Interview with Thriller Author Jamie Freveletti – S. 4, Ep. 22

Debbi Mack interviews thriller author Jamie Freveletti on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below. Or, if you're in a rush, click here to download a copy. Debbi: [00:00:12] Hi everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. Before I introduce my guest, I just want to mention that there are some great new perks and features for readers who support the Crime Cafe Patreon campaign. You can access the Patreon campaign from my website DebbiMack.com. Debbi: [00:00:41] Today, it's my great pleasure to have on the show an award winning and internationally bestselling author of thriller novels. Specifically, the Emma Caldridge Series, which is totally awesome. I've read one of them, and they're absolutely fantastic. She has also written novels in the Robert Ludlum Covert One Series and, as the author of both crime fiction and true crime, I'm thrilled to have on today Jamie Freveletti. Hey, Jamie. It is so good to see you. Jamie: [00:01:18] Good to see you again. Even if it's virtual. Debbi: [00:01:22] Even if it's virtual. Yeah. Virtual beats no contact or falling apart. Well, I've read the first book in your series, and Emma Caldridge is just the most awesome protagonist. So smart, so resourceful, so kickass. Tell us about her, how you developed that character, and how she has developed over the course of your series. Jamie: [00:01:53] So, she's a chemist right. She's kind of like a female MacGyver. She came about, because I had written a novel, a manuscript I should say, and nobody had picked it up. And it's called BLACK MONEY. So I wanted to write something else. I love thrillers. I was at a 24-hour race with my husband. He's an ultramarathon runner, and he runs 24 hours at a time. So I went to this race. I was a handler. I used to go to make sure he didn't die. So, it was in Colorado. We had a freak snowstorm in the middle of the night. It was 70 degrees when they started. It was minus whatever and snowing on them. So one man passed out on the trail and got hypothermia. So I was in charge of dragging him to the hospital when I did that, and I started thinking you know he didn't know where he was, he didn't know his name. And that gave me the idea for a lot of things, because I thought, "This is kind of frightening." You know you "what if" and that always starts every novel, right? What if this happened to me? What if I got hypothermia or I was somewhere where I didn't know where I was. He was from England. You know, he was in a strange location running this 100-mile race. He was obviously in fantastic shape. But something happened. So that's why I put her, in RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL, I have her down in the Colombian jungle. I was thinking what would it be like if your plane is down. You don't know the east from west. You don't know where you are. You know the jungle in Colombia is landmined at the time. Since then, there's been a peace agreement. Treaty. But that's how it started. Debbi: [00:03:41] That's really amazing. It's just ... the story is just riveting. I mean that first one that I read, the first in your series? Just a page-turner. Totally. Jamie: [00:03:52] Thank you. Yeah. RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL started my career and got the awards and got everything rolling. That was really ... That's really the book that I still look back on with great fondness. Debbi: [00:04:05] That's awesome. That's wonderful. You have degrees in law and a postgraduate degree in International Studies. I take it that you've drawn upon your legal practice experience in your writing to a certain extent? Jamie: [00:04:21] I do all the time. When I was a lawyer, I did a lot of food, drug, and medical device, both regulatory and litigation. White-collar defense. And since Emma's a chemist, she's kind of fashioned on a bunch of the expert witnesses from the pharmaceutical companies that I used to work with. I love the experts.