Pedaling East follows two suspended FBI agents on a cross-country bicycle journey who discover that a human-trafficking cartel and a white nationalist militia are following them coast to coast with unfinished business. Was the route planned first, or did the story shape the geography?

The route was roughly planned and had to be West Coast to East Coast, since the book was a follow-up to Pedaling West, published in 2023. Since the bike trip represented a reunion of sorts of the cast from Pedaling West, but still part of the Butnari and Hill Crime Thriller series, my challenge was to find a way that two FBI agents could afford the two months off from work required for a coast-to-coast bicycle excursion. The untimely suspension resulting from a territorial dispute between ICE and the FBI solved the dilemma.

Marina and Doug begin the story suspended by the FBI after confronting corruption connected to trafficking and militias. Were you interested in exploring the frustration of people trying to do the right thing inside compromised systems?

Not really. I was simply taking advantage of a plausible scenario for a dispute between two federal enforcement agencies based on current events. The enthusiasm for immigration control by the current administration has placed unusual demands on the agency charged with handling it. To quickly increase their ranks, ICE has resorted to programs like the 287(g) initiative described in Pedaling East, and critics have complained that the vetting process for admitting new agents has suffered. Whether the accusation is accurate or not, the publicity allows the scenario in my book to resonate.

Found-family stories work best when the bonds feel earned rather than assumed. How do you build that sense of chosen belonging across a fast-moving plot?

As one reviewer noted, I deliberately slowed the plot-action down in places to include short scenes where the six primary characters interact on a personal basis. Despite the different environments each character comes from and the groups’ unusual mix of race, gender, professional avocations, and even sexual preferences, they find common ground in the important areas that establish essential human bonds. Their shared perils on the journey strengthen those bonds and make the story as much about the importance of teamwork as a fight for survival.

I hope the series continues in other books. If so, where will the story take readers?

Since Full Count, published in 2019, a consistent cast of my characters has intermingled across my seven published novels. Not all appear in all books, but they float in and out of the stories as the different plots for each story allow. Only Tom Burns has appeared in all seven novels, and I suspect that future books will feature the same characters. The “story” will determine where they (and the readers) go, and like life, we can’t predict what the next “story” might be.

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