Jeff Ayers is the author of several books, including Voyages of Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion for Simon and Schuster/Pocket Books. He has interviewed hundreds of authors for magazines, newspapers, and podcasts and has been a book reviewer for The Associated Press and Booklist. He currently reviews suspense thrillers and mysteries for Library Journal, Criminal Element, and firstCLUE. Jeff co-writes the National Park thriller series for Minotaur under the name A.J. Landau and co-writes the Jigsaw Puzzle Mysteries for Crooked Lane. He is a retired public librarian and former co-executive director for ThrillerFest. He lives near Seattle, Washington.

Jon Land is the USA Today bestselling author of 50 books, including ten titles in the critically acclaimed Caitlin Strong series: Strong Enough to Die, Strong Justice, Strong at the Break, Strong Vengeance, Strong Rain Falling (winner of the 2014 International Book Award and 2013 USA Best Book Award for Mystery-Suspense), Strong Darkness (winner of the 2014 USA Books Best Book Award and the 2015 International Book Award for Thriller, and Strong Light of Day which won the 2016 International Book Award for Best Thriller-Adventure, the 2015 Books and Author Award for Best Mystery Thriller, and the 2016 Beverly Hills Book Award for Best Mystery. Strong Cold Dead became the fourth title in the series in a row to win the International Book Award in 2017 and about which Booklist said, “Thrillers don’t get any better than this,” in a starred review. It was followed by Strong to the Bone, winner of the 2017 American Book Fest Best Book Award for Mystery Suspense and the 2018 International Book Award for best Mystery as well as Thriller. It was followed by Strong as Steel (April ’19) about which Suspense Magazine proclaimed, “Get ready to sink your teeth into what just might be the best novel of 2019.” The book went on to win the 2019 International Book Award for Best Thriller/Adventure.

Q: How did you get the idea for Leave No Trace?
Jeff Ayers: There’s the old Groucho Marx quote, “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend.” I’m a huge National Parks person, as you can probably tell from the hat and shirt I’m wearing. Other books have focused on one park and one murder, but I wanted to write a story that spanned multiple parks. I asked Jon for advice, and he told me, “You need to blow up the Statue of Liberty on page one.”

Jon Land: We write to make sure the characters get the motivation they need. For me, the key to writing is to surprise myself.

Q: How did you get the idea for Cold Burn, the second book in the series?
Jeff: We wanted contrasting settings—national parks in a hot place like the Everglades and a cold place like Alaska. After visiting Alaska and learning about Glacier Bay National Park, I discovered thefts of Native artifacts were happening. I knew that would be central to the story. I also wanted to write in the style of Michael Crichton.

Jon: Originally, the artifact thieves had no further role after they were caught. I told Jeff there was no real connection—no cause and effect. So I asked, “What if they weren’t smuggling artifacts but something hidden inside them?” That became our first major plot twist.

Q: Do you agree that Leave No Trace and Cold Burn are different genres?
Jon: Yes. Cold Burn is a classically structured thriller with multiple viewpoints, where readers are piecing together a puzzle right alongside the hero. In Leave No Trace, the reader knows the domestic terrorists’ plans, and it becomes a race as the heroes move from place to place trying to stop the destruction.

Q: How has the hero, National Park Service ISB Special Agent Michael Walker, changed between books?
Jeff: He’s analytical, determined, and constantly dealing with his prosthetic foot. I gave him the prosthetic as a way of reminding him—and readers—that he wears his grief every day. In Cold Burn, he confronts hostility between the Park Service and the Native American tribe but still chooses to do the right thing.

Jon: In the second book, he’s a little more jaded. In Leave No Trace, he uncovered deep government corruption. In Cold Burn, his faith in humanity is somewhat restored through his connection with the Tlingit people. He sees how they’ve endured hardship from both the U.S. government and the Russians.

Q: How would you describe FBI Roving Special Agent Gina Delgado?
Jon: She’s not naturally trusting and is extremely brave. She’s a pattern-finder and has a military background. While she’s an idealist at heart, she operates outside the system, avoiding red tape. Gina understands that power corrupts and recognizes that she and Michael are fighting enemies within—people who are not after world domination but are simply greedy and dangerous.

Q: What was the role of Alex Cole, the billionaire with aspirations to go to Mars?
Jon: He represents the kind of billionaire who only cares about himself and his profits. He wants to dominate, bully, and control the world. Cole doesn’t care about people—he’s consumed by his own wealth. I hope readers feel toward Axel Cole what I feel: he’s irrepressible, a true villain who cannot be reasoned with.

Q: What role did U.S. President Jillian Cantwell play in the books?
Jon: In the first book, she’s a victim in the story, and Gina is the one protecting and rescuing her. In the second book, her role is less prominent—she mainly assigns Gina her missions.

Q: What about the role of national parks in the series?
Jeff: We want readers who might not be familiar with national parks to become intrigued—and hopefully inspired to visit. We’ve tried to keep the details accurate by talking to park rangers. I also added a fun detail: at the beginning of each chapter, there’s a fact about the specific park where the scene takes place.

Q: What’s next?
Jeff: There will be more books in the series, but I’ll be writing them with Jon Lindstrom. The next one will be in the style of Clive Cussler. The national parks will continue to serve as characters in the story. The plot will center around Michael Walker’s life erupting. The working title is Blast Radius, and it’s set for publication in 2026.

Leave No Trace and Cold Burn by A. J. Landau had the US National Parks as a main character. A.J. Landau is a pseudonym for veteran authors Jon Land and Jeff Ayers.

Leave No Trace literally starts out with a bang and does not let up from the first page. The Statute of Liberty is blown up by calculating terrorists who have their own deadly agenda driven by vengeance. They vow to cause as much destruction and devastation as possible.  To stop them, Special Agent Michael Walker of the National Park Service is sent by his boss to New York as the agent-in-charge. He immediately is told that FBI Agent Gina Delgado is heading up the Joint Terrorism Task Force and is in charge. Though their initial interactions are a bit icy, the two eventually team up realizing that this terrorist attack is the first of many. They must navigate to try to find out who is behind the terrorist attacks and why.

Cold Burn combines Native American culture with climate science. Agents Michael Walker and Gina Delgado return to find out why there are multiple deaths that do not seem to add up. At first it appears that there is no relation to several cases. A U.S. Geological Survey team has gone missing in a cave after an avalanche, the entire crew of a submarine perishes on a training mission off Alaska’s Icy Strait, smugglers stealing Tlingit Indian artifacts in Alaska, and in Florida’s Everglades National Park the murder of an environmental science intern who was part of U.S. Geological Survey team. The two Agents begin their investigations separately but join forces after realizing there is a connection that lies in a deadly prehistoric organism. A rogue billionaire, Axel Cole, sees this organism as the ultimate fuel source and a Russian strongman views it as the ultimate weapon that can shift the global balance of power forever. Walker and Delgado realize they must get to the bottom of what is happening and who is behind it before all those on Earth are affected.

Both these books involve bad guys who are part of the deep state of the US government along with other evil doers. These plots intertwine terrorism, politics, military operations, and corruption. A bonus is the information about various national parks and historical locations inside the United States that is not overdone and does not slow the story down.