{"id":3455,"date":"2022-09-09T16:39:10","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T20:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=3455"},"modified":"2022-09-09T16:39:10","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T20:39:10","slug":"charlotte-writer-gary-edgingtons-new-military-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2022\/09\/09\/charlotte-writer-gary-edgingtons-new-military-thriller\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlotte Writer Gary Edgington\u2019s New Military Thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For many Charlotte authors, their decision to pursue a writing career comes after working for years in another career.\u00a0 My friend Landis Wade, for example, pursued a career as a trial lawyer before he penned Deadly Declarations: An Indie Retirement Mystery<\/em>.\u00a0 For Charlotte writer Gary Edgington, his decision to try his hand at writing a novel came after pursuing a forty-year career as a law enforcement and counterterrorism specialist. During his career, he served as an embedded advisor during America\u2019s involvement in the Iraq War.\u00a0 Gary draws extensively on his experiences in Iraq in his debut thriller novel titled Outside the Wire, <\/em>which K\u00f6ehlerbooks recently released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The novel opens in Baghdad in 2008, and it immediately immerses the reader in the chaos and complexities of the war.\u00a0 \u00a0The novel is marketed as a military thriller, but it is also a story about a burgeoning relationship between a counterterrorism expert named Rick Sutherland and a military physician named Nancy Weaver.\u00a0 \u00a0For more information about Gary and his debut novel, please click on the following link:\u00a0 https:\/\/garyedgingtonauthor.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I learned about the publication of Outside the Wire, <\/em>I reached out to Gary and asked him how he came to write this novel.\u00a0 Here is what he sent to me:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Outside the Wire actually started life as <\/em>The Baghdad Diet. Since my tour in Iraq helped me shed 25 pounds, I thought it would be amusing to poke fun at the latest trendy diets while exploring the realities of wartime deployment. This bit of sardonic humor was meant to warn the reader they were not picking up your average blood and guts war novel. I thought it was great \u2013 my agent – not so much.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inspiration for this book came to me one stifling, dust-choked afternoon as I was walking back from dinner. I had just learned that yet another young soldier had taken his life on base. That, coupled with a recent attempted murder at another camp, got me thinking. What if a retired detective like me was brought in to assist on an Agatha-Christie-like murder investigation? When I returned stateside, I started roughing out an idea for a novel. However, my Agatha-Christie project quickly morphed into a \u201cfate of the world hanging in the balance\u201d military\/detective thriller. The story is voiced by a quick-witted retired LAPD Lieutenant. Working entirely out of his element, it doesn\u2019t help that he is constantly hindered by Army red tape, that is not only mystifying but downright scary.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cops and soldiers share many similar traits, but their missions and methodologies could not be more different. In 2008, the military\u2019s role was pacification and counter-insurgency operations which had to be done while working within the Iraqi Judicial system. That meant GIs now had to write detailed reports, collect evidence and conduct formal interviews. The US Army excels at many things, but Police 101 is not one of them. Part of my job was to share my thirty years of law enforcement experience with the Army and help them identify, track down and eliminate terrorist cells.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started <\/em>Outside the Wire while I was living in California, but I finished it after I moved to Charlotte. I\u2019m a history guy and have always loved exploring this region. Many of my Scots-Irish ancestors settled in the Piedmont and Blue Ridge area, so I feel a deep connection to this place. My daughter, a teacher, and her husband, a surgical tech, were the first to move to Charlotte. So naturally, we made a few visits and soon realized this was an exceptional area. We moved here in 2020, and our little tribe was blessed with a grandson late last year. In our mind, Charlotte is a perfect blend of sophistication and southern hospitality, topped by a natural beauty that is second to none.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I congratulate Gary on the publication of his debut novel, and I welcome him to Storied Charlotte\u2019s community of writers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many Charlotte authors, their decision to pursue a writing career comes after working for years in another career.\u00a0 My friend Landis Wade, for example, pursued a career as a trial lawyer before he penned Deadly Declarations: An Indie Retirement Mystery.\u00a0 For Charlotte writer Gary Edgington, his decision to try his hand at writing a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storied-charlotte"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3455"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3459,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3455\/revisions\/3459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}