Furious: Sailing Into Terror
by Jeffrey James Higgins
Genre: Thriller, Suspense
**PenCraft Book Awards selected FURIOUS as the Best Fiction Book of 2021!!**
"An extraordinary achievement by a writer destined for greatness." –Jon Land, USA Today bestselling author of the Caitlin Strong novels
"A gripping tale of a dream vacation that goes horribly wrong." –Mark Alpert, internationally bestselling author of Saint Joan of New York
Trapped on a storm-damaged yacht, a grieving woman must conquer her worst fears and fight for her life, in a story described as The Shining on a yacht.
Dr. Dagny Steele is on the verge of fulfilling her lifelong calling to become a pediatric surgeon when the sudden death of her daughter sends her into a crushing depression. Grief stricken and desperate to heal, she takes a leave of absence and sails across the Indian Ocean with her husband. Dagny begins to recover from her tragic loss when her voyage turns into a nightmare.
Isolated and hunted at sea, can she survive a deadly crucible?
Amazon * B&N * Black Rose Writing
Jeffrey James Higgins is a former reporter and retired supervisory special agent who writes thriller novels, short stories, creative nonfiction, and essays. He has wrestled a suicide bomber, fought the Taliban in combat, and chased terrorists across five continents. During his career, he made the first narco-terrorism arrest, convicted the world’s most prolific heroin trafficker, and arrested an Iranian operative trying to acquire surface-to-air missiles. Jeffrey received both the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Heroism and the DEA Award of Valor.
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What inspired you to write this book?
A year before Covid-19, I thought about ways someone could flee a populated area during a pandemic and decided escaping on a yacht would work. Then I wondered what would happen if someone on the boat was dangerous. That led me to write a closed-environment thriller. I wanted to create a fast-paced novel that readers would not want to put down. Furious is pure romanticism. The protagonist, Dagny, must use her mind to find ways to survive. It’s about using reason, being courageous, and never giving up.
Can you, for those who don't know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?
I’ve wanted to be an author since my parents read me bedtime stories. I worked as a journalist to pay the bills, then entered law enforcement and stopped writing during my 25 years as a police officer and special agent. When I returned to writing a few years ago, I felt like I was coming home. I’ve always been a writer, even when I wasn’t writing.
Who is your hero and why?
My wife, Cynthia Farahat Higgins, is my hero. She grew up in Cairo, Egypt and wanted to be a sculptor, but the government prevented her from going to art school. Instead of accepting being a victim of a patriarchal, socialist, Islamist society, she decided to understand the minds of Islamists.
Cynthia spent the two decades studying Islamic jurisprudence and became a founding member of Egypt’s first secular, pro-western political party. She fought for the rights of women, minorities, and all individuals. The government, al-Qaeda, and the Muslim Brotherhood targeted her, but she stayed true to her values and never backed down. She spent more than a decade under surveillance and received death threats daily. She sought asylum in the US only after Islamists murdered her friend and targeted her for assassination.
My wife has continued to write and expose radical Islamic terror groups. Her efforts had saved countless lives, and she has helped transform Egyptian society. The woman who once had her name officially banned from print now regularly appears in the most widely circulated newspaper in the Middle East. Cynthia’s courage and morality are a shining star for all to follow. Her nonfiction book, The Secret Apparatus, exposes the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Post Hill Press will publish it in 2022.
Which of your novels can you imagine made into a movie?
I think all my novels would make wonderful movies. I say that because I’m a visual author. Stories play like movies in my imagination when I write. Readers often tell me my books would make great movies. Some writers get offended by that comment, because novels and cinema are different mediums, but I take it as a compliment, because it means the book came alive in the reader’s mind.
Furious: Sailing into Terror would probably make the best movie. It was a quarterfinalist in Screencraft’s Most Cinematic Book Competition. Best Thrillers selected it as an Editor’s Pick, and Reader’s Favorites gave it a Gold Medal. Furious would be the least expensive to film, because 90% of the story takes place on a 62-foot Beneteau Oceanis Yacht. I’ve been studying script writing, and I hope to have the screenplay written soon. I plan to adapt my other work into scripts too. Unseen: Evil Lurks Among Us would also translate well on the big screen.
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Thanks for sharing my thriller. I'm happy to answer readers' questions here or at jeffrey@jeffreyjameshiggins.com.
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