged on your suppositions.
It’s a hard line to draw between finger-pointing and lessons learned. The military does the best job — after a failed operation, they really do a good job of scrubbing the operations. Civilians have a harder time. It’s part culture: you need to be able to hold people accountable without being overly punitive. This is why I like bipartisan commissions. You’re better off with both parties, you have a better chance of getting to reality.
The national security arena, for most of my public life, was an area of Congressional bipartisanship in the Intelligence Committees. I still like to believe that our elected representatives put our national security first. I’m hopeful, in the case of Benghazi, that this is a serious effort to get the facts.
4. How do you deal with the need to inform Senators and Representatives beforehand?
Devine: I absolutely believe that you have to get legislative support for executive branch covert action. If you’re going to do something that’s going to cause a firefight with Congress, then the operation may not be a smart idea. The people elected the Congress. Now, that doesn’t mean you brief 435 members of Congress; you brief the [Intelligence] Committees.
In terms of leaks, in my experience, there were very few things leaked by the Intelligence Committees in Congress; most of the leaks I saw came from the executive branch. Congress should be fully briefed.
If you can’t carry the day, maybe you shouldn’t do it. Review by Congress is appropriate and helpful.
5. Which presidents do you have respect for, and why?
Devine: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower (laughs). Then it gets fuzzy. We’re too close to it. I can point to successes and major accomplishments by each President. I do have my favorites of the last several, but it’s not partisan . . . I have worked very hard to be nonpartisan, and that’s what a professional CIA person should do.
6. My assumption is that running a CIA operation is like playing a game of chess. How do you ensure that your chess game doesn't fall into predictable and recognizable moves? And what's your biggest pet peeve of how the CIA is depicted in novels, movies, and television?
Devine: I would say that our strategic views should be known. The American people should know what our position is, and our public diplomacy should be known. But the tactical moves — how, for example, we deploy the drones and the special forces — your hope is that you can conceal that from your opposition. It’s hard to support 125,000 fighters in Afghanistan without anyone knowing that you’re doing it, but exactly how is easier to conceal.
There’s a general perception that the CIA operates as a rogue government entity. It makes for good movies and good theater, but I don’t know of a single covert action that wasn’t specifically approved by the President of the United States. People may think they have a problem with the CIA, but what they really have a problem with is the policy.
7. Are CIA agents depicted accurately in any films or books? If so, which ones?
Devine: The Recruit [2003, starring Al Pacino and Colin Farrell] is good in the beginning; the first half hour depicts the training, and is quite accurate. The rest of it, well . . . The Spy Who Came in From the Cold gets to the deep psychological truth of the business. I liked Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, too. And I like an older movie, called The Informer [1935, directed by John Ford], about this Irish IRA member who informs on his friends . . . the James Bond movies are entertaining, but they don’t get to the details of what we do.
As for books, I like Agatha Christie’s Curtain, where she explores how you get someone else to kill for you. Very cleverly done. I tend to like mostly historical books, biographies. I’m reading The Bully Pulpit now, about Roosevelt and Taft.
8. What about the BBC series, like “Spooks” and “MI5”?
Devine: I try to watch all the BBC series, and I think they do great stuff. I don’t know why, but they do it a little better — it has less tinsel.
Jack Devine’s memoir, GOOD HUNTING: An American Spymaster’s Story, is in stores now. Read more about it here. Joseph Finder’s bestselling novel SUSPICION is also on sale.
May 23, 2014
When Jack Reacher Met Nick Heller, by Lee Child
Jack Reacher and Nick Heller join forces to right some wrongs and watch some baseball in "Good and Valuable Consideration," a story in the International Thriller Writers anthology FACEOFF, coming June 3 from Simon & Schuster. Here, Lee talks about the unfamiliar process of writing with a partner.
Lee Child: Joe Finder and I are good friends, in the sense that we talk about more than just the business. Baseball, obviously (even though Joe is hopelessly misguided there) ... and on top of everything else we have an ongoing quest for America’s best burger. Not a gourmet burger - let’s make that clear from the start - but just the best plain, honest, normal burger. I remember some years ago we were trying a contender in a Spanish restaurant (yeah, go figure) on 22nd Street in New York, and talk turned to upcoming projects, as it does, and Joe started riffing and thinking out loud about maybe starting a series character.
And what I heard from him was a lengthy and penetrating analysis that covered every cost and benefit, every desirable and undesirable characteristic, every strength and weakness ... I wish I’d had a voice recorder running. I could have sold the transcript to Writers Digest. It would have become the Rosetta Stone for all such decisions.
And obviously he went ahead with it, and the first Nick Heller book came out, written with Joe’s trademark blend of freewheeling imagination mixed with iron self-discipline. I liked it a lot. So that when ITW proposed pairing up two series characters I thought of Heller immediately. As it happened I saw Joe minutes after I’d heard about the proposition (and evidently the same number of minutes after he had) and I said, “So are we doing this?” He said, “I guess.” And that was it. No lengthy preamble, no rules ... which was just as well, because I’m not a planner. But Joe is, so I was interested to see what would happen.
We did it by e-mail. I sent the first chunk, and naturally I got back an inquiry: “What do you see happening next?” No idea, Joe, until you’ve written it. But he coped just fine. Obviously the biggest problem was who would win the Yankees-Sox game that kicks the whole thing off. I decided to do the decent thing and throw the guy a bone. That’s what fiction is for, right? Getting what you don’t get in real life?
Read more about FACEOFF here, and order your copy today!
May 22, 2014
When Nick Heller Met Jack Reacher, by Joseph Finder
Jack Reacher and Nick Heller join forces to right some wrongs and watch some baseball in "Good and Valuable Consideration," a story in the International Thriller Writers anthology FACEOFF, coming June 3 from Simon & Schuster. Here, Joe talks about the unfamiliar process of writing with a partner.
Joseph Finder: I have always loved series characters, though it took me a long time to decide to try my hand at one. I love Robert B. Parker’s iconic Spenser and John D. McDonald’s great Travis McGee and John Sandford’s Lucas Davenport, just to name a few that jump to mind. And from when I first discovered Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, I thought he was the coolest. What I loved most about Reacher was not just the fisticuffs, the way he’ll beat the crap out of anyone who stands in his way. (Although I enjoy that.) I love the moral undercurrent: that Reacher is a guy who won’t put up with people being treated unfairly. He likes to settle scores, to “put things right,” as Lee Child says. He’s the Avenger for our time. But what the cool thing about Reacher is his brain, his terse, dry sense of humor, his no-B.S. attitude, the way he can look at a situation of potential combat and figure out how he’s going to win before throwing the first punch. The thing about Reacher, really, is his interiority: the real action is behind his eyes.
I also think that Lee Child is one of our very finest writers of suspense fiction. Actually, I think he’s just flat out one of our best novelists. His prose is second to none, and that actually makes a difference. His books are always a pleasure to read: never a wasted word, never the wrong word, always a great rhythm and cadence to the dialogue.
When I decided to try a series character, I spent a long time creating one who I knew could last for book after book. I called him Nick Heller, and he’s deliberately unlike his comrades in the series-character biz. He’s not a private eye, he’s a “private spy” — he works for politicians and governments and corporations, sometimes digging up secrets they’d rather keep buried. He works as a private spy, but his investigations are fueled by his own sense of justice. He’s part blue-collar and part white-collar: the son of a notorious Wall Street criminal, raised in immense wealth that all went away when his father went to prison. He spent his formative years in a split-level ranch house in a working-class suburb of Boston.
Heller, by virtue of his background, is a chameleon. He can blend in among the corporate elite as easily as he does among the jarheads. He roots for the Boston Red Sox.
Jack Reacher is a Yankees fan. His background is different, if equally scattered. He’s an army brat, raised on U.S. military bases around the world, a man without a country, yet still an American. He’s a loner who prefers to avoid attachments, yet he’s as loyal as can be.
Nick Heller and Jack Reacher, it seemed to me, would be a cool pairing. Chalk and cheese, as the Brits say. Couldn’t be more different. Yet very much the same.
Plus I happen to like Lee Child a lot. I have many writer pals—thriller writers are a collegial and congenial bunch—and Lee Child is someone I consider a good friend. We respect each other. We rib each other mercilessly about our respective baseball loyalties. I knew we’d work together well and with mutual respect.
And one more thing, which has to do with process. Lee Child does not outline his books. Nor does he outline his stories. They just emerge naturally. To me, that’s walking on a wire without a net. So I figured it would be a useful learning experience to collaborate with someone whose work habits are so different from mine. And it was. Lee came up with the premise of the two guys in a bar in Boston. Reacher would be an out-of-towner, as he always is. Heller would be in Boston, the city he loves. Lee was taken by the notion of the mirror at the back of a bar: the way you can look at the reflection of the person next to you and talk with both intimacy and distance. Heller and Reacher would both end up talking to and about and around someone who’s in trouble, and they’d decide to help the guy out, because that’s what they do. And they’d help him in their very different ways. Reacher would be the better fighter, I figured, because Reacher is . . . Reacher.
Check back tomorrow for Lee Child's side of the story. Read more about FACEOFF , and order your copy today!
April 5, 2014
The SUSPICION Pre-Order Giveaway
Early reviews are coming in for SUSPICION, and they’re even better than I could have hoped. Library Journal gave it a star and called it “another fantastic Finder thriller,” and Publishers Weekly said SUSPICION was “a zipping Jaguar of a ride.”
The opinion that matters most, though, is the readers’. Early readers have started to post reviews to Goodreads and Amazon, and I’ve gotten nice notes on Facebook and Twitter. Those mean more to me than I can say, especially as I finish work on the next book (another standalone, before I get back to Nick Heller). I deeply appreciate every review posted, every “Want to Read” checked on Goodreads, and every time SUSPICION is added to a wish list on Indiebound, Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
This year I’ve decided to express my appreciation in a very concrete way. To everyone who pre-orders SUSPICION (or has already done so), I’d like to send you a free paperback copy of the Joseph Finder novel of your choice. Shipping & handling’s on me.
To pre-order, just click here — or if you’ve already pre-ordered, click here for details on how to submit your information and get your free book.
My SUSPICION tour schedule has just been posted. If you’d rather buy the book at one of these events, you can still take advantage of this offer by pre-ordering, and pick up your book at the event. Or you can pre-order an inscribed copy from New York’s Mysterious Bookshop.
Sorry, but this offer is available only to U.S. readers. It’s good until the publication date, May 27 (because after that, you wouldn’t be pre-ordering!). It’s just a small way for me to thank you for all your support. Happy reading!
