JEFF ABBOTT The inspiration for his latest thriller: PANIC What if everything in your life was a lie? What if, what if, what if? These are the unrelenting bees that hover close to writer ears, demanding attention, until we're stung and we must write an answer. Readers often ask what comes first: the plot or the characters? In the case of writing PANIC, what came first was this big dramatic question that stayed a low drone in my head until the characters who could answer that question came to silence the buzzing. What if everything in your life was a lie? In my new novel PANIC, documentary film maker Evan Casher returns home to Austin, Texas after a frantic call from his mother, only to find her brutally murdered. He narrowly escapes an attempt on his own life and uncovers a shocking fact: his entire life has been a carefully constructed lie. Pursued by a powerful, ruthless organization of killers determined to keep their secrets buried, Evan's only hope for survival is to uncover the truth about his family. . .and the truth about who he really is. So, I thought as I started imagining a character—let's call him Evan—caught in this terrible situation, everything in your life is a lie. You find this out in one horrifying moment of violence. You would question what your so-called safe and happy life had been, who you truly were. In PANIC, Evan's not only trying to survive being hunted by a ruthless father-son pair of killers, but he's also trying to find out the truth about his parents and, most importantly, the truth about himself. And while this is a novel full of suspense and action (I hope), this is an emotional question. As I started to write, it quickly became clear that the emotional stakes in the book—Evan's need to take back his life and learn the truth about the people he loves—must be as compelling as the chase scenes, the gunfights and the double-crosses. And it's important that one core value of Evan's life not be false—his parents' deep and abiding love for him. In fact, that love is the reason behind the lie. . .because sometimes good people do bad things to protect a loved one. We may not approve, but it is a universal human impulse to understand the need to protect at any cost. So, Evan, your life's a lie—what next? Then you must discover the truth about your life, learn the moment that the lie began—so you can understand the why of the lie. Notice that the what if here is not posed as what if this happens (a bad guy tries to kill Evan), then this happens (Evan goes on the run), then this happens (Evan finds a clue to his past). . .which many people might think is the way a story is built, brick by brick. I didn't think that way about Evan's journey to uncover the truth—I wanted every twist and unexpected turn in the action to come from the interactions between the characters. I wanted the plot—yes, an action-filled, explosive plot—to be driven by men and women facing the most difficult choices of their lives. The idea of PANIC demanded characters who are at extraordinary levels of desperation, to save themselves or to reach their goals. At this moment in their lives, it's all or nothing—just as much for the villains as for the hero. For Evan Casher, and his family, and for the powerful people trying to destroy him, the stakes could not be higher. So the characters—both the good guys (who know they're the heroes) and the bad guys (who think they're the heroes)—drove the story at what I hope is a breakneck pace. I love writing about characters who live and die on that razor's edge. Because those are the best people to answer the incessant, insistent murmur of that wonderful what if and make the story come alive, for both the writer and the reader. PANIC Dutton, August 2005 Hardback 368 pages ISBN: 0-5259-4904-6 Read more about PANIC on Jeff's website!

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