❤Author Interview: Thriller Author Jorg H. Trauboth: The Death of the Kremlin Czar #authorinterview

Jörg H. Trauboth, born in 1943 near Berlin, logged over two thousand flight hours as a Weapon Systems Officer Instructor in the Luftwaffe, flying PHANTOM F-4F / RF-4E and TORNADO fighter jets, and over 3000 hours in light aircraft. At the age of fifty, he left the service with the rank of Colonel in the General Staff. He received training as a Special Risk Consultant from the English Control Risk Group and served as Managing Director Germany, dealing with extortion and kidnapping cases in South America and Eastern Europe. Shortly thereafter, he founded his own consulting firm, quickly establishing an outstanding international reputation. Trauboth protected his clients with a 24-hour task force during product extortions, product recalls, kidnappings, and image crises. He was the first President of the European Crisis Management Academy in Vienna and President of the American Yankee Association.

He is known as a respected expert in the media on security-related topics. He volunteers as an emergency counselor and is a member of the Crisis Intervention Team (KIT Bonn) of the German Foreign Office. He is a private pilot, married, with two sons and three grandchildren.

In 2002, Trauboth wrote the now out of print standard work “Crisis Management for Company Threats”.

In 2016 the follow-up work was published with Jörg H. Trauboth as editor in collaboration with five authors: “Crisis Management in Companies and Public Institutions”.

Terror expert J. H. Trauboth presented his debut novel in 2015 with the Germany thriller “Three Brothers”. (Available in English). In 2019 “Operation Jerusalem” followed and in 2020 “Omega”. The trilogy is about the former elite soldier Marc Anderson and his team. With these three self-contained thrillers, Trauboth is rated by many readers as the “German Tom Clancy.” The trilogy is available as a printed edition, eBook and audio book.

His first detective novel, “Jakobs Weg” (German), followed in 2021. The highly explosive topic of “sexual abuse of children” is processed sensitively in a scenario on the Way of Saint James and at the end offers contact options for those seeking help.

In 2022, the novella “Bonjour Saint-Ex” was published (German) in which the passionate pilot Jörg H. Trauboth turns the last flight of the legend Antoine de Saint Exupéry into an exciting literary event.

Readers wanted a sequel to the Marc Anderson series. In 2023, ZarenTod – Das Ende der Präsidenten was published, a highly topical political thriller. The Russian president and new tsar, Ivan Pavlenko, suddenly shows his true face during the war in Ukraine. He wants the old Soviet Union back. The world is on the brink. The influential oligarch, Alexei Sokolov, wants to prevent Ivan’s megalomaniac plans and is planning a fundamental new beginning for Russia. To achieve this, the Russian president must be removed. But the plan goes awry. Ex-elite soldier Marc Anderson intervenes. Will Czar Ivan die? What will become of Europe? The book 8/ 2024 in English „The Death of the Kremlin Czar” is the fourth political thriller in the Marc Anderson series.

Website & Social Media:

Website ➜  https://trauboth-autor.de/english/

Twitter ➜ https://twitter.com/JorgTrauboth

Can you tell us what your book, Ring of Rosin, is about?

The Russian president and self-proclaimed new Czar, Ivan Pavlenko, is revealing his true colors in the Ukraine war—he seeks a direct conflict with NATO. Russia and the world teeter on the brink of disaster. Influential oligarch Alexei Sokolov, determined to stop Ivan’s megalomaniacal ambitions, envisions a new

beginning for Russia. But for his plan to succeed, the Russian president must die. There's just one problem: Alexei’s lover is Yulia, Ivan’s partner. Sensing betrayal, Ivan grows suspicious. While en route to Moscow, the plane carrying Alexei and Yulia is hijacked. Crisis teams in Berlin, Washington, and Kiev are drawn into the escalating drama. Fighter jets scramble, their pilots prepared to shoot the plane down if necessary. A struggle erupts in the cockpit, leaving the Boeing without a pilot. On board is former elite soldier Marc Anderson, who, together with Alexei, must attempt an emergency landing in Vilnius to save the hundred passengers. But as the clock ticks down, the question looms: will the plane land safely, and will the world finally be free of its aggressor?

Can you tell us a little about your main and supporting characters?

The book is part of the Marc Anderson thriller series. Marc, a former elite soldier in Germany’s Special Forces, now runs his own security consulting firm. Despite being only 39, his legendary missions with the SEALs have earned him a formidable reputation. He isn’t a Rambo type, but a thoughtful and sensitive character, revealing different facets of himself. In this book, he grapples with self-doubt, questioning whether he can fly a plane at all, but ultimately rises to the challenge. I’m sending him on a hero’s journey, inspired by the framework of American mythologist Joseph Campbell.

His wife, Jelke, is a reserved, somewhat fragile woman, but she steps up at a critical moment to help Marc.

Ivan Pavlenko mirrors the current Russian president as we know him from the media: short, power-obsessed, intelligent, ruthless, and deeply insecure. His vulnerability lies in his immense pride, which becomes his Achilles' heel. Like all dictators, he craves equal footing with global power players but lives in constant fear, making him a paranoid and extremely dangerous individual.

Alexei Sokolov, an oligarch and favorite of the Russian president, has grown wealthy under his protection. But since the war in Ukraine, he’s begun to doubt the president’s mental stability and plots to kill him in order to seize power with a small faction. Alexei is clever, well-read, and Western-oriented, though somewhat naive—thinking his affair with Ivan’s partner, Yulia, will go unnoticed.

Yulia, Ivan’s partner and mother of two boys, is an attractive, passionate woman who’s deeply in love with Alexei. She lives with him and her sons in Monaco, having chosen to stay with Alexei despite her fear of Ivan’s retribution. In the surprising climax, Yulia reveals unexpected inner strength.

US President George F. Summerhill is a fictional character who embodies the ideal traits of a sovereign national and world leader. Throughout the Marc Anderson series, he remains the most consistently admirable president.

Kryptos, the CIA director, is an eccentric character with a more supporting role, but crucial to the plot as he aids Alexei. The president relies heavily on Kryptos, knowing that if he fails, the presidency could unravel.

Ukrainian President Bohdan Sapronov is modeled closely after the real-life president—once an actor, now a fierce defender of his nation, completely reliant on Western support.

Similarly, German Chancellor Kai Schuster is portrayed as a weak leader with poor crisis management skills, walking a fine line to avoid provoking the Russian president.

Summary: Most of the characters are thinly veiled versions of real-world figures, with only the names changed. It’s like reading a newspaper, leaving you to wonder why the real story doesn’t end like this fictional one.

Your book is set across Europe as well as Moscow and Washington. Can you tell us why you chose these locations in particular?

The book is a political thriller set against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, which is why its action unfolds across European capitals, as well as in Moscow and Washington. The love scenes between Alexei and Yulia take place aboard an oligarch's yacht in Turkey. The yacht also houses a submarine, where Alexei and CIA Director Krypot plot an assassination of the Russian president. For my romantic readers, I’ve chosen a small, picturesque hotel in the Apennine mountains of Italy, where Yulia and Alexei share their final night of love after an emergency helicopter landing, before heading to Russia.

How long did it take you to write your book?

I initially spent six months researching and flew my small plane, a Grumman Tiger AA5B, to Kiev, Crimea, Poland, and the Baltic states. Berlin, Moscow, and Washington were already familiar to me from my professional work. Once I started writing, I was completely in the flow, and the book was completed in about four months.

What has been the most pivotal point of your writing life?

At the end of a kidnapping case, where I was advising the family of the kidnapped daughter, I was overwhelmed by the experience and decided to turn the story into a novel. The result was Three Brothers, a book that was so successful it became the start of the Marc Anderson series. And the magic of continuing the story hasn’t stopped since.

What kind of advice would you give up and coming authors?

That depends on your goal. Are you writing for yourself, your family, or the public? I write for the public, always following a plan. It's important to know the beginning and the end; don't write without direction, as the risk of losing both yourself and your reader is high. Crafting good literature is an art. Learn to write in a captivating language and master the literary tools to engage your reader from start to finish.

Be meticulous with facts. In today's Google-driven world, mistakes are never forgotten. Once you've finished your book, give it to someone you trust for feedback. Don’t hesitate to use AI to enhance your language and correct mistakes—nothing more.

Remember, when you're finally satisfied with your work, the real challenge begins:  marketing. Whether you have a publisher, buy services, or handle it on your own, know that doing it all by yourself makes achieving great success more difficult. But don't be discouraged. No one can take away the fact that you've created something truly special. Best of luck! If you have questions, I will be happy to answer: trauboth.autor@gmail.com

The Death of the Kremlin Czar is available at Amazon (U.S. edition) and Amazon (German edition).