The Cuckoo Asset started in 1988 after a misunderstanding where some engineers in my postgraduate class decided their lecturer was a spy! I happened to have banknotes from a trip to communist Romania, and I had the same full name as a spy identified by the Iranians after they stormed the 1979 US Embassy. The banter continued for weeks! I had a black beard, long hair and those reactolight glasses which annoyingly went dark in the lectures. I was not in disguise or hiding out! Anyway, the seed was sown and I realised there was a story in it.
A few chapters scribbled on scraps of paper then stopped because I couldn’t see where it was going. The story was about mistaken identities but I wasn’t ready and needed to think about the flaws and insecurities I’d seen in the people I’d known. My protagonist got changed from Welsh Valleys rogue David Livingstone who I knew from university to David McKenna from the Shankill area of Belfast and that gave the perfect impetus I needed – a complex character, shaped by trauma, believes he’s good but appears better at being bad than good. Every time he does the right thing it turns out wrong. Having no parents leaves him vulnerable to being exploited and he ends up being unwittingly recruited into the intelligence services in far flung Africa.
I’ve read most mainstream spy thriller books, starting with the Bond books at the age of twelve. An early favourite was Childer’s The Riddle of the Sands but Forsyth’s Day of the Jackal takes some beating and was influential. Unfortunately, I’m a hanging judge when it comes to fiction books and if I don’t like the first few pages then I stop reading. I’m much more patient with non-fiction books. I think that’s probably my academic background. My favourite from the last few years is S.A Smith’s Russia in Revolution 1890-1928, one of the best books ever written.
Recurring motifs are a big thing for me. I enjoy the grounding effect they have throughout any novel. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan has these motifs and it makes the book a timeless classic. In The Cuckoo Asset I obviously had the complex layers of mistaken identity but also deception and the exploitation of loyalty at every level in life.
The book is not an easy read. I deliberately didn’t flesh out some scenes. It’s confusing, complicated, but excellent according to several betareaders. Characters are initially cliched because I planned it. My cinematic approach means that the tension increases gradually. I literally spent months on individual chapters. I nearly burnt the manuscript in 2001. Using my own criteria, I couldn’t read past the early chapters. I rewrote some chapters so many times. I fell out badly with my editor because I’m too sensitive and stubborn, but my growth mindset took onboard the stinging criticism of one betareader and virtually rewrote a main character.
Pick up your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cuckoo-Asset-R-Mac-Se%C3%A1in-ebook/dp/B0GHPC8YHW
