Chasm

### Review "James Bruno has broken the thriller mold with CHASM . . . a tour de force!" ~ Gloria Nagy, New York Times bestselling author of nine successful books. --Gloria Nagy ### From the Author My war criminal thriller CHASM has joined PERMANENT INTERESTS on the Kindle Bestseller list for Political Fiction. This is great news for a writer, to say the least. The countless hours spent cobbling a plot together with fictional characters at the expense of a social life pays off when this happens. A fiction writer has to be a somewhat dysfunctional figure. Just think. You lock yourself away voluntarily in solitary, conjure up a totally made-up world into which you throw your dreams, nightmares, hangups, delusions, obsessions, loves and hatreds, populated with characters drawn from your life as well as your imagination, then send them into danger and love affairs, arbitrarily killing some off in the process while changing others' lives godlike. Think of it. This is great power to hold over others' lives, albeit people who live only in your fertile mind. People often ask if some of my characters are based on real people. Usually I can answer in the affirmative, but won't name names, either for fear of lawsuits, or out of respect. Then, of course, the lawyers require us to include the boilerplate disavowal - *any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.* I'll make no bones about it. The character in CHASM called William Winford Ferret is based wholecloth on William Bradford Bishop. Bishop was a Foreign Service officer who, upon arriving back home from his State Department job on March 1, 1976, methodically bludgeoned to death his mother, his wife and their three sons, aged 5, 10 and 14. He then loaded their bodies into the back of the family station wagon and drove 275 miles to the Great Smokey Mountains of North Carolina where he dug a trench into which he dumped the corpses, poured gasoline on them and attempted to burn them. Bishop then disappeared. He's never been caught. He has been sighted over the years in Europe, but has successfully eluded his pursuers. He has been featured on America's Most Wanted. A former Army intelligence officer fluent in five languages, Bishop has the skills to cross borders and blend into foreign societies without being noticed. I've followed this case over the years and combed through the official databases for information on him when I still worked in the government. Such evil should not escape justice. If still living, Bishop would be 74 years old. I've always hoped that my novel CHASM came to Bishop's attention and that he read it. In doing so, I've hoped in my fantasy that his confrontation with himself in the form of the character William Ferret would drive home the evil that he is. I've hoped that Bishop would get angry with me for making fodder of his character, such as it is, that he would vent himself in a way that would give away his whereabouts. But I fear my hopes are mere dreams, that Bishop has lived out his life, or will live it out, peacefully, his conscience unfettered by his pitiless murder of his family. I tried to delve into Bishop's twisted soul, his final days with his wife and kids. His story plays out in the context of a sort of witness protection program for foreign war criminals, based on a true program for Nazi officials after WWII. If you read CHASM, don't do so just before bedtime. You won't sleep. I promise. Fiction,Espionage,Political Corruption,Conspiracy,War Criminals A top secret program to resettle war criminals in our communities, men guilty of the most horrendous crimes imaginable. An American diplomat who blugeoned his family to death, disappeared and remains free to this day. A massive White House cover-up. These really happened. Operation Paperclip, run by the CIA, gave us Nazi scientists and SS murderers. William Bradford Bishop massacred his mother, wife and three young sons in 1976 and has been on the lam ever since. CHASM is based on these true covert programs and evildoers. Don't read it before bedtime. You won't be able to sleep. Promise . . . . . . Peace in the Balkans is fragile. The White House's political fortunes hang on ensuring that shaky peace deals hold firm. In a top secret codicil, the U.S. agrees clandestinely to take in scores of Balkan war criminals. This super-secret program is Operation CHASM. CHASM gets out of hand as war criminals go on a rampage of arson and murder across the U.S. Mike Gallatin's young daughter is almost killed. Drawing on his detective skills, the Cleveland investigator finds out about CHASM -- but almost at the cost of his own life as the ruthless National Security Adviser, John Tulliver, orders Gallatin's "recall." Written by a former insider, CHASM is about Washington powerholders, who, in pursuit of their own ambitions, take actions which trample on the little guy. But one average citizen, a victim of their policies, embarks on a quest to expose the hypocrisy and lies. It also demonstrates how malicious policies can overwhelm their implementers, dragging them into hellish behavior and self-destruction.Readers of Silva, Forsyth and Ludlum will enjoy this taut thriller written by a man who worked in the twilight world of government secrets.