Does this sound like the memory of a spy?

Sara Almquist is in a lackluster love affair in I SAW YOU IN BEIRUT. Then an agent who has been undercover for thirty years in #Iran sends an email: "Help. Contact Almquist." As Sara is drawn into the plan to identify and rescue the agent, known only as F, she is forced to re-evaluate characters from her career as a globe-trotting #scientist and rethink what matters in #romance and her life in general. Available at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0960028544

 

This excerpt from Chapter 3 of I SAW YOU IN BEIRUT, an international #thriller, is based on a real incident and a real Iranian student in the U.S. in 1978:

“I don’t remember how I met her.” She (Sara Almquist) noted the Major continued to tap the table. “I only remember… three incidents with Farideh.” She gulped. “I guess I’m ready. I’ll start with the most revealing. I hadn’t worked for Doc Steinhaus long. So, it must have been a Saturday in September or early October of seventy-eight.”

***

The day was hot. I heard a roar of the crowd at a football game in Camp Randall Stadium as I entered the almost empty, red brick Horticulture Building.

Four of Doc’s graduate students were in the workroom when I delivered printouts from the computer lab in a nearby building. Three hardly lifted their heads to acknowledge me. I knew why. Danny was yipping in his high tenor voice about inconsequential departmental gossip as he looked at his near empty desk. The other three politely refrained from telling him to shut up.

I sat down by Mike and waited for instructions. I had a bit of crush on Mike. As was the fashion then, he had a thick unruly beard. He muttered, “Think of a way to shut the fool up. Doc should be here shortly. He wants you to enter data for me at the computer center.”

I got up and sliced a thin sliver of chocolate cake for myself from a tired-looking birthday cake on the table in the center of the room. The grad students had celebrated Mike’s birthday the day before. Most of the cake was gone, but wax candles were strewn on the table. “Danny, do you want a piece of cake. It’s still moist.”

Danny drew a freckled hand through his carrot red hair and blinked his brown eyes at me in apparent surprise. “The baby talks.”

I ignored the insult and placed a big slice of cake on a napkin and was handing it to him when Farideh slammed into the office. As usual she wore hip-hugging, frayed blue jeans, the bell-bottom type. An off-white knit ribbed top, which showed her slim waist, clung to her torso. Despite her dark hair and black eyes, I doubt most would guess she was from Iran. She was about five-seven and moved with long, smooth strides.

Danny talked as he stuffed cake in his mouth. “Did you do your daily protest march against the Shah around the Bascom Hall?” Chocolate cake dribbled from his mouth. “From what I hear, he’s been good for Iran. That’s why you and your husband are in grad school here.”

Mike kept his head down. “Danny, leave her alone.”

Farideh plunked in her chair. “We were followed today by men in suits. I think from SAVAK, the Shah’s secret police.”

“You’re hallucinating,” said Danny.

“Don’t display your ignorance.” Farideh strode to the table and sliced the cake.

The three other grad students kept their heads down, as though they expected a blow-up.

“Hey, doll cut me another piece,” said Danny as he swallowed the last of the cake I’d given him.

Surprisingly, Farideh did. As she cut the cake, Danny rose to stand behind her. He rubbed his hands from her waist to her hips. “What a waste to cover this with a burqa, or I guess you’d say a chador in Iran.”

She dropped the slice of cake and rammed her elbow into his gut. Hesitated a second, before she picked up the knife. “Don’t touch me.”

Mike ran from the office. The mouths of the two other grad students hung agape.

Farideh turned the knife in her hand.

Danny, who about three inches taller than Farideh and quite muscular, laughed, “Doll, you know I can take the knife from you.”

Everyone gasped as the door opened and Doc rolled in, followed by Mike. Doc was obese, and he panted when he walked at a normal speed. Today he gasped from having hurried in the heat. “Farideh… come… to… my… office.” 

Danny squealed, “You’re in trouble now.”

She gripped the knife and lunged at Danny.

“Farideh!” Doc howled.

She stabbed the knife so hard into the cake that she broke its blade on the table. Then she stalked out of the office.

As he closed the door, Doc said, “Danny, try to keep your mouth shut until I return. And Sara, here’s what you need to do.” He handed me a stack of papers.

DON'T YOU WANT JTO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS TO FARIDEH AND SARA ALMQUIST?

A Pound of Flesh, Sorta

 Are you tired of TV reruns, why not  read a new novel - a medical mystery entwined in a western #thriller.

A Pound of Flesh, Sorta starts when a a ticking package with the guts of animals is delivered to Sara Almquist. The police doubts it's a prank because Sara is a key witness in an upcoming trial of gang leaders. Scientist Sara Almquist thinks it might be plea for help after she learns the guts are contaminated with the bacteria that causes the #plague. Read the book and see who's right.

PS Prairie dog die-offs regularly occur in the American #Southwest and are caused by the plague. A few people in the Southwest die of the plague most years.

Available at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0960028560

Here’s the start of the A Pound of Flesh, Sorta.

CHAPTER 1: Sara Almquist on Wednesday

Sara Almquist looked at the white parcel in front of her door. A brown UPS delivery van careened around the corner away from her home. This was typical when the doorbell rang at this time of day. She never reached the door before the delivery guy was climbing into his truck. Today she was either a little slower than usual or he was a little faster. 

The box was clearly marked with her name and address. She didn’t remember ordering anything recently, but she sometimes forgot orders. Maybe Eric Sanders had sent her a surprise package. Red “PERISHABLE” stamps were on the top and sides of the package. She guessed it must be food. Bug, her black and white Japanese Chin, was smelling the carton intently and waving his plumed tail. He seldom gave boxes left at the door a second sniff. It must be special.

She carried the package, about the size of six shoe boxes, to the counter in her kitchen. It was odd that the label listed the shipper as “New Mexico Industries,” but didn’t show a return address. She didn’t know a company with that name. She pulled a utility knife from her tool drawer and slit the silver duct tape connecting the two flaps of the box. A Styrofoam carton was tightly wedged inside. Sanders had sent her something fragile or that needed to be kept cold—maybe it was tropical flowers or gourmet cheeses?

She cut the tape around the lid, lifted the lid, took out two blue gel freeze packs, and screamed. The shock passed quickly, and her innate curiosity and scientific training took over.

A firm-looking ivory mass with streaks of pink and ridges lay in the box. It was probably the tissue of a large animal. It was not squishy like brains or squiggly tubes like intestines. It looked sorta like the tripe sold in rural meat markets, but this blob had big linear ridges, not a honeycomb of ridges. It was most likely the stomach of an animal. Several red, almost black, spots dotted the creases between the ridges. 

She wasn’t going to touch it. It might be laced with a poison. This wasn’t a gift from a friend. Someone was angry with her.

Four months ago, Sara had helped local police and the FBI identify the butcher at a carnicería in nearby Mercado as the killer of homeless veterans who interfered with his drug business in Albuquerque. It had been a complicated case and her friend Eric Sanders, then assigned by the State Department to the embassy in Cuba, had tracked an assassin hired by the drug syndicate from Havana to Miami to Albuquerque. Now the butcher, his wife, drug kingpins from Miami, and a number of former members of the Albuquerque Police Department awaited trial for murder and drug trafficking. They would be tried in federal court under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as the “RICO” Act. Sara would be a key witness for the prosecution.

The mass didn’t look like it would explode or emit dangerous gasses, but it was covered with plastic film. As a scientist, she’d seen many disgusting samples over the years. As Sara put the ice packs and the lid back on the carton, she thought she heard a ticking noise. Her imagination was probably working overtime, but she saw no reason to tempt fate. She carried the carton out of her house and placed it in her driveway. If it exploded, the house wouldn’t suffer too much damage. She didn’t think the package was big enough to contain a lot of explosives, but it wouldn’t take much with the right ones.

Rather than call 9-1-1, Sara punched the button for Mercado Police Chief Gil Andrews. She had his cell phone number on speed dial because they had worked together on several cases during the last couple of years. “Gil? I have an emergency. Just received a package of… tripe or something like it. Anyway, it’s ticking.”

“What do you mean ‘tripe?’ Ticking?”

“The carton is in my driveway so it won’t blow up my house.”

BOOK SIGNINGS ARE NOT ABOUT AUTHORS

Book signing are about the readers. Author are successful at book signings if: they excite readers about their book and they make readers think they purchased something important (interesting or exciting).

Think about these ideas:

·     Don’t wait for people come to you. Greet people near the door and ask “what they like to read.”  

·     Keep your spiel short. The classic 1 or 2 sentence “elevator” talk is good. Try to encourage questions.

·     Study the customers in the store. If possible, visit the store prior to the book signing and analyze the crowd. Develop one-sentence spiels to fit different types. For example, if everyone entering the bookstore is over fifty and you write children’s books, perhaps you should focus on how books make great gifts for grandchildren. 

·     Be enthusiastic. Don’t read or do other activities as you wait for customers.

·     Don’t panic or get angry if the crowd is sparse or if a customer insults your book. Forget your ego and try to SELL BOOKS.

·     Advertise your signing. Any means is fair game—newspapers, posters, newsletters, word-of-mouth. Work with the bookstore owner for best results.

·     Give customers something extra—a talk or reading at a specified time, bookmarks, cookies, gift wrapping, or a discount. 

You’re probably wondering if my book signing are big successes? No, but they’re more successful when I follow this advice, than when I don’t. 

Now what are your suggestions for book signings?

BIO: J.L. Greger is the author of seven mystery/thrillers. In her latest, I SAW YOU IN BEIRUT, Sara Almquist is in a lackluster love affair. Then an agent who has been undercover for thirty years in Iran sends an email: "Help. Contact Almquist." As Sara is drawn into the plan to identify and rescue the agent, known only as F, she is forced to re-evaluate characters from her career as a globe-trotting scientist and rethink what matters in romance and her life in general. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0960028544

Travel to modern Cuba with the thriller, MALIGNANCY

When you think of #Cuba, do you think of vintage cars, cigars, beaches, the rich blending of Spanish and West African traditions in Cuban music, Castro, and the U.S. embargo of Cuba? That what I thought before I visited Cuba. 

During a visit to Cuba, I quickly became tired of reverential references to Che Guevara, didn’t think much of La Floridita (the bar made famous by Hemingway), and found their vintage cars amusing at best. However, I was impressed by the innovative nature of the Cuban people as they skirted the U. S. embargo of Cuba and Cuban laws. For example, did you know Cuban government patented one of the first cancer immunotherapy drugs (Racotumomab)? Granted the Cuban researchers spent much of their time at Harvard and the patent was filed with scientists in Argentina, but that’s another story.

I tried to present readers with an honest view of modern Cuba in the fast paced #thriller, Malignancy. The story begins in New Mexico. Men disguised as police officers shoot at Sara Almquist twice in one day. The Albuquerque Police suspect a drug czar with a vendetta against Sara. Thus, when colleagues in the State Department invite Sara, an experienced scientist, to arrange scientific exchanges between the U.S. and Cuba, she jumps at the chance to escape. Both fortunately and unfortunately, Sara learns more about scientists in Cuba and her so-called American colleagues than she expected. 

Available at: https://www.amazon.com/Malignancy-Science-Traveler-J-Greger/dp/0960028528/https://www.amazon.com/Malignancy-Science-Traveler-J-Greger/dp/0960028528/

TRAVEL TO BOLIVIA BY ARMCHAIR

Tired of winter? Is it time to plan a vacation? Bolivia is fascinating #travel destination with a vibrant #indigenous culture and a turbulent past. Its presidential palace is called the “burned palace” for reason. 

I loved visiting the #Witches’ Market and climbing to the roof of Iglesia de San Franciso in #La Paz (the capital) but the city’s altitude is almost 12,000 feet. I also found it interesting that bags for #coca tea were on the tables of many restaurants along with bags of black and green tea. 

Thus, many Americans may decide an actual trip to Bolivia is too strenuous and dangerous. They may decide they’d rather visit Bolivia with no risks by reading IGNORE THE PAIN.  

In this thriller, a woman scientist couldn't say no when invited to join a public health mission to assess children's health in #Bolivia. Soon someone from her past is chasing her through the Witches' Market of La Paz and on to the silver mines of Potosí. Worst still, she fears her new colleagues, especially the sexy one, are controlled by the coca industry of Bolivia.

Why don’t you visit Bolivia with my woman scientist? You’ll see great sites and learn about the indigenous culture in a way that most casual tourists miss. New #book at: https://www.amazon.com//dp/096002850.

SALE: RIDDLED WITH CLUES for $0.99

The Kindle version of RIDDLED WITH CLUES is on sale for $0.99 from February 13 to February 20. Here's more about this mystery/thriller set in Albuquerque.

February is the month with Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays. A time to remember American history, even the wars and conflicts.

Do you have friends or relatives who served in Vietnam? Maybe you served. Generally, I find many veterans are reticent to talk about their experiences. Thus, I was surprised and pleased when one friend after reading one of my novel asked if I’d like to see his notes from being a medic in the secret war in Laos in the 1960s. 

The notes were fascinating but I write modern thrillers. I turned his notes into clues for a mystery/thriller, RIDDLED WITH CLUES, set at the VA Center in Albuquerque. My friend liked the results. Other veterans said I reflected their impressions of the Vietnam War. Maybe you will too. 

For those too young to remember that conflict, maybe you’ll learn a bit of history. In any case, I think you’ll find the clues are a good way to open a fast-moving modrn thriller.

Here’s a short blurb: A woman is attacked repeatedly after she listens to the strange tale of an undercover drug agent and gets puzzling riddled clues from a homeless veteran in Albuquerque. 

Buy at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1938436237

Learn more about the book at: http://www.jlgreger.com.

How I Chose the Title for RIDDLED WITH CLUES

The title should tell you something about the book. The Book Seller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad is an informative title, which tells the reader about the setting and a major character. Most titles are more symbolic, but hint at the topic. Examples are Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, which is a memoir about his mother, and my thriller I Saw You in Beirut, which is set in the Middle East.

I struggled to name my latest thriller/mystery, Riddled with Clues. Here’s the blurb:

A hospitalized friend gives a puzzling note to Sara Almquist. He received the note signed “Red from Udon Thani” while investigating the movement of drugs into the U.S. However, he doesn’t know anyone called Red. The last time he was in Udon Thani was during the Vietnam War. After Sara listens to his rambling tales of all the possibilities, both are attacked. He is left comatose. As she struggles to survive, she questions who to trust: the local cops, her absent best friend, the FBI, or a homeless veteran, who leaves puzzling riddles as clues. 

Early in the writing process, I realized that a number of the clues in the book could be riddles. I also realized I could add tension to the book with the riddles. My heroine, Sara Almquist, and the law enforcement agents in the novel would know the riddles were important clues but they couldn’t make sense of them. 

I thought a play on words might be fun. Riddled can mean filled. Certainly, “Riddled with Clues” sounded more interesting than “Filled with Clues.” Do you agree?

Riddled with Clues is available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1938436237

It is also available at Treasure House in Old Town Albuquerque. I'll do a book signing there on Sunday, May, 28 from noon to three. I thought it was appropriate to do a book signing during Memorial Day weekend because many of the scenes (especially chase scenes) are set at the VA Center in Albuquerque and several veterans are characters in the book.

For more info on Riddled with Clues, check out my website: http://www.jlgreger.com.

Mystery Writers Are Like Scientists

 Writing a mystery novel is similar to conducting a science experiment in several ways.

·      Writers and scientists both do research.

·      They both organize their observations into a whole, which writers call plots and scientists call hypotheses.

·      They both test and refine their “whole.” Writers edit their prose; scientists run additional experiments.

·      Both require a lot of hard work to gain occasional flashes of insights. To paraphrase Thomas Edison, they’re “one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

Why did I drag you through this discussion? I’m trying to explain why so many scientists and physicians became writers of mysteries and thrillers. Consider Michael Crichton (a physician by training), Kathy Reichs (a forensic anthropologist), Robin Cook (a physician). I’m also explaining how as a retired biology professor I came to write mystery/suspense novels with tidbits of science.

Through this discussion, I hope you learn how bits of science add realism to a mystery.

Let’s start with my thriller, I Saw You in Beirut. In this thriller, a woman’s past provides clues for the extraction of a nuclear scientist from Iran (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1610092201).

Did you know? In the early 1960s, scientists identified zinc deficiency in peasants in Iran. At that time, two to three percent of the villagers in some regions of Iran didn't pass the physical for the army because of stunted growth. Dr. James Halstead, Sr. who was married to President’s Roosevelt’s daughter, Anna, headed the research team at Shiraz. Surprised?

I created Doc Steinhaus, a fictional character in I Saw You in Beirut, who worked on the project in Shiraz as a grad student. He was a logical way to “show not tell” readers about science in Iran and advance the plot. Let’s face it most foreign agents don’t look or act like James Bond, but they can be a lot more nuanced.

 

Now how about Malignancy? In this suspense novel, a woman scientist tries to escape the clutches of a drug lord and accepts a risky assignment in Cuba (http://amzn.com/1610091779.

When I visited Cuba in 2013, I learned Cuban researchers had patented a therapeutic cancer vaccine to treat non-small cell lung cancer. This drug revs up a patient’s own immune system to produce cells, which recognize substances found on the surface of tumor cells but not on the surface of normal cells, and kills the cancer cells. For those surprised about the sophistication of this work, please note the researchers had spent a lot time at Harvard despite the embargo.

I also read the editorial in Science (6/6/2014) on scientific exchanges between the U.S. and Cuba. I thought Sara Almquist, as an epidemiologist and heroine of my previous medical thrillers Coming Flu (http://amzn.com/1610090985 and Ignore the Pain (http://amzn.com/1610091310), would be the perfect protagonist to do a little “scientific diplomacy” in Cuba.

Of course, Sara gets involved in a lot more than science in both novels; they wouldn’t be thrillers without danger. Why don’t you read them and learn a little thrilling science?

MEMORIES IN FICTION

Novels and short stories by definition are fiction, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t contain bits of reality. Sometimes an author can introduce reality into her fiction by using her memories—personal, and probably slightly biased, facts. I guess a purist would say memories and facts are often distinctly different. I don’t want to argue the point today.

Turning my memories into a thriller, I Saw You in Beirut.

I combined several of my memories with facts and lots of fiction. The University of Wisconsin-Madison was awash with Iranian students protesting the Shah in the late 1970s. I was a professor there and the graduate advisor of one of these students. Conversations with her and her friends served the basis of creating the fiery character Farideh in I Saw You in Beirut.

For example, in an early scene in I Saw You in Beirut, Farideh takes a knife, which she was using to slice a cake, and threatens an annoying fellow grad student. Unfortunately, the incident really happened in my lab, but I changed the names to protect the guilty. I thought this incident was a #way to show not tell about Farideh’s temperment. 

Collecting memories for a short story collection?

Before I wrote The Good Old Days? A Collection of Stories, I talked to dozens of people about their memories, especially of their childhoods and adolescences. Thus each of my stories has a different perspective, but they all address historical or social problems in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960, a time that many refer to as the good old days. I think these vignettes demonstrate past events are often funny, but many would rather remember than relive the events.

Here are two examples of the memories that triggered stories: Do you remember your first bra? (Sorry guys, you missed that experience.) Did it look a bit like Madonna’s costume with two cones of foam strung together with straps? Enjoy the humorous memories in I Look Like Papa.

Many towns in the Midwest and New England are awash with grand Victorian ladies (large houses with endless brightly-painted decorations). As an old man remembers his glory days as a high school athlete in Dirty Dave, he also reveals secrets about domestic violence in these so-called grand homes.

We all have memories usable in fiction. Perhaps, you can remember with horror a car accident or the death of a love one. You could use your painful memories of you raw emotions to make a scene in a novel memorable to others.

Why don’t you search you memory for ideas for your next novel or short story?

I Saw You in Beirut Blurb: Sara Almquist’s past, as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and as a globetrotting epidemiologist, provides clues for the extraction of a nuclear scientist from Iran.

The Good Old Days? A Collection of Stories Blurb: Are many nostalgic accounts of the good old days examples of selective forgetfulness? Before you argue the point, read these fourteen short stories.

Real Science Is Essential in Mysteries & Thrillers

Laboratory results, psychology, and computer analyses are essential for plot development in any modern mystery or crime fiction. Think of the TV shows—CSI, NCIS, and Criminal Minds. Many thrillers depend on technologically to provide innovative ways to trap or destroy villains. Big Bang Theory has shown science nerds can be funny. However, many authors (especially those who are not scientists or physicians) are uncomfortable about using scientific tidbits in their writing.

Essential considerations when adding science to fictional tales.

1) Use scientific details to create realistic scenes, but not so many as to slow the plot. As a biologist, who regularly reads scientific journals, I’m intrigued by cancer immunotherapy. (Scientists are making vaccines that trigger the immune systems of cancer patients to more effectively fight their disease.) That’s the scientist in me talking. The novelist part of me says the plot and character development rule.

In Malignancy, men disguised as police officers shoot at Sara Almquist twice in one day. Albuquerque police suspect Jim Mazzone, a drug czar who has tangled with Sara before, will order more hits on Sara. When colleagues in the State Department invite Sara to arrange scientific exchanges between the U.S. and Cuba, she jumps at the chance to get out of town. Soon, she realizes Cuba offers more surprises than Albuquerque.

That’s the plot. One of Sara’s surprises is Cuban researchers have patented a therapeutic vaccine for a certain type of lung cancer (actual fact). Another surprise involves her love interest, the shady Xave Zack. I can’t tell you about the others because that would spoil your surprises as a reader.

2)  Pick relevant science topics. Readers are more apt to be interested in facts that are relevant to real issues—global warming, fracking for natural gas, or curing cancer than in learning details about biochemical pathways.

I thought weights control was one of universal interest to Americans, but most want to hear something besides the obvious: eat less and exercise more. Scientist know fat animals (including humans) lose weight when their gut bacteria are altered, but scientists don’t know which of the 15,000 to 36,000 species of bacteria in the gut are important. Talk about a lot of red herrings. I thought descriptions of this research (based on current ongoing studies) would be intriguing, maybe slightly funny, to readers.

In Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight, a diet doctor is found dead after she charges her partner with recklessly endangering the lives of obese subjects in their clinical trials. Linda Almquist, the associate dean in the medical school, must protect the subjects in the clinical trial, while she searches for a sophisticated killer who knows a lot about poisons.

3) Be accurate. In Malignancy, I state the truth about the cancer vaccine Racotumomab developed by the Cubans. It triggers patients’ bodies to mount an immune response against of certain types of lung tumor cells because they have an unusual compound on their surface. It doesn’t prevent or cure cancer, but in it should slow the progression of the disease. It may be one of the first successes in cancer immunotherapy, but it’s too soon to tell. Many clinical trials, which require international cooperation of scientists and physicians, are need. Thus this is a practical example of why the State Department sent my heroine, a scientist, to Cuba to begin to set up exchanges Cuban and American scientists.

Why not pick up copies of Malignancy and Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight and see if you like how I incorporated science into my thrillers/mysteries?

I'll try to visit more often in 2015, but I've been busy preparing a collection of short stories.

# Main rule to include science in fiction. Use scientific details to create realistic scenes, but not so many as to slow the plot. http://jlgregerblog.blogspot.com

A Different View of Cuba

President Obama’s “new approach” on Cuba has intensified the debate on U.S.—Cuban relations. Would you like to learn a bit modern Cuba, besides all the politics?

Read the new thriller Malignancy. The plot in this fast-moving thriller is fiction but the background is based on documented scientific developments in Cuba and my observations during a visit to Cuba in November 2013.

Cuba is changing.

Among the propaganda spouted by Cuban tour guide in 2013 was the statement: Cuban scientists had patented a drug for cancer. When I got home, I found researchers in Havana had patented a therapeutic cancer vaccine to treat a rather rare type of lung cancer (non-small cell). In essence, the drug is supposed to rev up patients’ own immune systems to produce cells to slay the cancer cells without injuring the normal cells.

This patent demonstrates two facets of modern Cuba. Cuban scientists are doing competitive science. The Cuban government recognizes the importance of commercialization of their research. My guide’s comments suggest although Cubans are proud of their past, many think science and economic changes are important for their future.

The U.S. response to Cuba is surprising.

First off, I was amazed by the tons of consumer goods being flown by American Airlines from Miami into Cuba daily despite the embargo. I bet you’d be amazed, too, if you saw the baggage check in for flights to Havana.

I was also surprised to learn hundreds of Cuban scientists and artists had participated in non-U.S. government-sponsored exchanges already. In June 2014, the president of AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) even requested U.S. government to sponsor scientific exchanges with Cuba. (Check out the editorial “Science diplomacy with Cuba” in the journal Science on June 6, 2014.)

My trip to Cuba turns into the thriller Malignancy.

Scientific exchanges were one of the early steps in the normalization of U.S. relationships with China in the 1970s. Similarly, the U.S. is apt to initiate more scientific exchanges with Cuba in the near future. I thought Sara Almquist, the epidemiologist and heroine of my previous medical thrillers Coming Flu and Ignore the Pain, would be the perfect protagonist to do a little “scientific diplomacy” in Cuba.

I wanted readers of Malignancy see more of Cuba than its scientific aspirations. So I have Sara to slip into La Floridita Bar, made famous by Hemingway, in Old Havana to meet a mysterious Cuban. Is he just a potential colleague, a spymaster, or both?

I suspect most Americans, including myself, know less about Cuban history than they realize. Accordingly, Sara discovers interesting quirks of Cuban history, as well as clues about those who are trying to kill her in Albuquerque, while she explores historic Colon Cemetery and Plaza de la Revolución in Havana.

So visit Cuba with Sara in Malignancy. Then you can decide if the personality of Havana matches your expectations.

Blurb for Malignancy: Men disguised as police officers shoot at Sara Almquist twice in one day. Albuquerque police suspect Jim Mazzone, a drug czar who has tangled with Sara before, will order more hits on Sara. Thus when colleagues in the State Department invite Sara to arrange scientific exchanges between the U.S. and Cuba, she jumps at the chance to get out of town and to see the mysterious Xave Zack, who rescued her in Bolivia. Maybe, she should question their motives.

The book is available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions.