The Ben Koenig series by M. W. Craven will remind readers of a Lee Child type of hero. 

In Fearless, the main character, Ben Koenig, used to head the US Marshal’s elite Special Operations Group. His team hunted the bad guys. But after a bounty was put on his head he disappeared, going on six years now. Unfortunately, his face appeared on every television screen in the country and his cover is blown. But he is rescued by his boss in the US Marshals who asks him to find his daughter, which Ben agrees to. 

In Nobody’s Hero, the plot opens with a shocking murder and abduction on the streets of London that leads investigators to open a safe in Langley for the first time in ten years. A note directs them to a few key individuals, with three of the people on the list dead. The fourth on the list is Ben Koenig. He realizes that he knows the woman who carried out the killings. Ten years earlier, without being told why, he was tasked with helping her disappear. Far from being a deranged killer, she is the gatekeeper of a secret that could take down America, and for the safety of the country, she has been in hiding for years. Now Ben must find her. But because of his condition of not being able to feel fear, he doesn’t always know when he should walk away.

These books are fast paced, sometimes violent, and engrossing. Because the first book, Fearless, is more personal readers want to take the journey along with Ben and his handler, Jen.  The second book is more of a spy novel. 

Elise Cooper: Do you agree that the first book was a different type of book than the second?

M. W. Crave: Yes. They are very different styles and there’s an easy explanation for that, since they we’re written 10 years apart. I wrote the first one, Fearless, in 2015, but it didn’t really get picked up until 2000. I honestly think it was about eight or nine years apart that I wrote the second book, so the style is very much like my current style as there’s a bit more humor in it and the spy thing kind of happened by accident. And just like my Washington Poe series in in the UK, each of these books is very different to the previous one. I try not to go over the same ground.

EC: How did you get the idea for Fearless?

M.W.C: I met Lee Child who gave me writing suggestions.  With the first Ben book I decided to set it in the US and gave him thus condition. I had to change the breakfast foods and the use of words that are different in the US than in England. I came up with the names Ben and Jen because it reminds me of the ice cream.  I gave them food that I like. The starting point for his character was the first scene in this book when he corrects the Sheriff deputies. I used real units and tactics because I was in the army for twelve years.  This book is personal to Ben, while book 2, Nobody’s Hero, was more of an assignment for Ben. 

EC: How would you describe Ben?

M.W.C: Distrustful, thinks he is invincible, curious, calm, fearless, stubborn, and a lateral thinker.

EC: Why did you have the scenes where Ben tells people what they are doing wrong, for humor?

 M.W.C: He has a contrary nation, sometimes he deliberately provokes them to get a reaction or to make them angry because angry people make mistakes. This is a tactical move. I really like the scene in Fearlesswhere he is being held up by a drug addict and he explains what they are doing wrong with the gun. He sees something wrong and feels he must correct it.  I did it for the reader to have a bit of fun. 

EC:  Why did you make Ben previously working at SOG for the US Marshals?

M.W.C: It really exists, and I did not have to make something up from scratch. They are the assault team of the US Marshals. I did a lot of research on what they did. This is also why I use real places. 

EC:  What about the Urbach-Wiethe disease?

M.W.C: This is a real condition. It is very rare. I came across this when I was a probation officer. A client had a brain injury, some miswiring. Over 99% of the time the person has their fear get worse and worse, scared of absolutely everything.  But the 1% of the time it goes the other way, which is how Ben acts. He does not recognize dangerous situations. The example I use is that there is a lion in this alley and Ben would walk down it, anyway, not realizing he should be afraid.

EC: How would you describe Jen?

M.W.C: Compartmentalizes, tough, resourceful. She is Ben’s handler, and they have their future tied together.  When I originally wrote it, she and Ben are friends. I changed it to give her a dark past and how she blames Ben from her fall from grace.  They really do not like each other.

EC: Is book 2 a cliff hanger?

M.W.C: I will use what happened in book 2 in book 3.  The character will not be happy. After that I do not know where I will go with it. 

EC:  Next Books?

M.W.C: I’m halfway through the third one as we speak, I’ve hit about 55,000 words this afternoon so yeah, I’ve got a contract for the third one in the UK. I’m sure it will follow in the in the US probably in 2026. The third book, working titled At the Edge, isn’t a spy novel, but it’s back to probably more of the style of the first book.  The plot has Koenig battling a biker gang in California, going there because of his love of movies. Something personal happens, while Ben is working in a bar there. Jen will appear in the latter part of the book to bail Ben out. This will be very personal for Ben, more like the Fearless book. 

I am also writing a stand-alone titled 101 Ways to Die in New York City. It might come out in 2026.  It is about a failed author who wrote this book.  He is asked to co-write a fiction book with a movie star that is trying to find a spy.  This older woman is the protagonist that is a cranky old spy. 

THANK YOU!!

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