The Cold War era of the late 20th century was a time of incredible anxiety for a world facing nuclear annihilation. It also happened to be a golden age for spy thriller writers. The faceoff between the Soviet and American superpowers offered an incredibly rich nursery for intrigue and espionage. When the Berlin Wall came down, effectively ending the hegemony of the Soviet Union over Eastern Europe, international tensions were eased – but novelists lost the “Evil Empire” that had provided them with antagonists for decades.

Writers can take heart, because a new political threat is developing that might well provide fodder for the next wave of international thrillers: China.

Novelist Alex Berenson, writing in the New York Times, explains why he chose to build his spy thriller The Ghost War on a conflict between the United States and China. “What if a hard-line Chinese general wanted to take control of the People’s Republic? Could he maneuver China and the United States into a clash, a limited war, to grab control?…Are old resentments and a shifting balance of power enough to push nuclear-armed powers to the brink of war? In the real world, probably not. In a spy novel, absolutely.”

“Bad for the world, I suppose,” concludes Berenson. “Lucky for us.”

Nobody wants to go through another Cold War – except, perhaps, authors like Berenson and publishers who stand to make money on fiction. One of the best examples of this emerging genre that I’ve read is Darkness Under Heaven by our author F. J. Chase (Mira) . It introduces a marvelous hero, security expert Pete Avakian, who shares the spotlight with a female MD. Trapped in China when all political hell breaks loose, the two must find a way to get out of the country with the explosive secret they have discovered. Though it’s filled with great male action adventure, the romantic sparks that fly between the fleeing lovers make this as much a woman’s novel as a man’s.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by The New York Times.