I had a chance to interview Alex Shaw, the author of the Jack Tate, Aiden Snow, & Sophie Racine series of action thrillers who’s also the finalist for this year’s Wilbur Smith Adventure award. Mr. Shaw had a lot of interesting things to reveal in this interview about his influences, his writing, and his characters.
Kronos Ananth – What made you want to be a writer, and what would you be otherwise?
Alex Shaw – I always enjoyed writing and originally wanted to be an actor and a playwright. I studied this at university. But it wasn’t until I went to work in Ukraine after finishing my second degree that I decided I wanted to write. I was reading action thrillers, but no one was writing about Ukraine, so I thought I would. And I still am.
Kronos Ananth – Which books in the action thriller genre stuck with you, and what are you currently reading?
Alex Shaw – Very early on I was inspired by Clive Cussler, the way he wrote about places I hadn’t been to. Later, it was the former SAS and SBS authors who were in the first Gulf War, such as Chris Ryan, Andy McNab, and Duncan Falconer. Chris Ryan’s ‘The One That Got Away’ was the most inspiring. Now I read a wide range of contemporary action/military thrillers. I’m a big fan of Mark Greaney especially.
Kronos Ananth – What does your normal day of writing look like, and how do you balance the mix of research, realism, and escapist fun in your writing?
Alex Shaw – I take my two sons to school, then write until I need to pick them up again. Sometimes I don’t write for all this time, but the nearer a deadline I am, the more I write. I try to make both my characters and their situations as real as possible and believable, but of course, they are subjected to much more danger and ‘action’ than any normal person would be. I try to get a message across, but ultimately, I am here to entertain.
Kronos Ananth – What made you come up with Tate, Snow, and Racine? There’s got to be a story behind the conception of each of those heroes. . .
Alex Shaw – Aidan Snow was blatantly based on myself, if I’d been in the SAS (which I wasn’t). As he was my first creation, I wanted to make it as easy as possible for myself, so I wrote about (mostly) what I knew, which at the time was being an ex-pat teacher in Kyiv. In creating Tate, I wanted a slightly more reckless and less socially polished character, and someone who shared many of the same skills as Snow, but came from a very different background. In some ways, they are the same, but in others, they are very different. I wanted Jack Tate to have a short name, almost like being punched – right, left – which is how I heard Vince Flynn describing Mitch Rapp as a choice of name for his hero. The most difficult and most rewarding character for me to create was Sophie Racine. I wanted to show that she was a woman yet powerful, powerful yet vulnerable. I chose the surname Racine as a direct nod to the French Playwright Jean Racine, whose writing is renowned for its ‘elegance, purity, speed, and fury’. I thought that was an excellent way to describe a female assassin, and I wanted a name that wasn’t overused.
Kronos Ananth – What’s your favourite music to play in the background while writing and what’s your favourite spot to crank out the words?
Alex Shaw – I don’t listen to music much at all and prefer silence when I’m writing. I like to write ‘on location’ when I can but of course, the pandemic has haltered a lot of international travel. So, I generally either write at home in my study, or in the garden or out and about on my Freewrite – now that’s a great machine.
Kronos Ananth – If you could be any one of your characters for forty-eight hours, who would you be and why?
Alex Shaw – I think I’d be Aidan Snow, just so I could be as fit as he is.
Kronos Ananth – Which fictional character (yours or anyone else’s) would you go out with for a fun night out?
Alex Shaw – I think Jack Reacher would be interesting to hang out with.
Kronos Ananth – If you were a badass action hero for a day, which vehicle would you want to be in while chasing the villain?
Alex Shaw – Either a Lamborghini Urus or Bond’s submersible Lotus.
Kronos Ananth – What’s next for Jack Tate, Aiden Snow, and Sophie Racine, and what project are you currently working on?
Alex Shaw – The new Jack Tate thriller will be published in April 2022. It sees him tackling the North Koreans. The next Sophie Racine thriller will be out in late 2022 and I have plans for Aidan Snow, which I can’t share just yet. Whilst I’m waiting for my edits from my editor for Jack Tate 3, I’m getting itchy fingers and thinking I may start to write/plan some other ideas on the back burner.
Kronos Ananth – If your three action heroes faced off against each other, then who’d win, and why?
Alex Shaw – They are all lethal and single minded. Racine has the speed and anger; Snow has the size advantage (like me he’s 6’5”) and Tate has the power. So, I’m not taking a side!
Kronos Ananth – Which TV shows and movies (that you enjoy) would you recommend for fans of your books and whom do you visualize as Tate, Snow, and Racine in their cinematic versions?
Alex Shaw – My all-time favourites are Banshee, 24, Spooks, Star Trek and some of the big UK tv series from the 80s and 90s – Tinker Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Game, Set & Match, GBH, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Rumpole of the Bailey, Inspector Morse and Blake’s 7. Who would I love to play Tate, Snow and Racine? I have my ideas, but I wouldn’t want to put my own faces in my readers minds!
I thank Alex Shaw for the interview and hope his thriller universe continues for a long time, with many more books to come.