Features Bruce Borgos

Unknown lights in the Nevada desert sky, a drug cartel, a foreign agent, a young hacker, and a sheriff bent on unraveling secrets:

The Big Thrill Interviews Author Bruce Borgos

By Millie Naylor Hast

If you haven’t met Sheriff Porter Beck yet, you should! The former Army intelligence pro is back in Bruce Borgos’ second Beck novel, SHADES OF MERCY. Borgos, who also authored two earlier novels, has created a character who is kind but tough, dealing with a disability, and not one bit daunted by taking on big cases in the usually sleepy Nevada high desert.

In this story, Beck sees a strange light streak across the sky on July 4. The wildfire season is already underway, and Beck worries the light might crash and start another fire. The light does crash, and the resulting explosion triggers a cascade of death and destruction that impacts Beck’s sister, his oldest friend, and the community at large. His instincts tell him a young hacker named Mercy Vaughn, who is incarcerated at the local youth center where his sister helps out, is somehow involved. A vicious cartel and a foreign agent are already on Mercy’s trail. Beck will have to sort it all out before something even worse happens.

Bruce Borgos

The Big Thrill caught up with Bruce Borgos and asked him to tell us more.

What inspired SHADES OF MERCY?

The idea for SHADES OF MERCY sprung from my reading about the world of hacking and something called a Zero-Day, which is a vulnerability in a computer system yet to be detected by its owners or developers. These “back doors” are what hackers exploit to attack software programs, and it is a terrifying world. The system penetrations I describe in the book have all been done. One of the scariest hacks, of course, is the taking over of military equipment such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), which is how the book opens. I wanted the second installment of the Porter Beck series to be about something (and someone) timely and real world, and this was it.

Talking about mid-century murders at Tucson Festival of Books with Lou Berney.

Porter Beck is an interesting character with a subtle sense of humor. What was his genesis?

The idea for Beck came to me as I began outlining The Bitter Past, the first book in the series. I needed a rural county sheriff as my main character, but I didn’t want anything remotely resembling the stereotypical backwater lawman that’s been done a million times. I wanted a smart man. Really smart. A man with some intellectual gifts and a great, intelligent wit. He speaks many languages and has perfect auditory recall. I like real people who can do extraordinary things but who also have real problems. That’s why I gave Beck some physical limitations.

What is it like to write about a character with a disability? What research did you do to portray him accurately?

Book launch at Atomic Museum in Las Vegas

It definitely makes things interesting. Beck suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, commonly referred to as “night blindness.” When the sun goes down (or the lights), his vision narrows to almost nothing. Imagine being in law enforcement when you can’t see in the dark! It’s a huge limitation, and it’s terrifying. The disease is progressive, but it can often take many years to result in a near-complete loss of vision. I’ve researched RP extensively, especially on the day-to-day challenges those who have it struggle with, and the emotional difficulties are every bit as tough as the physical ones. But the idea of being a “daylight man” also provides Beck a different perspective on the world that is refreshing.

Charlie and Brin play strong supporting roles, while Beck investigates two other female characters, Shiloah and Mercy. How do you approach writing your female characters?

I love strong, independent women, and Charlie and Brinley both satisfy that definition. Brinley comes with a great deal of emotional baggage, as we learn in the first book, but it has molded her into a fearless fighter and even determined her path in life. I think that’s real and relatable to readers. When I ask people at signing events or book clubs who their favorite character is, Brin wins by a landslide. Charlie Blue Horse is new to the series, entering in SHADES OF MERCY, and she’s half Paiute. I like her so much already; I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Discussing The Bitter Pill with Barbara Peters.

In terms of how I approach writing female characters, I suppose I just focus on creating people who are interesting. We all have quirks. We all have baggage. My characters, female or male, respond to circumstances based on who they are as people, who they have become over time.

What caused you to begin writing a series after two stand-alone novels, and what are your plans for Porter Beck?

I didn’t set out to write a series. The Bitter Past works fine as a stand-alone. It was my literary agent, Janet Reid, who, after reading the manuscript, suggested it. I loved the idea. I’m a huge Craig Johnson, C.J. Box, and William Kent Krueger fan, to name just a few. And I love revisiting my characters for an entirely new story. It’s like dropping in on old friends! I’ve just finished the first draft of book three, and my ideas for the fourth installment are already swimming around in my head.

The Big Thrill Interviews Author Bruce Borgos