In an interview with Blaze Books in connection with his new action-packed novel, The Prince of Risk, thriller writer and Glenn Beck favorite Christopher Reich provided the fascinating background behind his book, explained to us the meaning of the aptly named “scoot and shoot,” riffed on globalization and exposed two grave threats to America that he believes are simply not getting the notice they deserve. Below is our interview, which has been slightly edited for clarity.
The Prince of Risk deals with many headline grabbing topics: hedge funds, industrial espionage, terrorism. How did you weave the story together?
Reich: The main thread that runs through them all of course is money, and finance. And these days…nothing really moves unless there’s money behind it. Having said that, I was just drawn in the last few years, and I had finished writing this “Rules” series. I had written three books dealing in the world of espionage. And the intelligence community. And all the while I’d been of course reading about what’s been going on in the financial world. With the people, traders losing billions of dollars and Bernard Madoff stealing billions from his clients, and I just thought it was very ripe territory to go after – to write a book from there. And on the other side with the terrorism I had been working a lot, or have a lot of friends I should say in the FBI and the Secret Service and we would get together just to chat and as I learned what was the current kind of landscape that was going on with their policing I learned some very interesting scenarios that I wanted to put in the book too.
Give us your pitch: why should Blaze readers buy this book for the holidays?
Reich: Well I grew up reading the classics: Frederick Forsythe, Tom Clancy, John Grisham, and Robert Ludlum. So I was trained in the school of just edge of your seat page-turners. So I write the kind of book that I like to read. The Prince of Risk is just a high-octane, adrenaline-filled thriller that’s based in this world of high finance. And I think it’s just a very exciting and informative read, so I just tell people read the first chapter and tell me if you can stop reading. There’s my pitch.
For context, what was your background that gave you the insights to write this book?
Reich: Well of course I began my career, I was an investment banker a long time ago. I worked at the Union Bank of Switzerland in Zurich for a number of years, then I ran a watch company in Switzerland for five years. And then I quit all that just to become a writer, so I went into being a novelist completely cold turkey. And never having taken a fiction class. Never having written a short story. And I just used the kind of skill set that I developed as a banker which was basically just working really hard and long hours, and applied that to writing novels. And so coming into this book, this is my ninth book, so I have eight books of experience and of practice let’s say in 15 years in the game, but I have to say this: it doesn’t get any easier.
