After a hurricane-delayed landing into New York City a few years ago, Brett Battles had just 10 minutes to make his connecting flight to Zurich. And that’s when the novelist saw a message from his literary agent: Call me. But Battles didn’t have a moment to spare, making it on the plane as the doors closed behind him.
“I couldn’t even make the call; I had zero time,” says Battles during a Zoom interview. “Once I got to Europe, I had to wait another six hours because now she was asleep.” Battles, a novelist with more than 40 books to his credit , including his Jonathan Quinn thriller series, had served as a co-writer on a Stuart Woods’ novel , “Obsession,” about former CIA operative turned Hollywood producer character Teddy Fay.
“I wrote spy books and I worked in Hollywood,” says Battles of how he came to co-write the Fay novel. “We worked together to do that book. .
.. Two weeks after I turned it in, Stuart passed away in his sleep.
I honestly thought that was it; I wouldn’t be playing in his universe anymore.” So as he strolled around Lake Zurich with friends, Battles tried to stay awake and stave off jet lag until he connected with his agent and got the news: Stuart Woods had been working on a new novel in his popular series of books about cop-turned-lawyer Stone Barrington when he died. Would Battles be willing to come on and write the rest of the book? “They were interested in having me finish it.
So that was a very shocking moment for me. A.
