Q&A with Chad Boudreaux

How long have you been writing? 
I first wanted to write a novel once I began working at the Department of Justice in 2001. The DOJ hired me the night before the September 11 attacks, and I started my job immediately thereafter at the Main Justice Department in Washington, D.C. 

What inspired the book you’re currently promoting? 
My inspiration for writing Scavenger Hunt was the hidden eighth floor of the Main Justice Building in Washington, D.C. Main Justice is the headquarters for many of the top U.S. lawyers, including the U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Solicitor General. The elevators at Main Justice, however, only reach the seventh floor. But there are eight sets of windows.

That seemed strange to me back in 2001, when I started work there, so I conducted research on the building and unearthed no clues. Coming up short, I sought out a man who’d worked at Main Justice for several decades—a silver-haired institutionalist—and he told me that, before they built the FBI building (across the street), the eighth floor had served as the old FBI ballistics lab. He said there was a secret staircase that led to the eighth floor, which was now more of a utility floor.

Mesmerized by this news, I grabbed a custodian with access to the staircase, a flashlight, and a notepad and ventured to the hidden floor. Many of the notes I doodled on that notepad are now in Chapter Two of Scavenger Hunt.

Who are the authors who most influenced your work? 
Robert Ludlum, John le Carré, Tom Clancy, and Brian Hosp. Hosp, who endorsed Scavenger Hunt, writes clever crime novels that take place in Boston but that sell best in London (perhaps because they are heady like Sherlock Holmes). I also really enjoy non-horror thrillers by Stephen King (best character developer in the business) and earlier novels by Brad Meltzer.

Where do you write, i.e. an office, outdoors, a coffee shop? 
My primary writing spot–where my Stephen King muse visits me–is my library desk at home. I also write on airplanes and hotels when traveling. 

If you could visit one place to research a book where would it be?
I think the hidden eighth floor of the Main Justice Department was the best. Having done that already, though, I would say the Forbidden City in Beijing.