The Professionals

1. If someone were to ask you to briefly describe what your book is about, how would you do it?

The Professionals is a thriller about four young friends who turn to kidnapping when they're unable to find jobs after college. Their country is mired in a recession, and its government seems more interested in bailing out investment bankers than in addressing the problems facing them and their peers, so they take their frustrations into their own hands and kidnap a series of wealthy businessmen in quick, low ransom scores.

Everything's going fine until a Minnesota state policeman stumbles onto their scheme. He enlists the help of a beautiful, enigmatic FBI agent in pursuing the kidnappers in an explosive cat-and-mouse game that leads across the country and back again, all while a dangerous mobster lurks in the background, hell-bent on vengeance.

That's the plot, anyway. Thematically, I'd say the book is about how tough it can be to act rationally when our emotions are involved, even if we know deep down the correct path to take. We'd like to believe that our emotions won't distract us, but it takes a rare kind of person to stay the course when the heart's pulling in another direction. I think that's a pretty good thesis statement for the novel.

2. Your background as a poker tournament reporter is intriguing. Did it get you thinking about the different ways ordinary people gamble with their lives and their futures?

In a sense, yes. Certainly the kinds of people one meets at poker tournaments are those who are willing to take risks to live extraordinary lives, and who aren't willing to settle for the stereotypical nine-to-five existence. There's a lot of that kind of gamble in Arthur Pender and his friends, though I'd argue that where poker players generally choose to spend their lives at the tables, Pender and Co. turn to kidnapping because they don't feel they have any other choice. They don't believe that nine-to-five existence is available to them anymore.

3. What inspired you to write a book in which four smart friends -- all with college degrees and a failed dream - turn to a life of crime?

I began initially with the crime itself, this series of low-ransom kidnappings and a group of criminals that was always on the move. I'd originally imagined that my criminals would be your typical lowlife kind of guys, the career criminals motivated primarily by malevolence and greed. But those guys, frankly, kind of bore me, and I figured if I were going to be spending four-hundred pages with my kidnappers, I'd like to them to have a more interesting reason for doing what they did.

I wrote the book in the fall of 2009, when the American economy was really cratering. The unemployment rate was at ten percent and there was a lot of resentment toward the government because of how they'd handled the bailouts of the big Wall Street firms who'd arguably caused the whole mess in the first place. I had a lot of bright, educated friends who couldn't find decent jobs, and though none of them turned to kidnapping, it didn't seem particularly implausible that people might turn to crime out of that desperation.

4. Do you think this is more relevant in today's world than it was perhaps 20 years ago?

I think so. I think that my generation was raised to believe that we could do anything we wanted, and that a college degree would almost automatically lead to a high-paying job and a wonderful life. I think that a lot of people go to college these days not because they have a particular plan, but because it's expected of them. And so there are a lot of college graduates with English degrees who hit the job market and realize that life isn't going to be as easy as they thought, and that their parents' lives aren't necessarily available to them anymore.

I think there are a lot of intelligent, disenfranchised young people working jobs for which they're overqualified, if they can find work at all. There are a lot of kids getting slapped in the face with this grim reality. They're burdened with student debt and there aren't any jobs. And I think there's a dissatisfaction and frustration that is somewhat unique to this generation, and that's what drives Pender and his friends into crime.

5. With which of your characters did you most identify, and why?

I started writing from Pender's perspective, and to me he'll always be the protagonist of the novel. I think certainly we spend more time in his head than in anyone else's, and so there's probably more of me in Pender than there is in any of the other characters.

That said, in real life, I'm not sure I share Pender's willingness to take such enormous risks. I was never cut out to be a professional poker player, and I'm probably not gutsy enough to be a kidnapper, either. I'm probably more like Marie; I'll go along with my friends' schemes, and probably make some big mistakes, but sooner or later there will come a point where I'll find myself mired in regret, wishing I'd had the good sense to stay home and read a book.

6. It's very interesting in your book how two areas of law enforcement work together - did you base Stevens and Windermere's relationship on people you met in real life?

I didn't, not really. I think that we've probably all been in those kinds of situations where we're happily involved with a person, perhaps even married, and we meet someone who just seems to bewitch us. Certainly, I've had my share. That's the root of Stevens and Windermere's relationship to me: Stevens is a happily-married man and very much content with his life, but there's an undeniable spark that he shares with Windermere and that's bound to create tension and, ultimately, conflict. Maybe I'm hoping that Stevens will find a better way out of the situation than I ever have!

7. Will there be more books featuring Minnesota state policeman Kirk Stevens and/or FBI Agent Carla Windermere?

There will be more books featuring both Stevens and Windermere. Their relationship is too fun to write to pass up! As I write this, the second book in the series is going through the editing process, and I'm about to start work on a third. I'll keep writing about Stevens and Windermere for as long as my publisher lets me, and probably longer.

8. The characters are each so vividly drawn - would you have any suggestions for a casting director? Did you see anyone in particular playing these characters on the big screen?

That's a great question, and it's one that I've spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about. I haven't really landed on a really satisfactory cast yet, I'm afraid. Maybe Russell Crowe could play Stevens. Or Daniel Craig - after watching him play the disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I'm convinced he could play anyone, even my bored state policeman.

For Windermere, I'm a huge fan of Thandie Newton's work (The Truth About Charlie, in particular), though she'd have to pull off a Southern accent. For Pender and the gang, though, I'm at sea. I'd love to hear some decent suggestions, to be honest.

-- Owen Laukkanen