The Soviet Bomb and Twisted Reasons

I first conceived of, and started writing, TWISTED REASONS, when I was living in Vienna and traveling throughout the former Soviet Union. I had read a great little book called THE ATOMIC BAZAAR, by William Langewiesche, that talked about the ease which with terrorists could get their hands on nuclear material from one of the secret cities where Stalin developed the atomic bomb. Delving further into research on the Soviet bomb, I learned about the many accidents and the utter disregard for human life and the environment in the Russian nuclear program right through to this day.

With the International Atomic Energy Agency headquartered in Vienna, and its role in monitoring the disposition of nuclear material from the various sites in the former Soviet Union, I thought this could all form the basis for a great thriller set at least partly in a a city I knew well and loved. In thinking about it further, I found that Graham Greene’s novel, THE THIRD MAN, and Carol Reed’s wonderful film based on it, set in post-War Vienna, which takes the story of two friends, one of whom gets involved in trading tampered antibiotics, would serve as an excellent template for the beginning of my thriller. The two friends in my book have Hungarian-American backgrounds, and this adds an extra layer of depth as I am able to weave some of my own family’s experiences in to the novel.

Picture from http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Large-Soviet-bomb.jpg