It’s a converted sleeping porch in a 100-year-old house with three walls of windows and limestone mined from a local quarry. When writing about intrigue, double-dealing, espionage, smarmy politicians and investigative reporting, the go-to setting is Washington, DC, where I once lived and worked.Ĥ-Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?Ībsolutely - and I feel like I do most days.ĥ-What are three words that describe your protagonist?Ħ-What’s something you learned while writing this book?ħ-Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?Ĩ-What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?Īnything salty - Cape Cod potato chips, popcorn and salty caramel ice cream. Newshound reporter Nik Byron races to unravel the mystery surrounding the death of Geoffrey Tate, one of the world’s richest individuals and the CEO of Yukon, the country’s preeminent AI company, at the hands of his young trophy wife.ģ-How did you decide where your book was going to take place?

But as word gets out that what he has dug up threatens to expose the theft of highly sensitive US technology, now being sold to terrorists and repressive regimes, new enemies close in.1-What is the title of your latest release?Ģ-What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? With the help of a small team of colleagues and his new girlfriend, Samantha Whyte-the chief investigator for the Northern Virginia Sheriff's Department, who has her own secrets to conceal-Nik follows a bloody trail of bodies from DC to the upper Midwest. That is, until a late-night explosion levels a high-tech office park-home to some of the nation's top clandestine programs-and provides Nik with an opportunity to reverse his fortunes.Īs Nik tries to unravel the mystery at the heart of the explosion, he suddenly finds himself confronting domestic terrorists, rogue American and Chinese spies, mercenaries, and a brilliant but temperamental computer expert. Relegated to scut work and the graveyard shift, Nik's career and emotions are in a tailspin. But a disruptive corporate merger and a vengeful boss quickly dash his plans. When a top secret and powerful US surveillance technology is stolen and offered for sale on the black market, an exiled reporter races to expose the theft and untangle the plot-before the story is spiked, and he is silenced for good.Ĭoming off a successful investigation into a major banking scandal, Newshound reporter Nik Byron arrives in Washington, DC, with high hopes for his career.

Hack by Mark Pawlosky