I spent 35 years as an analyst, diplomat, and senior executive at the CIA and continue to work part-time for the Agency as a consultant and trainer. I draw on that background and the experiences and insight from that career to build my characters and stories in the Cold War thriller series. A lover of the works of Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, and other American noir classics, I began writing detective fiction but gradually switched over to espionage fiction near the end of my Agency career. In an effort to create a more entertaining story, I do find it necessary to take some liberties with the realities of intelligence work. Nonetheless, I strive to give my readers a book that is as plausible and authentic as possible by placing Karl Baier's work in the appropriate historical context and a realistic political and strategic context.