Sara Paretsky, legendary creator of V.I. Warshawski, joins me on the Spybrary Spy Podcast to talk about Bad Company — her new spy thriller featuring retired CIA officer Lily, a woman who discovers that you never really leave the Company.
We talk about Sara's leap from detective fiction into espionage, creating the fictional Central Asian country of Hayalistan, women inside the CIA, and why an older female intelligence officer offers such a different take on the traditional spy hero. Sara also reveals why she needed eight drafts to find Bad Company, the dog-sled exfiltration scene that survived every rewrite, and how questions of power, anger and voicelessness drive her fiction.
And, naturally, we talk spy books: John le Carré, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Mrs Pollifax, Manning Coles and the wonderful Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson espionage caper Hopscotch.
A fascinating conversation with one of crime fiction's most influential writers about what happens when she enters the world of spies.
Join the Spybrary Community
Support Spybrary - a monthly dination helps us keep the lights on at the safehouse.
Full Shownotes with links to buy Sara Paretsky's Bad Company herehttps://www.spybrary.com/311