Finally, a female lead in an espionage thriller!

I didn’t write the above title. It was the caption for a review by Amazon Top Reviewer, “Ginny,” for my latest thriller, White Thaw: The Helheim Conspiracy. She goes on to say in her review, “…Unlike many books in this genre, all the main characters are NOT men. I thought that made it much more enjoyable for both female and male readers….”

This review reminded me how important it is to write to a variety of audience. I’ve known for years that most people who buy my novels at book signings are women. For example, at the end of September I was fortunate to have a signing at our nearest big book store, the Barnes & Noble in Gilroy (forty-five minutes north of Monterey). For every book that I sold to a male, I sold 2.5 to women. Although that’s not always the case, more often than not it is.

In my trilogy of thrillers, Category 5, Prophecy, and White Thaw, I’ve had two protagonists all along, Dr. Victor Mark Silverstein and Dr. Linda Kipling. For my first two books, Silverstein was the lead, with Kipling secondary. By the end of Prophecy, however, it became clear to me that Kipling was so strong a character that she deserved a story of her own: hence White Thaw. Silverstein takes a secondary role equivalent to Kipling’s earlier. In addition to Kipling, there is a second strong female character: Navy Captain Jane Stigler who heads up the Federal Center for Data Examination, an agency hot on the trail of the bad guys.

On the flip side, neither sex should have a lock on evil either. For example, I recall Senator Samantha Thurston (in Prophecy), one of the more wicked, immoral characters I’ve developed. Silverstein will never forget what she did to him in a hotel room in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

In real life, neither sex can lay claim to being the ultimate good or the ultimate evil. Throughout history, there have been angels and monsters from both sexes. And so it should be in fiction.

Thank you, Ginny, for your comment. I’m glad that somebody noticed.

Categorised in: Category 5, Prophecy, White Thaw

This post was written by paulmarktag01