Espionage Thrillers The Bucharest Legacy by William Maz

CIA Agent Bill Hefflin is back in Bucharest—immersed in a cauldron of spies and crooked politicians in THE BUCHAREST LEGACY: The Rise of the Oligarchs (Oceanview Publishing; June 20, 2023), the exciting follow-up to William Maz’s debut spy thriller The Bucharest Dossier.

The CIA is rocked to its core when a KGB defector divulges that there is a KGB mole inside the Agency. They learn that the mole’s handler is a KGB agent known as Boris. CIA analyst Bill Hefflin recognizes that name—Boris is the code name of Hefflin’s longtime KGB asset. If the defector is correct, Hefflin realizes Boris must be a triple agent, and his supposed mole has been passing false intel to Hefflin and the CIA. What’s more, this makes Hefflin the prime suspect as the KGB mole inside the Agency.

“The Bucharest Legacy is a story of duplicity piled onto duplicity that will keep you guessing right to the end.” — Steve Berry, New York Times best-selling author of The Last Kingdom

“The Bucharest Dossier is an accomplished debut—a love story inside an espionage thriller inside a historical record, with all three elements working together to maximum effect. Very impressive and very recommended.” — Lee Child, New York Times
best-selling author

“The Bucharest Dossier is compulsively readable . . . William Maz has written a wrenching, action-packed story of love lost and regained as we follow a returning ex-pat in search of his past and the love of his life against the violent backdrop of the Romanian people’s revolt against Ceausescu’s vicious communist regime.” — F. Paul Wilson, New York Times
best-selling author

William Maz recently spent some time with The Big Thrill discussing his latest thriller, THE BUCHAREST LEGACY.

Can you pinpoint a moment or incident that sparked the idea for this book?
The rise of the oligarchs occurred in all communist states including Romania after the change to democracy.

A novel is such a major undertaking; there’s the writing of it, of course, then you’re spending months and months revising, polishing, and then promoting it. How did you know this was the book you wanted to spend the next couple of years on?
This is a natural second novel that follows the history of the transition from after the fall of communism to a capitalist democracy.

Were there any particular books, movies, or songs that were knocking around in your head while you were writing this one?
John La Carres books have always been an inspiration for me.

When you first created your protagonist for this book, did you see an empty space in crime lit that you wanted to fill? What can you share about the inspiration for that character?
The genre of the cold war spy thriller requires a protagonist that is less involved in action and more involved in plot.

In addition to a great read, what do you hope readers will take away from this story?
I hope they will have gained a better knowledge of how all the communist countries changed from their totalitarianism system to a capitalist democracy. This change was done with corruption and resulted in incomplete transitions to democracy.

What can you share about what you’re working on next?
My interest still lies in the cold war and post cold war eras.

To learn more about the author and his work, please visit his website.