A Spy with Scruples is actually the sequel to An Improbable Pairing, my first novel. I was inspired to write it because readers were always asking me what happened to that couple and their romance. In retrospect, it would have been easier to write a continuation of their mismatched love affair, but I decided that a plot with more intrigue was a better direction.

The first book takes place in Switzerland where I did my postgraduate study, and this caused me to remember Geneva in the 1960s at the height of the Cold War. This small city by American standards was loaded with spies, posing as consular officials or working for the United Nations or even one of the international organizations headquartered in Switzerland. Added to these characters were the arms dealers and a host of types with quasi-legal deals and get-rich-quick schemes. In addition, there were the ordinary Swiss people, hardworking, honest—real straight arrows. Then there were many foreigners; some in private schools, a few in the university, some expats, journalists, as well as the Happy Few with residence visas.

Since I lived there for almost six years—my father thought I was a slow student—I became acquainted with at least one person in each of the categories. I moved easily within the various groups, and I have maintained many of these same relationships to this day. Plus, it did happen that on two different occasions I was approached by the intelligence services.

I discovered quite by accident that if you write about something you know fairly well, then you don’t spend a lot of time researching and retelling what you’ve read. I simply put together an amalgam of personages, places, and situations and imagined how things might turn out if you were recruited by the CIA all the while keeping it a secret from your new wife and a baby only two months away.

Naturally, it sounds easy, but it wasn’t. A lot of good ideas turn to mush; others that charm you with their early promise turn into a cul-de-sac. The most important goal that I had was to create a spy novel that relied more on brains than gore. I’m not a fan of gratuitous violence either in fiction or in film. A critic delighted me when he posted, It’s complicated and intricate, yet understandable, no gadgets, no violence.

My friends in Switzerland are charmed when I use part of their names and part of their personalities for some of the characters in my books. And most of the hotels, restaurants, and cities that I mention in the book, I’ve visited.
It took me about four months to write A Spy With Scruples because I had two problems to resolve, and they couldn’t be resolved one independent of the other. Entwined as they were, the timing of the dénouement was as critical as the punch line in a joke; much thought, much walk, much rewriting. I hope I succeeded.

Find out more about Gary Dickson on his website: https://garydickson.us/