Did you foresee the long-term results of 9/11--such as Iraq and The War on Terror?

Yes. But I have to say, it didn't require a mind-reader, nor any great insight. Only a glance at our history. It was obvious to me that our leaders would quickly designate a Bad Guy, and then we'd have a war. That had been America's pattern for the previous 56 years.

No Place to Run raises serious questions about our government and its practices. Why did you choose to put your argument in the form of a novel, rather than to lay out your views and the results of your research in a non-fiction form?

As questions about 9/11 began to be asked, and my suspicions started to kick in, I took a hard look at what was known - the record if you will. And what struck me most forcibly were the numerous anomalies about that day - its timelines - and what was known in high places before it happened.

First, the fact that the future hijackers were known to be taking flight-training (and known to be uninterested in learning how to land a plane?) -plus - on the day - the lack of USAF fighter-planes in the Northeast Corridor and anywhere near Washington, D.C., and the "confusion" in which long-standing, previously-followed protocols about what should happen when airplanes are hijacked or even go off-course were ignored, it was clear then - and now - that something was certainly not kosher. I mean - 42 minutes elapse before two F-15s take off from Cape Cod -planes that could have been over Manhattan before the second tower was hit - and instead they circle over the Atlantic?

In the writing-trade, we refer to such things as "plot-conveniences," devices that, in fiction, are so obvious that they are to be scrupulously avoided. The entire 9/11 scenario - including but far from limited to the above, as well as the highly questionable collapse of the Towers, and the cover-up of Flight 93's having been shot down - contains far too many such "Whoa - just a minute now..." red-flags. 

So -I came to passionately believe that 9/11 was enabled by forces and interests high up in America - both government and commercial - people who knew it was in work, could have prevented it, but decided instead that it offered the provocation/ excuse for another war - something upon which our entire economy and incredible prosperity has depended since WWII. Something that, as 2001 neared its end, it was time for once again.

I have absolutely no doubt that the broad outlines of the conspiracy I put forward in No Place to Run are true. More than that, I find it difficult to imagine that anyone, on reviewing as I did the events of 9/11, what led to them, and what has followed, could arrive at any other conclusion. And incidentally, the 9/11 Commission Report was issued when I was completing my novel: it fails to refute anything that I suggest. Rather, it offers a lot of weak explanations about "confusion" and such.

In fact according to the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now, (www.NYCCAN.org ), the organization dedicated to promoting a ballot measure to institute a search for the truth about 9/11, in the words of the two 9/11 Commission Chairmen, Governor Thomas Kean and Representative Lee Hamilton, their investigation was "set up to fail."

Making these points was my major reason for writing No Place To Run. It struck me that via popular fiction I might reach a wider audience than the many already-convinced conspiracy-theorists - people who may not normally view things that way - and hopefully cause them to think. To ask questions they might not have considered before.

No Place to Run features a strong female character, Claudia, who deals with tragedy and the loss of her former identity when she is placed in the witness protection program. What was the inspiration for her character and how were you able to get inside this character's head?

My original concept was to tell the story of two fugitive brothers, but then I asked myself what if the older one was female? That seemed to offer fresher, more dramatic possibilities in terms of her vulnerability, and in the potential for an edgier, more interesting relationship between my two protagonists.

Moreover, since I had not created such a character before, I was drawn to the challenge of trying to do so, to make her believable. I'd written for older female characters, and I tried, with Claudia Lawrence, to imagine what my daughters, and daughter-in-law, would have done.   

Did you encounter resistance to your somewhat radical approach when you tried to find a publisher for No Place to Run?

Absolutely. The questions I raise, the arguments put forward in this novel, make a lot of people uncomfortable. It took three years before I was able to hook up with Sterling & Ross. During that time I received more than one response such as the following, from the head of a major New York publishing house, who wrote to my agent: "...while I really like Tom's writing, I have to say that I am offended by his premise..."

Those, I submit, are the very buttons I desperately want this novel to push. And I believe that Sterling & Ross is truly daring in agreeing to publish No Place to Run.

You were Head Writer/Showrunner of the hit CBS series, Murder, She Wrote. What led you to the thriller-genre of commercial fiction?

I've long been aware that thrillers, as opposed to straight murder-mysteries, offer much more fertile ground for making a political statement. My taste for thrillers dates back to my early love for the wonderful, largely-forgotten novels by Eric Ambler, arguably one of the inventors of the genre.

"Gritty and suspenseful, NO PLACE TO RUN is a no-holds-barred journey...a sweeping story that will rivet you until the very end."--Gayle Lynds, New York Times bestselling author of The Book Of Spies and The Last Spymaster.

"NO PLACE TO RUN is a thrill-a-minute ride. Members of the 9/11 Commission who read this compelling, entertaining novel will squirm."--Gerald Petievich, author of THE SENTINEL and TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.

"A powerful thriller, NO PLACE TO RUN grips you by the throat and doesn't let go. The questions it raises about hidden forces operating inside our government are staggering and important."--Ralph Pezzullo, New York Times bestselling author of JAWBREAKER

John T. Cullen writes fiction and nonfiction. He is the author of A WALK IN ANCIENT ROME, Revised Second Edition (Sep 2009; nonfiction/ancient history); LETHAL JOURNEY (Sep 2009, dark thriller based on a true 1892 crime/ghost story); UMNITSA (WW2 espionage thriller);THE GENERALS OF OCTOBER (suspense: what if we had a Second Constitutional Convention?); and nearly two dozen other books--more at http://www.johntcullen.com/.