Traveling the World for THE SCAM

The Scam, the fourth book in the globetrotting adventures of conman Nick Fox and FBI agent Kate O’Hare, is out this week and the reviews have been terrific. The action takes place in Honolulu, Las Vegas, Hong Kong and Macau… and I traveled to all those locales to get the details right for the book. Here are some photos…

Here I am in Macau...with the Grand Lisboa casino tower in the background
Here I am in Macau…with the Grand Lisboa casino tower in the background
Hong Kong from Victoria Peak
Hong Kong from Victoria Peak

In fact, I’m writing this blog post from a tiny village in France, where I am in the midst of a European trip researching The Pursuit, the fifth book in the series. The new adventure will take place in Honolulu, Antwerp, Paris, Italy and other exotic places…

Nick Fox is goin
Nick Fox is going to rob the Antwerp Diamond District building behind me… even though there is a police checkpoint out front
Arriving at Antwerp Train Station on a research trip for THE PURSUIT
Arriving at Antwerp Train Station on a research trip for THE PURSUIT

Nothing beats “boots on the ground” to get a real feel for a place, and to make it come alive when you’re writing a book…though I think I made the security people suspicious while I was casing the diamond district building in Antwerp. I don’t blame them. I was planning to rob their vault… only in fiction, not reality.

And although I am familiar with Paris (my wife is French), going back to Place Vendome, The Catacombs, and the area around the Pasteur institute really helped me with the details for scenes that Janet and I will be writing soon. I’ll be visiting the sewers soon to visit with a good friend who is the star of a hit French cop show that is shooting a murder scene there for an upcoming episode.

Then it’s off to Italy to do some more research. I travel the world so you don’t have to 🙂