flight risk Michael McGuire

What inspired you to write a spy thriller?

My first book Never a True Word was set in the world of politics and media, two fields I know well. When it was finished I just wanted to write something entirely different, about the spy world – a world I didn’t know well. I wanted to have a crack at something thrilling and fun. Just to see if I could do it. Not that this is a comparison, but I have always loved the books of people such as Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, Ian Rankin and George Pelecanos. When I was a teenager I grew up on Biggles books, but also Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley, Jack Higgins and Frederick Forsyth. I wanted to try to right something that would have people turning their pages with haste.