Former FBI director James Comey earlier than testifying on Capitol Hill in 2018.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

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Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Former FBI director James Comey earlier than testifying on Capitol Hill in 2018.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The new fiction novel Central Park West attracts from James Comey’s expertise within the FBI and as a U.S legal professional for the southern district of New York.

Who is he? A person of many titles.

• You in all probability bear in mind him because the seventh director of the FBI, who held that position from 2013 till 2017, when he was fired by former President Donald Trump.
• Comey additionally spent the sooner a part of his profession working as a U.S. legal professional for the southern district of New York, and labored in regulation enforcement for years.
• Since leaving the FBI, Comey has turned to writing. He has a number of nonfiction titles underneath his belt, however most lately used a few of his profession experiences as fodder for the fictional Central Park West.

What’s the massive deal? Comey’s newest work attracts on a reasonably apparent hyperlink between his personal life and this narrative.

The cowl of Comey’s new novel.

Mysterious Press

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Mysterious Press

• Comey’s years of expertise gave him the distinctive perspective to inform the story of Central Park West — concerning the mob and homicide, in addition to the infamous rivalry between the Manhattan D.A. and the U.S. legal professional’s workplace.
• Here’s how he described it to NPR: “I used to describe them to people as blood sworn enemies, except when they’re living together and having a baby. So there was a lot that we did together and a lot we fought over. I used to try and take the D.A. [Robert] Morgenthau to lunch on a regular basis to try and build, repair, whatever damage was done.

Want extra on politics? Here’s Consider This on what is going on on with Twitter.

What are folks saying? NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly interviewed Comey. Here’s a few of what he needed to say.

On a line within the guide concerning the NYPD and FBI.

“The constant warring between the FBI and NYPD only added to the tension, and New Yorkers were naturally a pain in the ass.” — Central Park West

From my upbringing and my skilled expertise [the] FBI and NYPD are Godzilla and King Kong … They’re like siblings — generally they play rather well collectively, generally not a lot.

On why he determined to attempt his hand at fiction:

An editor of nonfiction nudged me to, and at first I resisted. And the farther I bought from the work, the better it turned to consider giving it a shot. And so I made a decision to attempt, and located it addictive. And now I would like this to be my job.

It’s not a interest for me. I have to have a job. And I discovered this tougher than nonfiction, however much more enjoyable.

On a personality’s monologue in direction of the top of the guide:

“Our job is to lock up bad people, to protect good people. I’ve never really thought of our job as finding truth. Our job is to live in gray.” — Central Park West

[This character is] attempting to channel one thing that I realized via my profession, that there is a distinction between fact and justice. You can know one thing in your coronary heart of hearts. But the justice system is constructed across the query of: Can you show it and clear a threshold and persuade a jury past an affordable doubt?

And these are two various things. There’s a lot of issues that you could be know to be true that may’t be confirmed in a manner that permits the justice system to carry any individual accountable. And that is a tough factor to be taught. It’s a tough factor to appreciate while you first begin out and also you’re all fired up about standing as much as characterize the United States. But it is one thing you be taught while you take care of circumstances. Bad folks generally get away. And we have arrange the system that manner in order that we cut back the possibilities of harmless folks, of excellent folks, being unfairly convicted.

On the case in opposition to Trump, who has plead not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying enterprise data:

I learn the indictment and the accompanying assertion of details. I do not know far more than that. I haven’t got a view on the deserves as a result of I do not know the details, however I believe that is great within the sense that the American folks can see how the rule of regulation works, particularly within the case of an individual who’s tried to take a flamethrower to the rule of regulation in America during the last seven or so years.

This is the way it works: A grand jury returns an indictment; a prosecutor presents in court docket; the defendant has counsel; he has the choose provide him discovery; and it’ll proceed within the atypical course. This is the system that’s the bedrock of our democracy. And nevertheless it seems, that is displaying the American folks that the rule of regulation has held in America. And that is factor.

So, what now?

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