Synopsis of The Leopard of Cairo (Amazon):
John Viera left his CIA fieldwork hoping for a “normal” occupation and a long-awaited family, but when a Pakistani engineer is kidnapped from a top-secret US project and diplomatic entanglements tie the government’s hands, the Intelligence Community turns to John and his team of ex-operatives to investigate -- strictly off the books. They uncover a plot of unprecedented magnitude that will precipitate the slaughter of millions.
From the corporate skyscrapers of Montreal to the treacherous alleys of Baluchistan, these formidable enemies strike, determined to create a regional apocalypse and permanently alter the balance of world power. Isolated in their knowledge of the impending devastation, John and his network stand alone between total destruction and the Leopard of Cairo.
This is the first book in the Apex Predator series.
Synopsis of The Caiman of Iquitos (Amazon):
In a chilling continuation of their Apex Predator novels, Bayard & Holmes compel us into the darkest corners of the Shadow World. A world where billionaires are not subject to governments and assassins, rogue nations, and terrorists are their tools to obtain global dominance. In an explosion of unrelenting action, one man and his team risk everything to protect the Western world.
Former CIA Operations Officer John Viera is doing his best to lead a “normal” life and start a family. Fate has other ideas.
When a Russian ship is mysteriously torpedoed off the coast of Peru, untracked enriched uranium is revealed within its cargo. Protecting his family’s multi-billion dollar business interests, the US president blocks agency investigations into the incident. Top intelligence officials covertly call in John Viera and his unofficial network of former operatives to uncover the new player on the nuclear chessboard. What they discover threatens the annihilation of the West.
From the jungles of the Amazon to the Sea of Japan, John and his network are the only ones who stand between international security and the Caiman of Iquitos.
This is the second book in the Apex Predator series, but it can be read as a standalone.
Q&A from authors
On writing:
How did you do research for your book?
The majority of our research for The Leopard of Cairo and our other fiction comes from Jay Holmes’s fifty years of experience in military and intelligence operations. Piper will call him up and say something like, “We need to blow something up,” or “What will John Viera do if he’s being followed?” Jay either tells her off the top of his head or he gets back to her in a day or so, and she fills in the rest from her own knowledge and with Google.
Which was the easiest character to write?
Jay finds it easiest to write the male operatives on the team. For Piper, the female characters are easiest to write, particularly the middle-aged female assassin, Mrs. Beasley. Piper isn’t sure what that says about her own personal character.
Where do you get inspiration for your stories?
Usually, our inspiration starts with some tawdry joke we make while eating a fresh chocolate cake in Holmes’s kitchen sometime after midnight. If we’ve had a sip of guinda, a Spanish cherry liqueur, the work goes faster.
What advice would you give budding writers?
Piper: Run. . . . Just kidding. Sort of. . . . You’re going to suck at this, and that’s okay. Every single first draft for everyone is unfit to read, and the first million words are the internship. Just get it on the paper and then worry about making it magnificent. Trust the process.
Jay: Find someone willing to produce the manuscripts and then call them your writing partner.
Your book is set in Quetta, Pakistan, Cairo, Egypt, Montreal, Canada, Northern Vermont, and Flagstaff, Arizona. Have you ever been there?
Piper has only been to Flagstaff, but Jay has been to all of these places. Piper would love to visit Montreal and Vermont, but Jay has warned her away from Quetta and Cairo.
If you could put yourself as a character in your book, who would you be?
Piper would love to be as tough as Angelina. Jay is already one or two of the male characters, including our protagonist John Viera.
Do you have another profession besides writing?
Piper was formerly an attorney and a professional belly dancer. She is now a professional potter when she isn’t writing. Jay’s other time commitment is annoying people in various branches of government.
How long have you been writing?
Piper has been writing off and on since she flunked Calculus in college and switched her major from Biophysics to technical writing. She began writing novels in 2004.
Jay has been writing professional papers for over four decades, and he has occasionally been forced to turn in government paperwork that resembles writing during that same time span. Piper roped him into writing fiction, spycraft, and history books in 2010.
Do you ever get writer’s block? What helps you overcome it?
If words aren’t flowing freely for Piper, she writes longhand on unlined paper. Jay’s wife helps him out with any writer’s block. He won’t be elaborating on that.
What is your next project?
Mostly our project is to both wake up breathing every morning. Once we’ve achieved that, we continue to work on our next book, The Cobra of Nainital.
What genre do you write and why?
We write espionage thrillers because it’s fun for us, and we feel best equipped to entertain readers with this genre.
What is the last great book you’ve read?
Piper just finished Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence, a.k.a. Lawrence of Arabia. It’s an absolute masterpiece detailing his work with the Arab tribes to overthrow the Ottoman Empire and build the nations of the Arabian Peninsula.
Jay just re-read Admiral Arleigh Burke, a biography by E.B. Potter, and he highly recommends it.
How are you similar to or different from your lead character?
Jay is similar to John Viera in that he also has military and intelligence experience, he grew up in New York City, and Spanish is his first language. That said, he is more like Kenneth in his stable home life.
What were the biggest rewards and challenges with writing your book?
The answer is the same for both rewards and challenges--working together as pathological twins.
What is one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring author?
Read books you love and learn from them.
Which authors inspired you to write?
Piper is inspired by authors of great characters and stories from all eras, such as Alexandre Dumas and J.K. Rowling. Jay was inspired by Piper asking him to write.
What is something you had to cut from your book that you wish you could have kept?
Piper: Not with The Leopard of Cairo.
Jay: Piper constantly edits out my X-rated content.
On rituals:
Where do you write?
Piper: I believe that every room can be an office if you try hard enough.
Jay: Piper ties up six rooms in her house with her writing activity, but usually no more than three simultaneously.
Do you write every day?
No. Jay has other obligations, and Piper has to keep up with the business side of their publishing. However, they both work obsessively when they are writing.
Is there a specific ritualistic thing you do during your writing time?
Piper has a specific pen she only uses for writing her first drafts. Jay encourages any rituals people want as long as they don’t violate any laws.
In today’s tech savvy world, most writers use a computer or laptop. Have you ever written parts of your book on paper?
Jay takes notes by hand sometimes and uses his computer when he is writing our nonfiction. Mostly, though, he gets Piper to write things down. Piper writes out all their fiction first drafts longhand on unlined paper.
If you’re a mom writer, how do you balance your time?
When Piper’s kids were at home, she sent them to karate or shooting in the evening and did most of her writing while they were out. They somehow always found their way back during a critical scene. It was a tough gig.
Jay has it tougher. He not only has to balance the wife and kids, but also his other work. He often works through the night.
Fun stuff:
Favorite travel spot?
The Southwest offers endless deserted back roads and adventure for us to enjoy while we plot their books. We also love Spain and Portugal.
Favorite dessert?
For Jay, it’s Piper’s chocolate cake. Piper, however, would mainline pecan pie if she could.
If you were stuck on a deserted island, which 3 books would you want with you?
Piper: Watership Down, The Count of Monte Cristo and the Deserted Island Survival Book. Someone please write that last one.
Jay: No books. I’d be too busy engineering an escape to read.
What’s the funniest thing that ever happened to you? The scariest? The strangest?
We woke up on this planet. That’s the answer for all three.
What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done?
We had children.
Any hobbies? or Name a quirky thing you like to do.
Jay enjoys night hiking, which some people find quirky. Piper also enjoys night hiking, but only if she’s with Jay or her son, who can both see, smell, and hear absolutely everything in the night forest.
If there is one thing you want readers to remember about you, what would it be?
If they remember us at all, we’re flattered. If they do remember us, Jay wants them to remember that he is anonymous, and that if he’s called before a Senate Committee, he will speak freely.
What is something you've learned about yourself during the pandemic?
We don’t want to have to homeschool any grandkids.
What TV series are you currently binge watching?
None
What is your theme song?
The Pink Panther theme by Henry Mancini, because sometimes the win goes down more like a Jacque Clouseau movie than a Bond movie.
What is your favorite thing to do in spring?
Piper: Travel to Spain.
Jay: Let’s keep this G rated.
What is your favorite Easter tradition?
Piper: Coloring eggs and watching my kids hunt for them. Then trying to figure out where the last egg is because I forgot where I put it. We usually find it when we’re cleaning up for the Christmas party.
Jay: My wife cooking Easter dinner and me eating it.
What song is currently playing on a loop in your head?
None. Gratefully.
What is something that made you laugh recently?
We would tell you, but we try not to scare people.
What is the oldest item of clothing you own?
Piper: My grandmother’s Halloween costume that she wore on her first date with my grandfather.
Jay: The one that my wife will next make disappear when I’m not looking.
What is the strangest way you've become friends with someone?
Jay helped a man and his daughter at JFK airport once when they were being abused by an airport employee. Turned out he owned a bookstore near Jay’s home, and they became friends.
Who was your childhood celebrity crush?
Piper: Roger Moore. At fifteen I was in London and was thrilled to get a picture of the trash in front of the building where he lived.
Jay: Raquel Welch. I wanted things to happen with me and her. By the time I was ten, I figured out that was a nonstarter, and I started focusing more on local girls.
Piper Bayard is an author and a recovering attorney with a college degree or two. She is also a belly dancer and a former hospice volunteer. She has been working daily with her good friend Jay Holmes for the past decade, learning about foreign affairs, espionage history, and field techniques for the purpose of writing fiction and nonfiction. She currently pens espionage nonfiction and international spy thrillers with Jay Holmes, as well as post-apocalyptic fiction of her own.
Jay Holmes is a forty-five-year veteran of field espionage operations with experience spanning from the Cold War fight against the Soviets, the East Germans, and the various terrorist organizations they sponsored to the present Global War on Terror. He is unwilling to admit to much more than that. Piper is the public face of their partnership.
Together, Bayard & Holmes author non-fiction articles and books on espionage and foreign affairs, as well as fictional international spy thrillers. They are also the bestselling authors of The Spy Bride from the Risky Brides Bestsellers Collection and were featured contributors for Social In Worldwide, Inc.
When they aren’t writing or, in Jay’s case, busy with “other work,” Piper and Jay are enjoying time with their families, hiking, exploring back roads of America, talking foreign affairs, laughing at their own rude jokes until the wee hours, and questing for the perfect chocolate cake recipe.
Website: https://bayardandholmes.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/piper.bayard
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PiperBayard
Amazon:
Leopard: https://amzn.to/3UVvUkr
Caiman: https://amzn.to/3TivPG4
Goodreads:
Leopard: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71953522-the-leopard-of-cairo
Caiman: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/206323749-the-caiman-of-iquitos
Praise:
“Wild adventure, delicious storytelling, tradecraft that only the insiders know. An excellent reminder that great spies tell great stories. The Leopard of Cairo is Bayard and Holmes’ best one yet. Do not miss the Truth and Fiction section at the back.”
~ Annie Jacobson, Writer/Producer of Jack Ryan
“This is a tightly woven thriller, and as an author, I appreciate the capability of Ms. Bayard (and Holmes) to blend seamlessly the personal lives and the dangers in the field for the main characters as well as those within the novel.”
– Claire O’Sullivan, author of the Whiskey River Mysteries
““Bayard and Holmes's The Leopard of Cairo is everything I love in a story: action, intrigue, exotic locations. Here is a lightning-fast tale of intrigue, lies, and the mother-of-all terrorist plots. Big story, big adventure, big thumbs-up!””
—James Rollins, New York Times Bestselling Author of the Sigma Force series
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