Charlotte County Florida Weekly

Fact or Fiction

Current events led to many as novelist’s rewrites newest work took shape



 

RUMORS. LIES. FALSE INFORmation. The Russians are pros at disseminating them, says Naples writer James Lilliefors.

His most recent novel, “The Children’s Game” ($24.99, Arcade Publishing), highlights just how good they are.

The book opens with a small group of men shooting down Vladimir Putin’s plane with a missile, an action for which both Ukraine and the United States are blamed, via a Russian campaign of misinformation.

Mr. Lilliefors began working on the novel four years ago.

“That was really a turning point with Russia, (because) 2014 was when they took over Crimea and went into war with eastern Ukraine,” he says. “And they were involved with shooting down the Malaysian airline MH17, killing 298 passengers and crew … It was phenomenal. Russia spread a lot of fake stories online about what had happened.”

Although it was one of their missiles that shot the jet down, the Russians claimed the Ukrainian army had done the deed, he adds. “They even spread a story that the Ukrainian army had been trying to shoot down Putin’s plane and got the wrong one.”

“The Children’s Game” is the first novel published under James Lillifors’ pen name. COURTESY PHOTO

“The Children’s Game” is the first novel published under James Lillifors’ pen name. COURTESY PHOTO

And that got Mr. Lilliefors thinking, “What if … ?”

“In a sense, that was the spark for this book,” he says. “It was a fake story they were spreading and it distracted from what had actually happened. And now, it’s pretty clear that Russia was responsible for (shooting down the Malaysian passenger plane).”

Writing “The Children’s Game” involved not only much research but many rewrites.

He had done a couple of drafts when the 2016 presidential election changed everything. He had to go back three times and rewrite parts of his book, because current events had changed so drastically.

“I took out some of the more specific historical references,” he says. “I think of the book as something that will be out there for years. I didn’t want to put the president in there by name, because we don’t know what’s going to happen with his presidency.”

James Lilliefors says he writes almost every day, typically in the morning. COURTESY PHOTO

James Lilliefors says he writes almost every day, typically in the morning. COURTESY PHOTO

Mr. Lilliefors’ literary agent, Laura Gross, calls the book “so horribly realistic.” After the presidential election, she says, “It was as if he had foreseen everything. It was magnificent and frightening, to realize what he was on to.”

Reviews so far have been “lovely,” she adds. “It’s a very exciting story, an intelligent and good read … He has a grasp of the subject matter, a psychological profundity that everybody who reads it is struck by.”

The story is presented by different points of view, Mr. Lilliefors says: “Russian businessmen, Russian politicians, a U.S. Special Forces guy, an ex-CIA guy, a U.S. senator, a journalist — all looking at the same event, which is the plane being shot down.”

The title refers to a chess strategy that results in checkmate in just four moves. It’s the code name for Russia’s campaign of misinformation and cyberattacks. And the U.S. is clueless, distracted by sideshows, chasing after rumors and believing lies.

A first for Max Karpov

“The Children’s Game” is the first novel published under Mr. Lilliefors’ pen name, Max Karpov.

“I wanted a different persona for this book,” the author says.

“He has another line of cozy mysteries he wanted to separate himself from, to individuate one from the other,” Ms. Gross says. The pen name makes it easier for the reader as well as for booksellers and reviewers, she adds.

Mr. Lilliefors’ other series, which so far consists of “The Psalmist” and “The Tempest,” involves a minister and a homicide detective working in Maryland’s eastern shore.

“It’s a mystery series,” he says, “but it delves into bigger themes about our purpose, spirituality, morality — human issues, not espionage or political issues. It takes me to a different realm.”

He and his agent came up with the pen name Max Karpov.

“Karpov was a well-known chess player,” he says, “so it’s an appropriate name.”

His website describes “The Children’s Game” as being about “a Russian-ordered hit on an entire nation — the United States.”

“One of the characters says the U.S. has a reputation for playing pigeon chess: You crap all over the board, knock the chess pieces down and strut around as if you’ve won,” he says. “(Russia’s) game is one of misinformation. They don’t have quite the restraints that we have in terms of morality and ethics. We’re more conflicted in that sense; we’re not as ruthless.”

He suggests in the novel that Russia wants to operate “undetected from inside the states, influencing its politics and policies, monitoring electronic communications, turning the generous but gullible United States into a giant, unwitting satellite of Russia.”

He wanted to present both the U.S. and Russian points of view, he adds.

Former Acting Director and Deputy Director of the CIA Michael Morell says in a blub that, “Max Karpov has produced a cleverly conceived thriller that … captures perfectly the mentality of Vladimir Putin’s Russia … And, on top of it, the book is near impossible to put down. A must read.”

The novel has also received praise from New York Times bestselling novelists Joseph Finder and Phillip Margolin, the latter calling it “… extremely timely in light of the allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.”

Taking the plunge

Even as a teenager, Mr. Lilliefors wanted to write novels.

He studied with novelist and New York short story writer Ann Beattie in graduate school in Virginia. He then went into journalism.

More recently, he was senior writer at the Philharmonic Center for the Arts in Naples for 15 years, before its name was changed to Artis—Naples. He edited the center’s magazine and interviewed performers and artists on a regular basis, including Dale Chihuly, Larry Rivers and Bernard Cathelin. He also wrote books about art for the Phil.

He developed a strong relationship with Myra Daniels, the Phil’s founder and its first CEO.

“She always encouraged me, even when I was writing non-fiction books,” he says. “She was able to read me and what I wanted to do, and she always encouraged me to write what I wanted to write: novels.”

He left the Phil a couple of months after Mrs. Daniels retired, on the day his first novel, a thriller titled “Viral,” came out.

Not having a day job allows him the freedom to focus on his own writing.

“I’m grateful I (took) the plunge,” he says, adding he writes almost every day, typically in the morning but sometimes going into the afternoon as well.

He reads a lot of John le Carre and is re-reading Graham Greene. He recently read “The Red Sparrow” by Jason Matthews, formerly of the CIA.

“I don’t read a lot of potboiler spy books. Maybe I should,” he muses.

He says Ernest Hemingway was a big influence — “just the simplicity of his writing and the effect in his stories,” he says. “There are so many others. I went through a period where I read all of Anne Tyler’s books. I’m a fan of hers.”

His books are not thrillers in the Tom Clancy vein.

“They’re more like John le Carre than Vince Flynn,” he says.

Mr. Lilliefors is working on a third book featuring the Maryland pastor and the detective. Though it has the same characters, he’s writing it as a standalone story. He wants it to be a more spiritual book, “more about people, less about turning pages,” he says.

And what does he see happening next?

“I think they should make ‘The Children’s Game’ a movie,” he says. ¦

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