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Publication Date: 27th June 2026
Before becoming a full-time novelist, you spent three decades teaching biochemistry at Scottish universities. How has that scientific background influenced your approach to writing thrillers?
History is rich with weird examples of biological warfare dating back many thousands of years when archers used to dip arrow heads in excrement or rotting cadavers to spread infection, and armies catapulted plague-infected corpses over city walls to spread disease. In writing fiction, the fun is creating biological threats that are plausible, and unknown making them unpredictable.
Scientific knowledge and intellectual property play an important role in Dead Agent Walking. What interested you in exploring the risks surrounding valuable scientific research?
Intellectual property and commercial secrets used to be easy to protect. Don’t tell anybody. In modern times, criminals and foreign actors use sophisticated and elaborate scams to dupe or blackmail vulnerable staff into handing over valuable technology.
Your novels often combine real science with fictional conspiracies. How do you strike the right balance between scientific authenticity and page-turning suspense?
The plot is driven by the characters and they come across pieces of science as and when they need it to understand what is happening or deal with the consequences of what has already happened. To keep authenticity, the science needs to be simple, quick, and relevant for the characters in the scene.
Cybercrime has become an increasingly sophisticated threat in the modern world. What aspects of this evolving landscape did you most want to explore in the novel?
In the 20th century, foreign agents targeted relatively few people with access to military secrets. In the 21st century, cybercrime has escalated the theft of commercial secrets, and blackmail of individuals, institutions, and businesses for money. It is already an epidemic, and anyone in their own home can become a target.
Scientific discoveries have the potential to improve lives, but they can also be exploited for criminal purposes. Was this contrast something you consciously wanted to explore in Dead Agent Walking?
It is a perennial conversation among scientists because critical discoveries are always taken out of the hands of the discoverers and used by organisations and governments for their own priorities. It is important to keep the conversation alive so that protections can be devised that will mitigate criminal and rogue activity.
Having worked in academia yourself, how much inspiration do you draw from real academic life when creating scientists, institutions, and research environments?
Every writer will draw on life and work experiences to provide some richness to the story, and I am no different. The trick is to elaborate the experience to such an extent that it cannot be recognised as a real situation or person, but still remain plausible.
Your thrillers often feature complex conspiracies built around believable scientific concepts. How much research goes into ensuring those scenarios remain plausible?
As a postgraduate research student, I learned how to research a topic, and I love spending time on research for a book. I always gather much more than I need and end up having to choose the best parts.
Readers are often fascinated by the "what if?" questions behind conspiracy thrillers. When developing a novel, do you begin with the science, the conspiracy, or the characters?
I start with the characters because I need to develop their interaction and involvement in the underlying plot. Either the plot situation is within their sphere of experience, or it directly impacts on their life. What if is always a question that arises when the antagonists look like they will succeed in their endeavour. In thrillers, there is always a knife-edge between protagonists and antagonists and what if the antagonists succeed.
From biochemistry lecturer to award-winning thriller writer is quite a career change. Looking back, what skills from your academic career have proved most valuable in your writing?
Writing fiction requires love of reading, research skills, grit, determination, long hours, thick skin, re-writes, flexibility, and passion for the subject. All of these qualities I learned as an undergraduate student, and developed as a postgraduate research student.
Whether readers come for the science, the suspense, or the action, what do you hope they remember most after finishing Dead Agent Walking?
Zoe Tampsin. In the blackest of times when all appears to be lost, Zoe keeps going, keeps digging for answers, works hard to outsmart the enemy, and does the right thing to provide hope for victims.
A huge thank you Gordon, for joining me today and taking us behind the scenes of Dead Agent Walking.
It has been fascinating to discover how a career in science feeds into the world of thriller writing, particularly when the threats explored in fiction have such recognisable roots in the modern world. But beneath the science and conspiracy is ultimately a story about people — and, as his final answer makes wonderfully clear, one determined woman who refuses to stop searching for the truth: Zoe Tampsin.
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