with Bernard Besson
We are delighted to welcome back novelist Bernard Besson to Omnimystery News today.
Bernard's first novel to be translated from his native French into English is the cli-fi spy thriller The Greenland Breach (Le French Book; October 2013 ebook formats; translated by Julie Rose).
What does global warming really mean for geopolitics? Does it promise espionage and intrigue, economic warfare and behind-the-scenes struggles for natural resources? These are some of the questions that Bernard poses for his book and we recently had the opportunity to talk with him about his work.
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Omnimystery News: Is The Greenland Breach the first of a series of thrillers?
Photo provided courtesy of
Bernard Besson
Bernard Besson: The trio of freelance spies in The Greenland Breach — John Spencer Larivière, Victoire Augagneur and Luc Masseron — are recurring characters that also appear in another novel that is being released in France in November. I chose to create recurring heroes so I can identify with them the same way my readers do. Or at least that is what I'm hoping. I expect the recurring characters to grow and change. John and Victoire will have a baby in the next book, which will complicate things for them. But that's life. Maybe they'll have to change jobs, maybe not. I don't yet know, but I know that in the next novel, they'll meet someone else who will also become a familiar character.
OMN: How would you tweet a summary of the book?
BB: The Greenland Breach recounts the confrontation between nations in the wake of climate change.
OMN: You have quite a resume of government experience. How much of this experience have you included in The Greenland Breach?
BB: Fifty percent of my book is based on my experience working in the French intelligence services and in economic intelligence for the French government. The rest is based on the current climatic, political and economic situation in Greenland and the melting of the ice cap.
OMN: What is the best advice you've received as an author?
BB: My four first novels were rejected. At the time, I had already published four non-fiction books on economics. A Parisian publisher told me, "You don't know how to write." I was mortified, but I listened to what he said and have to admit that he was right. So I had to learn to how write fiction, which is much more difficult than writing about economics. In fiction you can't write just anything, you can't cheat. And you can't be boring. I'm not saying that writing about economics is the exact opposite, but it is true that you can make numbers and figures say just about anything you want.
OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a thriller writer and thus I am also …".
BB: I am a thriller writer and thus I am also a reader who wants to feel surprise and an adrenaline rush, and to understand the whole story by the last page.
OMN: Describe your writing process for us.
BB: I start by drawing up what I call the "context," which in the case of The Greenland Breach is global climate change. I do research and I meet experts. Then, I invent characters that could experience antagonistic situations in this context. I draw my inspiration for them from reality. My characters all have some connection to the "context" and need to be credible.
Afterwards, I build a very precise, detailed outline that can range between fifty and a hundred pages long. Then the "writing fiction" part begins. But very quickly my characters refuse to stick to my outline. And eight times out of ten, they are right. So I simplify the outline, and action becomes tenser. When I'm at the "context" phase, the story can sometimes span over a year. Once I get to the "fiction" phase, it lasts three or four days. So in the end, the action tears apart my outline.
OMN: And where do you usually write?
BB: I mostly write at home, in Paris, early in the morning. The rest of the time, I take notes on sticky notes. And I sleep, because sleeping on ideas always helps.
OMN: You mentioned earlier that with fiction, you can't cheat. How do you fact check your storylines?
BB: I meet with experts and people who know about the topic, and I do a lot of internet research.
OMN: How important is setting to the story?
BB: John Spencer Larivière, his wife Victoire and their sidekick Luc — the three recurring characters — live and work in Paris, in the fourteenth arrondissement, in a place called the "Daguerre Village," which is a real place and is something like the Notting Hill of Paris. Fermatown is the spy/PI outfit John set up, and took its name from the Rue Fermat, which runs perpendicular to the Rue Daguerre. The trio lives at 9 Rue Fermat. Topographical precision is very important to me in all my books. In The Greenland Breach, I did a lot of geographical research, as I did on Malaysia, where the John Spencer Larivière sequel is set.
OMN: Have any studios contacted you about adapting your books for film or television?
BB: When the book first came out in French there was some talk of making it into a movie. I thought about Christophe Lambert, whom I had met in Paris, for the part of John Spencer Lariviere.
OMN: Who are some of your favorite literary characters?
BB: I really like Sherlock Holmes for his way of thinking and acting.
OMN: What's next for you?
BB: Right after The Greenland Breach comes out in English, the next book in the series will come out in French. It is called Partage des terres and doesn't have an English title yet. It has the same recurring characters. The context is the economic war between China, the United States and Europe for the control of rare earths, which are precious metals used in high technology. It is a sequel to The Greenland Breach and is set in France and Malaysia.
I am also working on the 1962 Cuban crisis and the John F. Kennedy – Nikita S. Kroutchev face off. Based on my own memories of working in intelligence during that period, I've set out to write about that crisis using a plot opposing the KGB and the GRU, which was the Red Army military intelligence arm. It won't be a thriller, but rather a historical suspense novel.
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Bernard Besson, who was born in Lyon, France, in 1949, is a former top-level chief of staff of the French intelligence services, an eminent specialist in economic intelligence and Honorary General Controller of the French National Police. He was involved in dismantling Soviet spy rings in France and Western Europe when the USSR fell and has real inside knowledge from his work auditing intelligence services and the police. He has also written a number of prize-winning thrillers, his first in 1998, and several works of nonfiction. He currently lives in the fourteenth arrondissement of Paris, right down the street from his heroes.
For more information about the Besson, please visit his author page on the Le French Book website.
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The Greenland Breach
Bernard Besson
A Cli-Fi Spy Novel
The Arctic ice caps are breaking up. Europe and the East Coast of the Unites States brace for a tidal wave. Meanwhile, former French intelligence officer John Spencer Larivière, his karate-trained, steamy Eurasian partner, Victoire, and their computer-genius sidekick, Luc, pick up an ordinary freelance assignment that quickly leads them into the heart of an international conspiracy. Off the coast of Greenland, a ship belonging to the French geological research firm Terre Noire is in serious trouble. The murder of an important scientist jeopardizes evacuation. Is it related to the firm's explorations? Is the rival Canadian-based scientific and economic development corporation, Northland Group, involved?
On land another killer is roaming the icy peaks after researchers, while a huge crevasse splits Greenland apart. What are the connections? In the glacial silence of the great north, a merciless war is being waged. Global warming and subsequent natural disasters hide international rivalries over discoveries that will change the future of humanity.
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