06-12-25 *INTERVIEW* Otho Eskin Talks New Thriller Novel & US Army:Foreign Service

Otho Eskin is the author of the fun thriller novel, Black Sun Rising, just published on Tuesday; Black Sun Rising (The Marko Zorn): Eskin, Otho: 9781959170235: Amazon.com: Books

Part of the reason I invited him on to the show his because his background outside of writing is so fascinating, including serving in the US Army and in the US Foreign Service. Read more about Otho here: Author Otho Eskin

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I recently read a really fun new thriller novel called
Black Sunrising by Otho Eskin O T h O E
s K.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
I N super interesting name, I have to say. And
this book was just published a couple of.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Days ago, and I am very happy to have Othoeskin
on the show, both to talk about the book and
what seems like a really fascinating career that at least
somewhat informs you know, what's in the plots of his books.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Otho Eskin, Welcome to KOA.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
I'm delighted to be here.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Are you hearing me? I am?

Speaker 1 (00:35):
I am hearing you. I am hearing you. Just fine,
You're welcome to You're welcome to put your camera on
if you want to. Only you and I will see
each other. But if you don't want to, that's okay too.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Uh, it's to.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
You, all right, there you go, all right, I can
see you. Okay, all right, thank you very much for that. So,
first of all, a really fun and entertaining book and
quite an interesting plot. I don't want to give away
too much, but you know, from what do you tell?
Just as much of the plot as you would as
you would like to, so people still go by the.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Book Well Delighted first place, I'm delighted to join you
and thank you for having having me. The story behind
Black Sun Rising is a DC homicide detective named Mark
marco Zorn, who is my same character in all of
my previous books, and accidentally learns about a plot that

(01:30):
an extreme right wing organization called Black Sun is planning.
He does not know what's going to be, he does
not know who's behind it, and but he sets out
to try to discover this. He this organization has detonated
a bomb in downtown Washington, d C. So that's the

(01:53):
immediate objective for his investigation. But but what he learns
is eventually that there is this organization which was created
in the very end of World War Two and was
by the remnants of the Hitler's regime, which has discovered

(02:19):
a weapon that was the Hitler developed in the in
the final days of the war, which was hidden away,
and it's been discovered just recently when they're rebuilding Berlin.
When when this when this organization, Black Sun, the plans
to use this in a major attempt to overthrow the

(02:42):
US government. Obviously, marco Zorn doesn't know the details, doesn't
know how it's going to be done, and does not
know who Black Son is. The story of Black Sun
Rising is Marco Zorn's UH invest education into this organization,

(03:03):
and during that time he realizes this organization has agents
who are extremely violent, one of them joys O to
be a woman who's later later described as the bride
of the apocalypse.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
So let's let's let's all right, that's a that's a
good summary. And and I, you know, as uh as
somebody who is you know, both Jewish and somewhat of
a student of World War two. The particular the particular
U weapon that they're worried about here is is is
one that has kind of a visceral impact when you

(03:39):
when you think about it.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
And yeah, and exactly and uh and.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
And one of the interesting things about the story is
is uh and it's more at the end in the beginning,
but the fighting and other things going on in tunnels
are is this a tunnel system in it's de see right?

Speaker 2 (04:00):
That that is it really does it exist.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Well as I've described it? Probably not. All cities, all
big metropolitan areas have an underground world. That's where all
the communication is uh and UH, sewage and transportation and
whatever they. You know, if you look under beneath the
streets in Manhattan or Boston, or or Sacramento, wherever you are,

(04:31):
a whole world down there. I've invented it as a
scene for the climax.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, and again we're talking with othoesk In. His new
book is called Black Sun Rising. It's a really fun thriller,
a great summer read if you want to, you know,
buy it and read something just really fun. It was
just published a couple of days ago. We just have
several more minutes out though. But I wanted to ask
you a little about you, because as I read about you,
it just seems like you've had a fascinating career and

(05:00):
I just wanted to hear a little more about that.
I don't know whether you think the most interesting stuff
was in the army or after that in the Foreign service,
but some of the foreign service stuff really fascinates me.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Well, thank you. Yes, Well, got a law degree and
then went into the form accepted into the Foreign Service
after some gurly examination processes, and spent twenty five or
so years in the Foreign Service, about half that time
in Washington, DC, and about half that time of serving abroad.

(05:38):
And I served in Syria, and I hardly recognize that
today in yugoslav what was in Yugoslavia no longer exists
as a country. In Iceland, and my final signum was
in Berlin during the closing days of the Cold War

(05:58):
when that part of East Germany was ruled by the
German Democratic Republic. So I've had experiences a whole range
of regimes, most of them kind of bad. I also
had I was involved in international negotiations of various agreements

(06:19):
of the Sea, the Agreement among other user countries dealing
with the International Space Station, also on deep sea bed mining,
and a variety of others. So I had to travel
around the world, which was a wonderful experience. Uh, some

(06:39):
of these treaties didn't work out. Some of these agreements failed,
but some of them are in existence. A lot of
my activities involved out of space. This is kind of
a long time ago and much has changed in the
space race as we used to call it. But I

(06:59):
had a lot to deal with NASA and with NASA's
counter points in other countries in Europe and in Japan.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
Wow, and it just sounds like it is a fascinating,
a really fascinating career, and I know someone I asked
you at some point if you were a spy and
you said no. Part of me still thinks that's not
the right answer. But I know you wouldn't tell me
even if you were.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
But just those no, I wasn't. But that's true.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
I wasn't.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
I was just a simple service officer.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Uh huh huh.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Uh huh. Well, I think I think a lot of
that experience filters through in subtle ways into the book,
which I really which I really appreciate. Otho Eskin's new
thriller is called Black Sun Rising. It's a very very
fun read, just published a couple of days ago. Otho,
thanks for joining us here on KOA.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
Well, thank you for having me. I enjoyed it

Speaker 2 (07:53):
All right, me too, Thanks so much.