We’ve launched a new series over here called Book Shots. It features some of the top mystery writers working today. No one has time to doom scroll endlessly to find a YouTube clip of an interview. We’re giving you quick Book Shots of authors and their newly released books.
Some may be familiar faces, and others–well, you might just find your new favorite author. You may have caught the interview with Elena Taylor.
So, sit back, relax, and pour yourself the libation of your choice and enjoy Book Shots with Author Nancy Cole Silverman.
Nancy Cole Silverman enjoyed a long and very successful career in radio before turning to print journalism and later, to fiction.
As a graduate of Arizona State University with a degree in Mass Communications, Nancy was one of the first female on-air television reporters in her hometown of Phoenix. After moving to Los Angeles in the late 1970’s she turned to the business side of broadcasting, becoming one of the top advertising sales executives in the market. After stints at KNX, KFWB, KABC and KXTA radio, she was appointed General Manager at KMPC, making her one of only two female managers in America’s second-largest radio market.
But in her heart of hearts, Nancy thought first of herself as a writer. In 2001 she left the radio business to found and edit The Equestrian News, a monthly publication for equine enthusiasts. “That’s when I really began to write,” said Silverman, “toggling between writing articles for the News and fiction I’d been thinking about for years.”
Today, Nancy is a full-time author. She writes the Carol Childs and Misty Dawn Mysteries (Henery Press), and the Kat Lawson series (Level Best Books), as well as numerous short stories, and is currently at work on a piece of historical fiction.
Nancy’s new book, A Spy in Saigon just hit the shelves…and I know you’ll enjoy this book.
Q: A Spy in Saigon is the fourth in the wonderful Kat Lawson series. Kat’s a terrific character with great depth and a complex backstory. This history confronts her head-on in A Spy in Saigon. How did you conceive of Kat Lawson as your series lead?
The idea for Kat Lawson came to me while I was going through my father’s belongings after his passing several years ago. My dad had served as a WW2 Navigator and Bombardier. He was shot down over Hungary and hidden behind enemy lines by patriots who helped smuggle him out of the country so he could reunite with his squadron in southern Italy. As I sorted through his files, I found his flight log, maps, and a diary chronicling his time as MIA.
I knew very little about my father’s wartime experiences, but a few years before he died, he received a letter from the Department of Defense. The letter informed him that a young Hungarian man had found the remains of his plane, photographed the tail number, and contacted the DOD to ask if they could provide any information about the crew. Since more than 50% of those crews never made it home, it was a long shot. Luckily, the DOD had records of my dad’s 13th flight—and yes, it was his 13th—showing all the airmen aboard had been rescued by the same underground partisans who saved my dad. After receiving the letter, my dad asked me to go to Hungary and try to find his plane and anyone who might have been part of the resistance helping him escape. My dad’s request was a promise I had long forgotten until I discovered all his war records. It also became the wake-up call that inspired me to create Kat Lawson and to use it as the theme for A Navigator’s Daughter.
Q: Kat leads somewhat of a dual life. Danger and intrigue aren’t new to her. What’s motivates her?
As a journalist, Kat is addicted to the thrill of a good story—the pursuit of truth. It’s an adrenaline rush, and for Kat, that high is addictive. The riskier the assignment, the greater the rush. Failure is not an option. To fail is to lose. But like all addictions, it comes with a high price.
Beneath the excitement and the relentless pursuit of a story, Kat is also propelled by deeper motivations—echoes of her past that linger just out of reach, shaping her decisions in subtle ways. Her dual existence as both an intrepid reporter and someone who has skirted danger for causes greater than herself fuels her resolve, pushing her to confront not only the dangers of her assignments but also the unresolved threads of her own history. Each new mission becomes a test of her courage and her ability to balance the demands of truth-seeking with the personal cost it exacts, even as she moves forward, never quite certain what the next story will ask of her.
Settings become a character in your novels. I enjoyed following Kat through Saigon’s streets and rich culture. It was only a matter of time until she landed here. Can you tell readers why Kat is drawn to Vietnam?
Kat’s work as a travel journalist for Journey International is a very real job that requires her to travel the world to file travel features. The publication is also a cover for journalists that the FBI and/or CIA use to send contractors undercover for special assignments. I used the term contractors lightly, as Kat is not an agent, but a freelance writer that the magazine hires with the FBI or CIA’s knowledge to make a delivery. If this seems surprising, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for the agency to use civilians who would have reason to be in different parts of the world due to their occupation, and to make covert deliveries during the Cold War.
Kat’s acceptance of an assignment to Vietnam was less of a concern about her own past, her very brief and early marriage nearly thirty years ago, while in college, to an Air Force pilot who was shot down during the war, than it was about visiting a communist country. She was happy to be paid handsomely for the assignment. She didn’t have any sense of how dangerous it might be or how it might draw her back into her early life when the Vietnam War was on the front page of every newspaper in America, and her own personal ties to the war she thought she had long ago buried.
Q: The issue of child trafficking features Kat’s latest adventure. What drew you to this topic, and how difficult was it to uncover the real work of child exploitation?
I remember flying back from a trip to Southeast Asia, walking through a very busy airport, and seeing a young child, maybe 4 years old. She was dressed in a very short red sequined dress. I knew instinctively the man whose hand she held wasn’t her father, but when I tried to find a security guard to report it, she had vanished. That vision has haunted me. I was certain she was being trafficked, but there was nothing I could do about it. When I began writing A Spy in Saigon, I realized this was the reason Kat had been chosen to go to Vietnam, and that I needed to tell this story.
Q: You’ve served as the President of the Los Angeles chapter of Sisters in Crime. How important is getting involved in the community to a mystery author?
I believe writing is a gift, and, like any art, it requires practice and patronage. I accepted the position as president of Sisters in Crime LA because I thought I could help to create opportunities for established and up-and-coming authors to find their voice through community. When I took the office, we were just coming out of the COVID shutdown, and getting people together again required giving them a good enough excuse to leave their homes and attend a meeting. I think it’s important for writers to give back to their communities, and I hope I’ve done that.
Q: What’s coming up next for you?
I have a contract for two more books in the series, and I’m currently working on book five and looking for ideas for the sixth.
Here’s where you can find your copy–and you should!
Amazon Barnes & Noble Bookshop.org
Let Nancy know what you think about her latest, or leave a question for her in the comments below.
Hope you enjoyed Book Shots, please keep checking back and give me your recommended mystery authors for a future session. Up next will be Bruce Robert Coffin with his new police procedural, Crimson Thaw.
Book Shots
Illusion of Truth pre-orders available now. Releases on January 6th, 2026
James L'Etoile 