Former FBI Director James Comey discussed his new crime novel on Good Morning America.
Comey’s Central Park West, his fiction debut, follows a federal prosecutor taking on a mobster as well as the alleged murderer of a disgraced former governor. A critic for Kirkus called the novel “a capable but predictable fiction debut by the former FBI chief.”
On GMA, co-anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Comey what inspired his decision to turn to fiction.
“I got nudged by one of my editors on nonfiction, saying ‘Have you ever considered it?’” Comey replied. “I thought, ‘Nah, I don’t want to do that.’ But the farther I got from government service, the easier it became to think about, and so I gave it a shot and found it addictive.”
Stephanopoulos asked Comey what his writing process is like.
“I start by talking to my amazing wife, because she’s my idea person,” he said. “We agree on a story, and I go off and write it, and she gives me brutal and loving feedback on a Google doc late at night. I can’t get it in person; it’s too hurtful. And then I digest it overnight, and then we talk again, and it just iterates and iterates.”
Central Park West is slated for publication by Mysterious Press on May 30.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
