James Byrne
Chain Reaction
Dez Limerick, a man of many skills and a murky past, faces the impossible-a skilled, deadly opponent who anticipates his every move in James Byrne’s Chain Reaction.
The Writer’s Dossier 1/28/2025 – The James Byrne interview
DOSSIER: THE GATEKEEPER, DEADLOCK, and CHAIN REACTION have received high praise from some epic authors like Nelson DeMille, Robert Crais, and Mark Greaney. What is it about your novels that get these top writers to comment on them the way they do?
BYRNE: Honestly, it still sends me reeling to think about it.
DeMille? C’mon! And neither Crais nor Greaney could write a bad story if they tried. All of ’em: Money in the bank. These are some of my heroes.
But one thing I’ve heard them say about Dez Limerick is this: Dez is essentially a comedy character who stumbled into a drama.
He’s unusual, given the action-thriller genre. He lacks even a hint of angst. He considers himself a lucky guy. He’s less funny than he thinks he is, and he thinks he’s a laugh-riot. When it comes to being intimate with women, Dez reverts to a 15-year-old. “Sex? Aye! That’d be great, that! Yes, please!” In matters of sex, he’s the anti-Bond. He’s the least suave dude anyone’s ever met.
I had a goal when creating Dez, and the praise of this great, great authors gives me hope that, to one degree or another, I hit it. And that goal is this: Dez is the guy you wanna spend time with, even if there was no plot. He’s the guy you want to have a beer with. I’ve had fans tell me Dez is their literary boyfriend. That’s — by far – one of the greatest compliments ever. The great Nelson DeMille said that I’ve “thrown away the formula for thriller novels and written a truly different story.” He called Dez “one of the most interesting, enigmatic, and coolest heroes to ever come across the page.” You have no idea. Praise like that, coming from that cat? Unbelievable.
The streetwise ruffian
DOSSIER: You’ve been writing for years (some of it under different names), and people are catching on to this Dez Limerick series. What’s so special about Dez that’s grabbing people’s attention?
BYRNE: So many great, great writers are working in this genre, so I had to come up with something different. First, by establishing that he’s from the United Kingdom. Second, by giving him a street patois; his English is stunningly crummy. He wouldn’t know an adverb from an adjective, and he swears like a sailor. (Note: I’m a newspaper copy editor. It’s basically written into my DNA. So I just about pull a muscle every time I type “what” instead of “who” or “innit” for “isn’t it?”)
Third, when writing the hero of an action-adventure story, it would be so easy to tip over into toxic masculinity. I counter that by pre-loading every story with several strong female characters. It’s not giving too much away to say that, in THE GATEKEEPER, it’s fine that Dez saves Petra Alexandris in Act I, but I had to make sure that Petra saves Petra in Act III.
Finally, I gave Dez a scientific background. He’s a “gatekeeper,” a military siege expert, capable of opening any door, keeping it open for as long as necessary, and controlling who does — and doesn’t — come through. That meant giving Dez a couple of secondary degrees in engineering and making him a fair-to-middling hacker. He’s a really smart, well-educated dude who sounds and looks like a streetwise ruffian. It’s been a blast giving this guy so many layers to play with.
Killer soundtracks
DOSSIER: When and where do you do your best writing? On one of your fun trips overseas or a cozy writer’s nook scuttled away somewhere in the Pacific Northwest?
BYRNE: Coming out of newspaper journalism, I’m pretty comfortable writing the first drafts of my stories longhand, using a mechanical pencil, in a Steno pad. It slows my brain down, for one. I also can get about 350 words on a page, and if I haven’t moved forward my story, character development or plot in those 350 words, I need to pick up my pace. Using a Steno pad is my story metronome.
I also listen to the soundtracks of action/adventure movies as I write. (The soundtrack is the music that we, the audience, can hear but the characters in the movie can’t.) Nothing gets your creative juices flowing like John Powell’s music for the “Bourne” movies, or Michael Giacchino’s score for “Mission: Impossible III,” or Brian Tyler’s “Fast and Furious” franchise. Newspaper newsrooms are noisy and messy; I type second and subsequent drafts into my MacBook Air in a whole lot of coffee shops. I also write extremely well in airports and on airplanes; I don’t watch the movies, and I’m kinda trapped, which is great for keeping a writer focused.
Newspaper writers are fast, too. I generally can write the first draft of a 350-page story in about three months. Sometimes less.
Writer conference benefits
DOSSIER: We met at Bouchercon in 2024 through our mutual friend Bruce Borgos. Are you simply an international man of mystery, or has it been beneficial to your writing career to build relationships with other authors?
BYRNE: One reason to go to mystery conventions like Bouchercon is for the fellowship. Writers tend to be a little on the introverted side. The best stuff we do is when we’re alone and undistracted, right? So the conventions help get us out of our shells. Second, it’s really good to share a drink with other writers and to be reminded that none of us are alone in the problems of storytelling. I can have a cluttered Act II, or a “muddle in the middle.” And when I start to berate myself, it’s great to discover that outstanding writers like Gregg Hurwitz, and Meg Gardiner, and Bruce Borgos, and Lisa Gardner, and Nick Petrie struggle with the same problems!
Finally, Bouchercon — or the World Mystery Convention — is totally fan-centric. The fans outnumber the writers. And it’s the unwritten code of these conventions to interact with your readers; to take selfies; to chat them up in the elevator or the bar; to schmooze with them before and after your panel discussions. It’s all about the fans, and Bouchercon does a great job reminding us of why that’s important.
As for the “international man of mystery,” I’ve been truly fortunate to do a lot of travel for my research. I’ve been all over Europe. I’ve driven through Cyprus and the former Yugoslavia. That influences my writing so strongly. I’ve been crazy-lucky that way.
Hollywood is calling … for now
DOSSIER: Do you have any breaking news about what Dez Limerick is up to for 2025 or any other special announcement you’d like to disclose in your Dossier?
BYRNE: Dez 3, CHAIN REACTION, hits the stands Jan. 28. The manuscript for the fourth Dez book is in the hands of my outstanding editor, Keith Kahla at Minotaur Books. (Simply put: Keith makes me a better writer. He’s amazing.)
And I can’t get into a lot of details, but the series just began the development process at a major Hollywood studio with one of the most prominent movie producers supervising an Oscar-winning screenwriter, who is onboard to adapt. These things can and do fall through, of course, but I’m guardedly optimistic about some good news out of Hollywood one of these days.
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