Meet William Burton McCormick
Background: William Burton McCormick is a Thriller, Shamus, Derringer and Claymore awards finalist whose fiction regularly appears in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, Black Mask, Mystery Weekly and elsewhere. He is a graduate of Brown University, earned an MA in Novel Writing from the University of Manchester and was elected a Hawthornden Writing Fellow in Scotland. He is a member of Mystery Writers of America, the Crime Writers Association, International Thriller Writers and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. His historical novel of the Baltic Republics, Lenin’s Harem, was the first work of fiction added to the permanent library at the Latvian War Museum in Rīga. A native of Nevada, William has lived in seven countries including Latvia, Russia, the United Kingdom and Ukraine for writing purposes.
Most-Recent Book: KGB Banker (summary, reviews and links to purchase).
Upcoming Writing News: My story "Myrna Loy Vs. The Third Reich" is coming in the July/August 2022 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Series character Santa Ezerina returns in "The Celtwave Cundrum" in the September/October issue, a sequel to my 2020 Shamus Award nominated story "The Dunes of Saulkrasti."
Authors That Influenced You: Alan Furst, Arthur Conan Doyle, James Ellroy, Alistair Maclean, Robert Dugoni, Steve Berry, M.R. James, Graham Greene, H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Eric Ambler, Alan Dean Foster, Sophocles, Ian Rankin, John Steinbeck and Sheridan Le Fanu.
Books You Would Recommend: Alan Furst, The Polish Officer; Linda Davies, Nest of Vipers, James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia and Ronald Barak, JK's Code.
Favorite Indie Bookstore: The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ.
Charities: For 75 years, CARE has led the way to a better life for the world’s most vulnerable people. In 2020, CARE worked in over 100 countries, reaching more than 90 million people through 1,300 projects. Authors for Ukraine includes authors from across the US, Canada, and the UK who have united to raise funds for CARE's Ukraine Crisis Fund. The Authors for Ukraine charity auction gives readers a chance to bid on signed, dedicated books from their favorite authors.
KGB Banker
A return trip to the land of his ancestors is about to turn deadly for one whistleblowing Chicago banker.
When financial executive Bob Vanags takes a job at ominous Turaida Bank in Latvia, he hopes to learn of his heritage and to fight economic fraud in Eastern Europe. Instead, Bob finds himself pulled into a world of political intrigue, blackmail, and murder.
Aided by his son David, his beautiful colleague Agnese, and a fearless Latvian journalist named Santa Ezeriņa, Bob begins to unravel his employer’s darkest secrets, discovering their sins and conspiracies beyond his wildest fears. Secrets that Turaida wants to keep hidden, even at the cost of Bob’s life.
Now framed for murder by Turaida operatives, Bob must go on the run to clear his name, protect his family, and reveal the plot to the world before governments topple and war ignites in Europe. KGB Banker is a pulse-pounding international thriller spanning the globe from Latvia to Iceland, Moscow to America, Ukraine to the Estonian islands and back again.
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