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Q & A
with Davis Bunn
Q: The first two
books in the Marc Royce series have been bestsellers and also won praise from
the critics. Lion of Babylon won the
Library Journal’s Best Book of 2011 award, and Rare Earth won the 2013 Christy Award for Suspense Fiction. What do
you see is behind this success?
Davis Bunn: The
stories have certainly resonated with readers. I have tried to develop a strong
sense of unfolding drama, combined with a unique spiritual theme. This moral
structure plays out both in the story and the characters. My aim is to create
an inspirational challenge that remains with the reader long after the book has
been set down.
Q: This story includes two special
components from your early life. Tell us about them.
DB: My mother worked as an antiques dealer. In truth, ‘work’ was not really
the correct term, because this was a passion she inherited from her mother. They
bonded while my mom was still a child, going to small eastern Carolina towns
and hunting around junk stores for the sort of bargains that don’t exist anymore.
Their first love
was early Americana, a type of colonial furniture known as Jacobean that predated
America’s nationhood. I never really shared this passion, but in two previous
books I came to respect and admire those who do.
And so I knew a
great delight in re-entering this world in Strait
of Hormuz, only this time at the very highest end. Strait takes place in the rarified world of multi-million dollar
art, where the richest of collectors vie with museums and galleries for items
that are no longer classed as antiques, but rather as treasures
The second special
component was the location. I lived in Switzerland for almost five years, and
many of the venues were places where I worked, and walked, and came to discover
myself as an author.
Q: In what way is the
setting important to this book?
DB: The Strait of
Hormuz is one of the world’s most critical waterways. Stretching between Iran and
the Gulf States, the strait us home to two US fleets. More than a third of all
the oil consumed worldwide pass through these waters. But the story actually
begins in Switzerland, before traveling to the Sinai and then into the
hotly-contested Strait of Hormuz.
Q: What spiritual
theme is the focus of this story?
DB: One growing
area of the missionary church movement is with displaced persons. More than
five million Iranians have been expelled from their homeland, or been forced to
flee the current regime. This includes virtually the entire Christian
population. The missionary church movement has made enormous strides in
bringing peace to these families and introducing Christ into the world of
Muslims fleeing a Muslim government.
Q: What drew you to
the missionary church movement as a theme?
DB: I came to
faith in a missionary church. I was working as a consultant based in Germany.
The year I accepted Christ, the Southern Baptist Mission Board founded a
missionary church in Dusseldorf. I attended the church, I grew in the church, I
studied under two amazing pastors, and one of them returned to Europe to marry
us.
It was also where I learned to write. Two weeks after coming
to faith, I felt called to writing. I wrote for nine years and completed seven
books before my first was accepted for publication. The church, its members,
and the elders all played a critical role in bringing me to where I am now. I
am living testimony to the vital role played by the missionary church.
Q: All three of the
books in this series have given significant insight into the Muslim world,
something critics have picked up on. What experience do you have with this
region?
DB: For the four
years prior to moving to Germany, I lived and worked in the Middle East. I was
the only non-Muslim in the management structure of a family-owned company. They
had three major arms: construction equipment, shipping, and pharmaceuticals. I
rose to become Marketing Manager of the pharmaceutical division.
One of the requirements of this job was to take instruction
in the Koran and Islamic history from an imam who taught at the local
university. I think this experience played a major role in my coming to Christ.
Q: How can readers find you on the
Internet?
Subscribe
to my blog’s feed (to get my latest posts via e-mail or through your feed
reader) at http://feeds.feedburner.com/DavisBunn
Sign up
for my e-newsletter (for subscriber-only giveaways and advance notice of my
upcoming novels): http://www.davisbunn.com/news.htm
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