CANR
WORK TITLE: Flight of the Fox
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.graybasnight.com/
CITY:
STATE: NY
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
LAST VOLUME:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1953, in Richmond, VA; married Lisa Weiss.
EDUCATION:Attended George Washington University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Worked as a broadcast journalist, editor, and producer in New York, NY for about thirty years, lastly for Bloomberg Radio until c. 2009.
MEMBER:Authors Guild, Authors League of America, Writers Guild of America East, Mystery Writers of America, New York Writers Workshop.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Gray Basnight spent nearly thirty years as a radio reporter, producer, and writer. He dabbled in fiction writing when time permitted, but with little success. It was around the year 2009 that the tide turned. Basnight was suddenly laid off from his broadcast job, and he made a momentous decision. Instead of beginning a job search in the middle of the Great Recession of 2008, he decided to commit himself to a writing career. He knew immediately what he wanted to write.
Basnight is a proud descendant of three Confederate Army veterans, which inspired a lifelong interest in Civil War history. He is also a native of Richmond, Virginia, which served as the capital of the Confederacy. A historical novel set in wartime Richmond had languished in the back of Basnight’s mind for years. Unemployment gave him the freedom to finish it, but several years would pass before the volume was published. “He learned that historical fiction is a hard sell for an unpublished author,” wrote Ann Brenoff in the Huffington Post. Undaunted, Basnight put aside the novel and plunged into a completely different genre. Six months later, he published a contemporary mystery novel that not only improved the prospects for his historical fiction but also succeeded on its own merits.
The Cop with the Pink Pistol is by design a novel of New York City, a place that Basnight knows well. “I had this idea of juggling several crime plots at once,” he told an interviewer at the Mystery Tribune website. “Plus,” he added, “I wanted one of my central characters to be a provincial southern pilgrim to the big city,” a character whose perspective would be similar to his own. That character is soap opera actor and Mississippi transplant Conner Anderson, whose natural curiosity leads him into danger. Police officer Donna Prima could use a helping of danger, after a period of disciplinary desk duty. She finds it during a routine follow-up of a break-in at Anderson’s apartment, when he tips her off about suspicious activities across the street. A man enters a bar, then leaves through the liquor store next door. Men go in, gunshots follow, and different men come out. Trash trucks arrive, and Prima follows, with Anderson not far behind. A simple burglary leads to federal cold cases, theft from a nuclear power plant, and, just possibly, romance.
Reviewers were pleased. A commentator at Mysterious Reviews believed that “the author had a grand time coming up with the characters … and a situation that would force them to work together.” Citing “generous helpings of tongue-in-cheek humor,” Library Journal contributor Teresa L. Jacobsen reported that “Basnight dishes up a delicious delight.” A contributor to Small Press Bookwatch described a novel that is both “humorous and riveting.” The success of The Cop with the Pink Pistol gave Basnight the credibility he needed to promote the historical novel that had been relegated to the back shelf.
Shadows in the Fire takes place after the fall of Richmond to Union forces in 1865. It is the story of a twelve-year-old former slave named Miss Francine. The youngster had led a relatively protected life as a “house girl” to Missus Pegram. As the only “inside” slave, Francine carries a heavy workload for a child, but in private moments her mentally ill mistress treats her almost like a daughter. Francine has few connections outside the house, except for the sixteen-year-old boy next door, Extra Pettigrew. Her dream is to marry him someday and maybe track down her birth mother.
War turns Francine’s insulated life upside down. The Pegrams flee the burning city, leaving the girl alone and virtually helpless—slowly starving. After surviving a sexual assault by a rogue Confederate soldier, Francine abandons the only shelter she ever knew to take her chances in the streets of the city. If she can find Extra, maybe he can help her.
Critical response to Shadows in the Fire was somewhat reserved, although reviewers acknowledged the meticulous research that Basnight invested in his project. A writer at the Historical Novel Society website found Miss Francine too naive to be believable, but called the story “interesting … with many details and good imagery.” Schoolteacher Colin Saba mentioned to Frederick News Post contributor Arlene Karidis that young students can “relate to” a narrator their own age, “while coming to understand the effect that a major event had on people.”
Basnight published Flight of the Fox in 2018. When mathematics professor Sam Teagarden receives an odd file full of handwritten, encoded entries from FBI archives librarian Stuart Shelbourn, his life changes forever. The notebook is several decades old and has never been deciphered. Stuart enlisted Sam’s help since he had done some cryptology work for the CIA in the past. However, a drone attack on his home sends Sam fleeing to New York City for safety and to figure out what the codes say and why somebody wants him dead for trying to figure it out.
In an interview on the Big Thrill website, Basnight talked about how Flight of the Fox makes an original contribution to the genre. He claimed that the novel “stakes out new space within the run-for-your-life genre because the central protagonist, Sam Teagarden, does not carry a gun or have a blackbelt in martial arts. He is a math professor whose principal weapon is tenacity and intelligence.”
Talking with Michael A. Ventrella in an eponymously named website, Basnight discussed how the novel got its name. He explained that “it was originally titled ‘The Dear John File.’ I liked it. Still do. It was intended as an homage to Robert Ludlum who made the run-for-you-life genre so popular with his Bourne novels. But the publisher was understandably concerned that my title would be misunderstood as an adolescent romance novel. Quite a reasonable observation! So, I changed it to Flight of the Fox, based on the idea of a fox hunt. My protag even thinks of himself a fox in a fox hunt during his race for survival.”
A contributor to Publishers Weekly mentioned that the novel’s “execution falls short of the high concept, but Jason Bourne fans will have some fun.” Writing in Foreword Reviews, Benjamin Welton claimed that the novel “is something of a love letter to the classic espionage thrillers of the Cold War. Easy-to-consume prose serves as commentary on the state of high-tech surveillance in American life.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Library Journal, January 1, 2012, Teresa L. Jacobsen, review of The Cop with the Pink Pistol, p. 72; April 15, 2015, Pamela O’Sullivan, review of Shadows in the Fire, p. 73.
Publishers Weekly, May 21, 2018, review of Flight of the Fox, p. 52.
Small Press Bookwatch, May 1, 2012, review of The Cop with the Pink Pistol.
ONLINE
Authors Guild website, http://www.authorsguild.net/ (February 20, 2016), author profile.
Big Thrill, http://www.thebigthrill.org/ (July 1, 2018), author interview.
Criminal Element, https://www.criminalelement.com/ (July 24, 2018), Janet Webb, review of Flight of the Fox.
Foreword Reviews, https://www.forewordreviews.com/ (September 10, 2018), Benjamin Welton, review of Flight of the Fox.
Frederick News Post Online, http://www.fredericknewspost.com/ (October 4, 2015), Arlene Karidis, author interview.
Gray Basnight website, http://www.graybasnight.com (September 10, 2018).
Historical Novel Society website, http://historicalnovelsociety.org/ (February 20, 2016), review of Shadows in the Fire.
Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ (October 15, 2012), Ann Brenoff, author profile.
Mysterious Book Report, http://mysteriousbookreport.com/ (July 17, 2018), John Dwaine McKenna, author interview.
Mysterious Reviews, http://www.mysteriousreviews.com/ (February 20, 2016), review of The Cop with the Pink Pistol.
Mystery Tribune, http: //www.mysterytribune.com/ (April 10, 2012), author interview.
Gray Basnight is deeply immersed in writing fiction after almost three decades as a broadcast news writer, editor, producer, and reporter. His books and writing cross several genres, and features a range of voices and characters very different from himself.
Gray lives in New York with his wife Lisa, and their golden retriever Tinta. When not writing, he's thinking about writing while walking Tinta, watching movies, and all other daily activities. He has lived in New York City long enough to consider himself a native, though he grew up in Richmond, Virginia.
He enjoys hearing from readers about his books and other authors they enjoy.
Gray Basnight was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, where he spent his childhood and teen years on two much-loved activities: reading and participating in theatre productions. After studying English and theatre at a small college in North Carolina and George Washington University in Washington, DC, Gray moved to New York City where, after experiencing the actor's struggle, he began working in local radio. Almost 30 years later, he was laid off as a radio reporter at the height of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Though he'd been writing fiction all along, he decided to turn that life-altering event into an opportunity to pursue a second (or third) life. His first novel, "The Cop with the Pink Pistol," was published to rave reviews in 2012. The Civil War historical, "Shadows in the Fire" was released in 2015. "Flight of the Fox," a political thriller, will be released in July, 2018
Gray Basnight is a native of Richmond, Virginia.
For almost three decades he worked in New York City as a broadcast news writer, editor, producer, and reporter. He is now deeply immersed in fiction writing.
Gray lives in New York with his wife Lisa, and their golden retriever Tinta.
You can reach him via his website at graybasnight.com, or on Facebook.
Author Interview – Gray Basnight
July 17, 2018 Written by John Dwaine McKenna
Here’s our next author interview with Gray Basnight, writer of Flight of the Fox, along with an excerpt to whet your appetite for more of this timely and thrilling novel.
Interview With The Author
1. Why do you write?
It’s an important question that, in some ways, is unanswerable. Why artists and writers are compelled to create is elusive, but I feel compelled to do it and with all that said here’s why I write . . . Damned if I know – but I can’t seem NOT to.
2. Where do you write?
The one-bedroom apartment where I live in New York City has a small, four-foot by seven-foot walk-in closet I converted into an office. I call it my in utero work chamber.
3. Who’s your favorite literary character?
I have two, Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, the central protagonists in their own novels by Daniel Dafoe. Both books are beautifully written, life-enhancing stories about people playing the hand they were dealt.
4. Do you plot-outline or wing it?
I do not outline in the traditional sense, but I do outline in my own way. For me, the story idea arrives with the full arc of the narrative. I do not yet know all details, but can see the beginning, the middle, and the end. And I know the sentiment I want the reader to feel when the book is closed for the last time.
This method seems to help limit overly long and time-wasting digressions, while at the same time, it preserves the opportunity for more discovery along the way.
5. How can we, as writers, encourage more people to read?
I like the word “entertainment,” but I also like the word “enrichment.”
In “Flight of the Fox,” Sam Teagarden is named in honor of my Shakespeare professor at N.C. Wesleyan College, who also taught freshman English. He demanded dedication to the fundamentals of reading and writing from all his students – most of whom were no older than 18. During one lecture, a student objected that he was “Teaching over our heads.” Dr. Tea’s response was: “Raise your heads!”
That worked for me then, and it still works now. As writers, agents, editors, publishers, and reviewers we all need to do as much as we can to offer entertainment as well as something enriching that makes us raise our heads, and think.
We all need to raise our heads . . . a profound sentiment. I couldn’t agree more.
6. Do you have any other comments, suggestions, tips, anecdotes, quotes or inspirational material you’d like to share?
The primary rule is: butt in chair. If you’re not sitting at the keyboard several hours a day, you’re not going to be a writer.
Interview with author Gray Basnight
Posted on July 13, 2018 by Michael A. Ventrella
MICHAEL A. VENTRELLA: Today I’m pleased to be interviewing Gray Basnight – a writer I used to play with when we were both little kids in Richmond, Virginia! Now we’re both writing political thrillers, except mine involve a lot more humor and vampires.
GRAY BASNIGHT: Hi Michael! Thank you for this terrific opportunity.
VENTRELLA: Introduce yourself to my readers, Gray!
BASNIGHT: I’m deeply immersed in my third career — fiction writing, after almost three decades in broadcast news as a writer, editor, producer, and reporter; preceded by a few years pursuing an acting career.
From our hometown of Richmond, to N.C., to D.C., I now live in New York where I’ve been for, ahem, forty years. That’s long enough to be a native.
But to step back in time, may I say I had a very good time visiting your house as a kid. I don’t remember much specifically about what we did. I don’t think we played at ordinary games like Monopoly or Hide-and-Seek, mainly because neither of us was ordinary. In fact, as you well know, we were both quite special in extraordinary ways. But I do know we had a good time, and not just because of our friendship. Your parents made it great fun because they encouraged creativity and, unlike most adults I knew at the time, actually enjoyed having children hanging about and doing natural child-like things. For me, that was wonderful.
VENTRELLA: I mostly recall us running around pretending to be James Bond. Both of us Bond, at the same time. We were kids.
BASNIGHT: As for details of my life since then—well, I wish I could cut to a phantasm-style video in honor of your recent Monkees book: “Here I come, walking down the street, I get the funniest looks from…” (You know the rest).
So, let’s see, there was college at NC Wesleyan, followed by grad school at GW University for an MFA in Theatre, where I thought I’d become a college theatre professor.
After GWU, I made the big move to NYC to be a struggling actor (cue: Daydream Believer), which I thought mattered if I planned to teach. Then it magically morphed into waiting tables at an Israeli nightclub in Greenwich Village. While I met many interesting people there, I decided it may be best to move on to—well, anything else. (cue: For Pete’s Sake).
Fortunately, I had an offer to work at WOR radio. This led to opportunities in broadcast news where I wore many hats including writer, producer, editor, and reporter.
Three decades and several stations and newsrooms later, I was laid off in 2009 from Bloomberg Radio in the midst of the financial crisis. My title on the day of my demise was “reporter,” and the last big story I covered was the Miracle on the Hudson. That company’s decision led me to the question—what now? My answer: write novels. It was a long time desire, and something I’d previously tried to squeeze into precious spare time. (Cue: I Wanna be Free.)
And that is the story of my…uh-oh, wait a second. Let’s not forget something important. Somewhere in that phantasmagoric Monkees-inspired cinematic montage—I met my wife Lisa, and eventually we got married on our 9 th boyfriend/girlfriend anniversary. We’ve now been married twenty-two years (cue: I’m a Believer).
And, as we all know, The Best Is Yet to Come (and that’s a song the Monkees would probably have recorded had Sinatra not beat them to it.)
VENTRELLA: Tell us about the plot of FLIGHT OF THE FOX!
BASNIGHT: It’s a political run-for-your-life thriller. My central protag, Sam Teagarden, does not own a gun or know anything about how to karate chop people. He’s a university math professor whose only weapon is his intelligence and his will to live. After receiving an encoded file in his email inbox, he suddenly has drones trying to kill him for reasons unknown. During his race down the East Coast from teams of black-ops hitmen, he manages to decode the document. He learns that it’s a diary written by a former high ranking official with the FBI that reveals many unknown facts about the 20th century. If published, the decrypted diary will radically alter the public’s view of U.S. history.
VENTRELLA: How did you decide on that title?
Interesting story. It was originally titled “The Dear John File.” I liked it. Still do. It was intended as an homage to Robert Ludlum who made the run-for-you-life genre so popular with his Bourne novels. But the publisher was understandably concerned that my title would be misunderstood as an adolescent romance novel. Quite a reasonable observation! So, I changed it to FLIGHT OF THE FOX, based on the idea of a fox hunt. My protag even thinks of himself a fox in a fox hunt during his race for survival.
VENTRELLA: How did you go about finding a publisher?
BASNIGHT: I concentrated on small publishers. Several expressed interest, but when Down and Out Books stepped up with an offer, I was really pleased. I was introduced to D&O through a writer friend, Charles Salzberg, to whom I’ve dedicated this particular book.
D&O is a fast-growing outfit based in Florida that’s garnering quite a bit of respect in the crime and mystery genre, as well as tremendous interest from readers.
VENTRELLA: Tell us about your other books.
BASNIGHT: THE COP WITH THE PINK PISTOL (2012) is a police procedural / mystery / romance / humor novel with three separate plots. I didn’t set out to blend all those genres and plots. For some reason, that’s what popped from my fingertips when they were poised over the keyboard.
NYPD Detective Donna Prima (don’t ever call her prima donna) is a tough Brooklyn native who carries a pink .38 revolver strapped to her ankle in defiance of police regulations. To her astonishment, when she responds to a 911 burglary call, she gets romantically involved with the burglary victim. He’s a southern WASP who makes his living as an actor on a TV soap opera called “Vampire Love Nest.” (Hey, Michael—this one had vampires!)
It got super reviews from “Kirkus” and “Library Journal,” and is still available as an e-book.
My second novel is SHADOWS IN THE FIRE (2015). It’s an historical novel set in Richmond during the city’s final days as capital of the Confederacy. Here’s the non-fiction story: the evacuating Confederate forces accidentally burned down much of the city and the next day a contingent of black soldiers wearing Union blue marched into town. They put out the fires and restored order. Not one shot was fired. There was no raping or pillaging. One day later, President Abe Lincoln walked (literally) into town for a brief look-see. To my knowledge, it’s the only war story where the conquering army actually made improvements, instead of adding to the destruction.
Now here’s the fiction story: all of the above is witnessed by my two central characters, a 12-year-old slave girl, and a 16-year-old slave boy. They hope to get married when the war is over, but lose sight of each other during the chaos.
All in all, it’s a dramatic story. But then, it’s natural for me to say that because I wrote it. And, by the way, this novel is dedicated to the idea that an American Slave Memorial should be located on Richmond’s Monument Avenue, home of many equestrian memorials to Confederate generals.
VENTRELLA: Let’s talk about writing. How much of writing is innate? In other words, do you believe there are just some people who are born storytellers but simply need to learn technique? Or can anyone become a good writer?
BASNIGHT: “Yes,” to the former question, and, “not really,” or even an outright “no” to the second.
Here’s the naked truth as I believe it. Let’s say I want to be a great piano player. Well, I happen to have no musical skill whatsoever. Even so, if I studied hard and practiced piano with great discipline, I think I could hammer out a pretty good version of “Rocky Raccoon” so that everyone at the cocktail party would be quite impressed. But I still wouldn’t be as good as, say, Elton John, let alone Chopin.
Writing is similar. So, yes, I believe true writing skill is innate. That doesn’t mean that those without natural talent cannot become writers. They can. They do. Study and practice will teach one how to write better sentences and compose better paragraphs. And some become commercially successful. But it’s generally true that solid, inventive, inspired, and insightful writing cannot be taught.
VENTRELLA: How important is a professional editor?
BASNIGHT: Vital! I may be an unusual writer in that I like and appreciate editors. Having spent nearly 30 years in the news industry, I’m respectful of what a solid editor does to help produce improved results. I’ve been yelled at by good editors. And, having been one myself, I’ve even done the yelling. None of it means you have to fold your tent every time. You can fight for what you think works and must remain in your story. But most writers, I’m convinced, need to be accessible to the insights of a competent editor.
Learning how to do that can start with having a field of beta-readers that provide honest feedback on works on progress.
VENTRELLA: What’s your opinion on self-publishing?
BASNIGHT: To answer this question, may I focus on the definition of the word “professional?”
For me, that hinges on money, i.e., income. If you get paid for what you do, you’re a professional. Vanity publishing is fine, particularly if your principle wish is for friends and family to see your book. Although, because of eBooks and the ease of self-publishing via the Internet, the publishing industry is certainly going through tectonic changes and self-publishing may take on greater significance in the future. We’re all watching and waiting to see how everything shakes out and where the evolution leads.
VENTRELLA: What’s the best advice you would give to a starting writer that they probably haven’t already heard?
BASNIGHT: Regardless of what anyone has heard or not heard, there’s only one supreme rule: butt in chair. If you’re not sitting at the keyboard for a minimum of four-to-six hours a day, six-days a week, you’re not going to be a professional writer.
VENTRELLA: Do you think readers want to read about “believable” characters or do they really want characters that are “larger than life” in some way?
BASNIGHT: Believability is certainly important. But if the wider narrative is working well, what John Gardner called the “fictive dream,” then anything can be made believable by a skilled writer.
On the other hand, all characters are, indeed must be, special in some larger-than-life way that makes the reader care about them. Frequently what makes them special is their struggle to overcome some obstacle and how they go about meeting the challenge.
VENTRELLA: What’s the worst piece of advice you’ve heard people give?
BASNIGHT: The advice—write what you know—is dumb, though it can certainly work quite well as a starting point. If I recall correctly, New York firefighter Dennis Smith attended a writing class where he was told to “write what you know.” So he did. The result was “Report from Engine Company 82,” published in 1972. It’s a very good and highly successful book. I read it as a teenager and found it inspiring. But generally, it would be bad if writers only wrote about what they know. If Daniel Defoe only wrote about what he knew, we wouldn’t have “Robinson Crusoe.” Likewise for Flaubert’s “Madam Bovary,” Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,” Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” and thousands more.
VENTRELLA: What’s your next project?
BASNIGHT: I’m three-quarters of the way into the sequel to FLIGHT OF THE FOX. This features another race against time and death for my main character (no spoilers here, you’ll have to wait to find out who that is). In this story, the protagonist finds himself in the middle of a bureaucratic screw-up where the powers that be never, never, never get it right.
I have a completed YA that’s loosely based on “Treasure Island,” but features a contemporary 15-year-old female protag filling the Jim Hawkins role. NOTE: Any interested agents or editors reading this may call me for a look see.
After that, I’ve got about ten manuscripts in the mystery genre that all need attention. Some are partially written, others are complete first drafts. They are all good ideas, if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, they are all also in dire need of rescue in the categories of plotting, pacing, and characterization. So—time for some serious “butt in chair.”
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Flight of the Fox by Gray Basnight
1 month ago by ITW
0
An innocent math professor runs for his life as teams of hitmen try to prevent publication of their government’s dark history.
College professor Sam Teagarden stumbles upon a decades-old government cover-up when an encoded document mysteriously lands in his in-box, followed by a cluster of mini-drones programmed to kill him.
That begins a terrifying flight from upstate New York, to Washington, to Key West as Teagarden must outfox teams of hitmen equipped with highly sophisticated technology. While a fugitive, he races to decode the journal, only to realize the dreadful truth—it’s the reason he’s being hunted because it details criminal secrets committed by the U.S. in the 20th Century.
If he survives and publishes the decoded diary, he’ll be a heroic whistle blower. But there is no guarantee. He may also end up dead.
Gray Basnight, author of the political thriller FLIGHT OF THE FOX, was kind enough to speak with The Big Thrill and offer some additional insight into his novel:
What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
There are unanswered questions in the American past that, if answered honestly, may alter history as we know it.
How does this book make a contribution to the genre?
FLIGHT OF THE FOX stakes out new space within the run-for-your-life genre because the central protagonist, Sam Teagarden, does not carry a gun or have a blackbelt in martial arts. He is a math professor whose principal weapon is tenacity and intelligence.
Was there anything new you discovered, or that surprised you, as you wrote this book?
Predicting the future, even if the very near future–is fun.
No spoilers, but what can you tell us about your book that we won’t find in the jacket copy or the PR material?
Besides being a political thriller, it’s also a bit of a romance with a dash of science fiction.
What authors or books have influenced your career as a writer, and why?
So very many: Daniel Defoe, Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, Somerset Maugham, Graham Green, Erich Maria Remarque, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Isabel Allende, Robert Ludlum, Dennis Lehane, James Lee Burke, Donald E. Westlake, Elmore Leonard, Margaret Atwood, Ray Bradbury, Joyce Carol Oates.
Why? Because these are all good writers with something enjoyable and significant for the reader, which is the purpose of fiction.
Gray Basnight worked for almost three decades in New York City as a radio and television news producer, writer, editor, reporter, and newscaster. He lives in New York with his wife and a golden retriever, where he is now dedicated to writing fiction.
Flight of the Fox
Publishers Weekly. 265.21 (May 21, 2018): p52+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Flight of the Fox
Gray Basnight. Down & Out, $18.95 trade
paper (404p) ISBN 978-1-946502-61-2
One day in the near future, mathematics professor Sam Teagarden, the hero of this intriguing if cumbersome thriller from Basnight (The Cop with the Pink Pistol), receives a file containing "a series of encoded entries handwritten in an old spiral notebook" from FBI archives librarian Stuart Shelbourn. Dating from decades ago, the entries have never been deciphered, and Stuart thinks Sam, who once worked for the CIA as a cryptologist, might like to take a crack at them. Soon afterward, Sam survives a drone attack on his home in Bethel, N.Y., and flees to New York City, where he's hunted by cops and eventually becomes the target of three black ops agents. Meanwhile, Sam figures out that he possesses an explosive cache of letters from FBI agent Clyde Toison, the reputed lover of J. Edgar Hoover, to the FBI director. In the first chapter, Basnight hints strongly at the shameful secrets revealed in the letters. He also telegraphs the likely outcome of Sam's showdown with the black ops agents. The execution falls short of the high concept, but Jason Bourne fans will have some fun. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Flight of the Fox." Publishers Weekly, 21 May 2018, p. 52+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A541012608/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=34c1a149. Accessed 2 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A541012608
Flight of the Fox
Gray Basnight
Down & Out Books (Jul 23, 2018)
Softcover $18.95 (404pp)
978-1-946502-61-2
Gray Basnight’s Flight of the Fox is the ultimate paranoid thriller—a major page-turner dedicated to one wrongfully accused man’s flight from the law. This is a big-league ride from start to finish, and at its core, it discusses what a postmodern democratic dictatorship might look like.
A Columbia mathematics professor, Sam Teagarden, receives a coded notebook from the FBI archives. It is sent by a former colleague’s son who hopes that the ex-CIA cryptologist can make heads or tails of the document. As it turns out, the notebook is the diary that former FBI official Clyde Anderson Tolson kept in order to blackmail J. Edgar Hoover.
With this volatile information in his hands, Teagarden becomes the target for a pair of black-ops FBI men. Their job is to kill the “fox” (Teagarden) before he can expose the depth and breadth of the FBI’s crimes between 1938 and 1972.
Basnight’s novel moves at the speed of light in brief chapters, some of which are only one page long. It is peppered with political and cultural asides. In one instance, Teagarden, in disguise as a Hasidic Jew, gives a know-it-all New York hipster a good verbal thrashing; in a series of e-mails, he reveals how a common housewife in Missouri is obsessed with New York City’s potentially dangerous Muslim population.
Flight of the Fox is something of a love letter to the classic espionage thrillers of the Cold War. Easy-to-consume prose serves as commentary on the state of high-tech surveillance in American life.
This is a fun, entertaining read that flies by faster than its own predatory drones. Part chase story and part political thriller, it is the perfect summertime read for anyone worried about the machinations of the US government, especially the FBI.
Reviewed by Benjamin Welton
July/August 2018
Review: Flight of the Fox by Gray Basnight
By Janet Webb
July 24, 2018
Flight of the Fox
Gray Basnight
July 23, 2018
Flight of the Fox by Gray Basnight is a near-future thriller where an innocent math professor runs for his life as teams of hitmen try to prevent publication of their government’s dark history.
Flight of the Fox opens with a “Dear John” letter that encapsulates why retired Columbia math professor Sam Teagarden is on the run for his life, hunted like a fox.
Monday, June 13, 1938
FBI Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Dear John,
This is to advise you of a new file entered to the bureau record, fully encrypted, and maintained only by me. It’s because you are such a naughty boy. It’s because of your habit of personally vetting all the strapping new talent that walks (or may be persuaded to confidentially walk) our enlightened side of the street.
Why is the nameless writer maintaining encrypted files on John’s activities? “For honor and career, naturally. Yes, my love, this is the bitter voice of mercenary cunning. It is my insurance against termination, transfer, or being dumped as your sweetheart.” “Dear John” is John Edgar Hoover, the founder and first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (from 1935 until his death in 1977). Decades later, the encrypted information is still incendiary and must never come to light.
Eighty-one years later, July 20, 2019, in bucolic Bethel, New York, Sam Teagarden is relaxing on his sundeck with Coconut, his “old and overweight yellow Lab.” He hears a “revved-up buzz” from what he thinks is a new and improved hummingbird, but it’s actually a “compact helicopter about the size of a baseball.” Coconut saves Sam’s life by leaping up and taking a round from the menacing device—a round of poison that results in “instantaneous termination of life.”
Sam’s greatest strength, even in the face of inexplicable and targeted evil, is his calculating, analytical way of looking at facts. Sam thinks, “Who would do this? More importantly—why?” as he swiftly realizes he’s the target. Why? Because it’s “actually possible.”
Occam’s razor, the very definition of logical frugality, says the hypothesis with the fewest assumptions is the correct hypothesis. Put another way, the simplest solution—is—the solution.
If he’s the target, then staying put makes him a sitting duck. But what about those poisonous mini-bombs? Is it a cliché to expect that the hero of a thriller will be a man of action when it’s so often the case? Guns blazing come to mind. When Sam was an undergrad at Chapel Hill, he shot skeet, although “he failed to qualify for the U.S. team at the ’92 Olympic Games in Barcelona.” Clearly, no ordinary skeet shooter. Sam locates his 1985 Remington 1100 shotgun in his crowded basement workshop but cannot seem to locate the bullets. Time for Sam Teagarden to utilize a Zen approach to problem-solving. The question: “Where would an obsessively cautious man like me hide shotgun shells?”
The only way to find a solution was to be calm, turn inward and let the subconscious whisper the answer. That was the way all great solutions are born. It happens when people are in the shower, waking-up, falling asleep, mowing the grass, jogging. Only when the mind is empty of all competing nonsense, will the voice of atavistic clairvoyance speak loud enough to be heard by the conscious mind.
Sam remembers that the shells are outside in the garden shed, so “as wary as a turtle hiding from sniffing coyotes, he poked his head past the lawnmower for a better look.” Unfortunately, he spots four drones circling his house. Sam creates a diversion, locates the shells, load up his shotgun, and takes out the drones. Then, he’s off, plunging into the woods that surround his house.
On the day his home was attacked and his dog was killed, “an encoded document mysteriously lands in his in-box.” Before Sam entered academe, he worked as a low-level government cryptologist—translation, he’s a trained codebreaker. Gray Basnight mixes mathematical and animal metaphors with pinpoint precision, giving readers insight into how a 49-year-old retired mathematics professor can elude waves of FBI assassins. When Sam realizes he has spent his first night as a fugitive running in circles, he’s elated because circles are “the stuff of legendary mystery.”
The great mathematician Archimedes died while trying to understand them. When the Romans came to kill him, he pointed to his chalk etchings and told them, “Do not disturb my circles.” A soldier accommodated the demand by running him through the gut with a sword.
Sam Teagarden does not intend to oblige his pursuers by standing still while they kill him: he’s going to run like a fox. How does a fox run? Sam’s knows that too.
Teagarden couldn’t remember why he knew about fox hunting. A smart fox will run a zig-zag pattern to throw off the dogs. A dumb fox will simply bolt hard in a straight line. Dogs prefer a dumb fox because it makes them look better when they quickly catch the prey. Hunters prefer a smart fox because it’s more fun.
Sam hopes to “be a smart fox running from dumb hunters,” but the FBI hunters are not dumb. Sam Teagarden cleverly negotiates a maze of traps while calling upon reserves of guile, all the while decoding a phenomenally explosive document. For Sam to be the greatest whistleblower of all time and not get dead first, it sure helps to be a mathematician/cryptologist with the skills of a crafty fox—he has the rogue G-Men running in circles as they try in vain to take him down.