CHRISTOPHER CHANCE discusses his novel THE ASSASSINS CODE 1 at his AUTUMN BOOK SIGNING in Grantham on 21st October, 2022
I wrote THE ASSASSINS CODE 1 in Cyprus from the memory of actual events and to introduce a character I’d had in my mind for many years called Arrowsmith, a working class James Bond, but he’s far more realistic than James Bond, and based on actual events following the Munich Olympics massacre. The death squads that followed, Black September and various other terrorist groups are all in this book from beginning to end. Arrowsmith is Ex-SAS and he is poached by the Secret Service to become one of the actual assassins.
This book was adapted from the screenplay of the same name. I made three screenplays of Arrowsmith: THE ASSASSINS CODE 1; then BLOWN which is to do with drugs and terrorists mainly at sea; and MOTHERLAND which is based in Berlin but the story goes all around Europe. Arrowsmith is the James Bond type but he is a Senior NCO in the British Army and the SAS and, unlike many of the people who have played James Bond, you would have to be a hardcore to play ‘Arrow’.
Q. So Christopher, the people in this book where real people?
A. Yes. All the people in the book are real people and it’s all based on actual events, what with the IRA, etc., and the people who died actually did die. Readers of fiction might find that unusual but the terrorists all died for real – people who were killed by Israeli death squads and other assassins.
Q. So what is his journey? You tell me he goes to Germany, Afghanistan, The Mediterranean, Ireland? So quite a journey!
A. Yes, it’s a big long journey for ‘Arrow’ and I met many of the characters in this book, like Abdullah Habibulah and Ibrahim… but you’ll have to read the book if you want to know more!
