The Cuckoo Asset follows a bruised, gifted electronics student from Belfast whose intelligence and skills make him a highly sought-after asset, making him a pawn in a game he doesn’t understand. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Early in my career, back in 1988, as a popular young teacher, I was mistakenly identified as a former CIA technical officer by a bright student who had seen my name on a document released by the Iranian Government.

I immediately thought that a young man duped into becoming involved in a Cold War CIA operation, then living a secret life after fleeing a war zone, could make a great story. I chipped away at the story for many years after that.

What aspects of Kenny’s personality do you think readers connect with most strongly?

Readers connect most strongly with McKenna’s determination to reinvent himself. He grew up in a difficult environment, and now he longs for acceptance, opportunity, and a life beyond the limits of his childhood on the notorious Shankill Road in Belfast. His desire to please others and be valued makes him vulnerable to manipulation, and while his intelligence and optimism encourage readers to root for him, McKenna makes increasingly questionable choices, but his continued self-reflection and discomfort with those decisions remind readers that he has not abandoned his conscience. Rather than watching a hero become a villain, readers witness an ordinary, gifted young man struggling to reconcile who he wants to be with the instincts or traits that he inherited from his violent father. This is the same trait that makes the cuckoo chick kill its step-siblings.

That, to me, is the emotional core of Kenny’s appeal. The reader doesn’t connect with him because he is a covert asset. They connect with him because he is trying to be a good man and gradually discovers how difficult that can be.

What kind of research did you undertake to portray Angola and its geopolitical significance?

A lifetime of reading obscure government and United Nations publications, declassified intelligence documents, and interviewing Angolan people who lived during the 70s and 80s. The occasional conversation with an individual who cannot be identified!

What emotional journey did you most want readers to experience alongside Kenny?

I was determined that The Cuckoo Asset was never going to be a conventional “heroic spy” story. The novel is designed as a progressive emotional unravelling of an ordinary young man as a promising opportunity leads him from the relative safety of Coventry into the chaos of war-torn Angola.

At the beginning of the novel, readers are invited to feel curious about David ‘Kenny’ McKenna and sympathetic towards the challenges he faced growing up amid the violence of Belfast. There is a sense of “this is a smart young man entering a complex world”. The protagonist McKenna is grounded in logic and systems, not ideology or violence. He seems to be a nice guy.

The reader then begins to feel unease and tension as a life-changing opportunity for our protagonist goes so very wrong. The reader senses that McKenna is “lucky” or “talented enough to be chosen,” but the reader also has the benefit of being able to interpret the antagonists’ intentions much faster than McKenna does. Once he is in Angola, confusion and frustration kicks in for both the reader and McKenna himself in Angola. The familiar questions of espionage fiction emerge: who can be trusted, who is manipulating whom, and where does the real danger lie?

Unease turns into moral discomfort as McKenna becomes involved in violent rebel activity, international smuggling, and CIA covert activity. Moral erosion, “Every choice costs something,” is one of my central emotional intentions. The reader experiences anxiety and ethical discomfort because McKenna doesn’t become “evil”; he just fits in better. For readers, this can be more unsettling than a simple moral fall because they understand why each compromise is made, even as they recognise its consequences.

Finally, as McKenna returns to Angola in 1999, the anxiety and tension become fear and horror as McKenna, out of a misguided loyalty to an old friend who had exploited him earlier, is caught and tortured by the police in Angola. Hope seems lost. This emotional peak has shock, suspense, heartbreak, joy, and anger. The main conflict almost reaches its turning point here, but the uncertainty of the outcome for McKenna keeps them emotionally invested.

By the end of the book, readers may feel both relief and satisfaction as the conflict is resolved. The later themes of resilience, loyalty, family, and friendship also encourage reflection long after the final two chapters. My hope is that readers close the book not only entertained by the thriller elements but also consider the personal cost of survival, the complexity of human relationships, and the choices that shape a life.

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