The Judas Strain: A Sigma Force Novel

I hope it’s somewhere in between. While certainly a thriller should have a roaring adventure at its heart, full of suspense, cliffhangers, and surprises, I think for a book to resonate with a reader at a deeper level it should offer more. A book should challenge readers, involve them and immerse them in histories and speculations that will still echo after the last page is turned.

At the end of each novel, I lay out what is true and what is fiction. One of the greatest compliments I find among letters from readers is that one of my books has inspired them to delve deeper into the topics raised in the novel. Then I know the book has truly struck a chord, something more meaningful than mere adventure.

I make another statement in the novel. To paraphrase, if we push Nature, Nature pushes back. We’ve only been on this planet a short period of geologic time, yet we’ve committed an amazing amount of abuse for such a young species. Someday soon we may be slapped back. Dominance today does not guarantee survival. There’s a lesson in the fate of the dinosaurs. Nothing is permanent in this world. Life is change.

I don’t think we’ll ever be fully prepared for what comes next, and I don’t think we can. When it comes to creativity, Nature rules. While we might anticipate a devastating flu outbreak – like the Spanish Flu in the past or the Avian Flu today – Nature adapts, mutates, and surprises. If we try to close one door, it merely opens another. And this doesn’t even take into account our own ham-fisted manipulations of Nature’s worst threats: from weaponized anthrax to the laboratory recreation of the Spanish Flu virus. Are we prepared? Not even close.

This novel required doing a bit of traveling, back to Italy again but also to the jungles of Cambodia. A large section of The Judas Strain takes place among the Angkor ruins of that country. It was an eye-opening journey into a country where landmines are still a risk to the unwary and where colonial culture and Cambodian history blend in some beautiful ways. Yet, it’s also a haunted landscape, where in the recent past a quarter of the country’s population was brutally slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge.

I am a voracious reader. Not only do I read across a wide gamut of fiction genres, I am passionate about science and history, so find myself perusing scores of nonfiction books. While doing so, I gather thousands of strange little tidbits. Also during the course of researching a novel, I interview several experts in various fields – and I’ve learned shocking details that defy believability but are indeed true. And I love to share these bombshells with my readers.

As a veterinarian and a human being, I certainly have a strong belief that the stewardship of this world is our responsibility as a species. I think the true merit of any society can be weighed on how well it cares for the weakest among them, whether that be an animal or a human. As to the statement about the devolution of the world’s seas into a primordial state of toxic slimes and jellyfish, it is a true and disturbing fact. The Los Angeles Times ran a chilling weeklong series of articles detailing and warning of the impending collapse of our seas.

I actually stumbled upon this mystery while doing research for my earlier novel, Map of Bones. While exploring the history of Vatican spies in Rome, I came upon an intriguing footnote. Some scholars believe that the Polos’ journey to China was not a random bit of trade exploration, but a plot by the Vatican to spy upon the Mongol forces in the Far East, to determine China’s strengths and weaknesses (which is also touched upon in The Judas Strain). I followed this thread and came upon the mystery of Marco’s lost fleet. And while this didn’t fit into the plot of Map of Bones, I knew I wanted to explore this in a future novel. So over the past three years, I’ve been growing that seed of a mystery into the current novel.

It all started from a seed of a mystery. As I relate at the beginning of the novel, Marco Polo spent almost two decades in China, along with his father and uncle. Upon the trio’s return voyage, Kublai Khan granted the Polos fourteen ships and six hund red men to escort them home. But when they arrived in Italy, the returning Polos were down to two ships and eighteen men. What happened to the rest of the escort? Marco hinted at some mysterious tragedy in his famous book, but he refused to ever say exactly what transpired, even on his deathbed. Such a mystery, I thought would make great fodder for a thriller. What if what destroyed Marco’s fleet were to arise again today?