Jörg H.
Trauboth, born in 1943 near Berlin, logged over two thousand flight
hours as a Weapon Systems Officer Instructor in the Luftwaffe, flying
PHANTOM F-4F / RF-4E and TORNADO fighter jets, and over 3000 hours in
light aircraft. At the age of fifty, he left the service with the rank
of Colonel in the General Staff. He received training as a Special Risk
Consultant from the English Control Risk Group and served as Managing
Director Germany, dealing with extortion and kidnapping cases in South
America and Eastern Europe. Shortly thereafter, he founded his own
consulting firm, quickly establishing an outstanding international
reputation. Trauboth protected his clients with a 24-hour task force
during product extortions, product recalls, kidnappings, and image
crises. He was the first President of the European Crisis Management
Academy in Vienna and President of the American Yankee Association.
He is
known as a respected expert in the media on security-related topics. He
volunteers as an emergency counselor and is a member of the Crisis
Intervention Team (KIT Bonn) of the German Foreign Office. He is a
private pilot, married, with two sons and three grandchildren.
In 2002, Trauboth wrote the now out of print standard work “Crisis Management for Company Threats”.
In 2016
the follow-up work was published with Jörg H. Trauboth as editor in
collaboration with five authors: “Crisis Management in Companies and
Public Institutions”.
Terror
expert J. H. Trauboth presented his debut novel in 2015 with the Germany
thriller “Three Brothers”. (Available in English). In 2019 “Operation
Jerusalem” followed and in 2020 “Omega”. The trilogy is about the former
elite soldier Marc Anderson and his team. With these three
self-contained thrillers, Trauboth is rated by many readers as the
“German Tom Clancy.” The trilogy is available as a printed edition,
eBook and audio book.
His
first detective novel, “Jakobs Weg” (German), followed in 2021. The
highly explosive topic of “sexual abuse of children” is processed
sensitively in a scenario on the Way of Saint James and at the end
offers contact options for those seeking help.
In 2022,
the novella “Bonjour Saint-Ex” was published (German) in which the
passionate pilot Jörg H. Trauboth turns the last flight of the legend
Antoine de Saint Exupéry into an exciting literary event.
Readers
wanted a sequel to the Marc Anderson series. In 2023, ZarenTod – Das
Ende der Präsidenten was published, a highly topical political thriller.
The Russian president and new tsar, Ivan Pavlenko, suddenly shows his
true face during the war in Ukraine. He wants the old Soviet Union back.
The world is on the brink. The influential oligarch, Alexei Sokolov,
wants to prevent Ivan’s megalomaniac plans and is planning a fundamental
new beginning for Russia. To achieve this, the Russian president must
be removed. But the plan goes awry. Ex-elite soldier Marc Anderson
intervenes. Will Czar Ivan die? What will become of Europe? The book 8/
2024 in English „The Death of the Kremlin Czar” is the fourth political
thriller in the Marc Anderson series.
Website & Social Media:
Website ➜ https://trauboth-autor.de/english/
Twitter ➜ https://twitter.com/JorgTrauboth
Can you tell us what your book, The Death of the Kremlin Czar, is about?
The
Russian president and self-proclaimed new Czar, Ivan Pavlenko, is
revealing his true colors in the Ukraine war—he seeks a direct conflict
with
NATO. Russia and the world teeter on the brink of disaster.
Influential oligarch Alexei Sokolov, determined to stop Ivan’s
megalomaniacal ambitions, envisions a new beginning for Russia. But for
his plan to succeed, the Russian president must die. There’s just one
problem: Alexei’s lover is Yulia, Ivan’s partner. Sensing betrayal, Ivan
grows suspicious. While en route to Moscow, the plane carrying Alexei
and Yulia is hijacked. Crisis teams in Berlin, Washington, and Kiev are
drawn into the escalating drama. Fighter jets scramble, their pilots
prepared to shoot the plane down if necessary. A struggle erupts in the
cockpit, leaving the Boeing without a pilot. On board is former elite
soldier Marc Anderson, who, together with Alexei, must attempt an
emergency landing in Vilnius to save the hundred passengers. But as the
clock ticks down, the question looms: will the plane land safely, and
will the world finally be free of its aggressor?
Can you tell us a little about your main and supporting characters?
The book
is part of the Marc Anderson thriller series. Marc, a former elite
soldier in Germany’s Special Forces, now runs his own security
consulting firm. Despite being only 39, his legendary missions with the
SEALs have earned him a formidable reputation. He isn’t a Rambo type,
but a thoughtful and sensitive character, revealing different facets of
himself. In this book, he grapples with self-doubt, questioning whether
he can fly a plane at all, but ultimately rises to the challenge. I’m
sending him on a hero’s journey, inspired by the framework of American
mythologist Joseph Campbell.
His wife, Jelke, is a reserved, somewhat fragile woman, but she steps up at a critical moment to help Marc.
Ivan Pavlenko mirrors
the current Russian president as we know him from the media: short,
power-obsessed, intelligent, ruthless, and deeply insecure. His
vulnerability lies in his immense pride, which becomes his Achilles’
heel. Like all dictators, he craves equal footing with global power
players but lives in constant fear, making him a paranoid and extremely
dangerous individual.
Alexei Sokolov,
an oligarch and favorite of the Russian president, has grown wealthy
under his protection. But since the war in Ukraine, he’s begun to doubt
the president’s mental stability and plots to kill him in order to seize
power with a small faction. Alexei is clever, well-read, and
Western-oriented, though somewhat naive—thinking his affair with Ivan’s
partner, Yulia, will go unnoticed.
Yulia,
Ivan’s partner and mother of two boys, is an attractive, passionate
woman who’s deeply in love with Alexei. She lives with him and her sons
in Monaco, having chosen to stay with Alexei despite her fear of Ivan’s
retribution. In the surprising climax, Yulia reveals unexpected inner
strength.
US President George F. Summerhill is
a fictional character who embodies the ideal traits of a sovereign
national and world leader. Throughout the Marc Anderson series, he
remains the most consistently admirable president.
Kryptos,
the CIA director, is an eccentric character with a more supporting
role, but crucial to the plot as he aids Alexei. The president relies
heavily on Kryptos, knowing that if he fails, the presidency could
unravel.
Ukrainian President Bohdan Sapronov
is modeled closely after the real-life president—once an actor, now a
fierce defender of his nation, completely reliant on Western support.
Similarly, German Chancellor Kai Schuster is portrayed as a weak leader with poor crisis management skills, walking a fine line to avoid provoking the Russian president.
Summary:
Most of the characters are thinly veiled versions of real-world
figures, with only the names changed. It’s like reading a newspaper,
leaving you to wonder why the real story doesn’t end like this fictional
one.
How long did it take you to write your book?
I
initially spent six months researching and flew my small plane, a
Grumman Tiger AA5B, to Kiev, Crimea, Poland, and the Baltic states.
Berlin, Moscow, and Washington were already familiar to me from my
professional work. Once I started writing, I was completely in the flow,
and the book was completed in about four months.
What has been the most pivotal point of your writing life?
At the
end of a kidnapping case, where I was advising the family of the
kidnapped daughter, I was overwhelmed by the experience and decided to
turn the story into a novel. The result was Three Brothers, a
book that was so successful it became the start of the Marc Anderson
series. And the magic of continuing the story hasn’t stopped since.
What kind of advice would you give up and coming authors?
That
depends on your goal. Are you writing for yourself, your family, or the
public? I write for the public, always following a plan. It’s important
to know the beginning and the end; don’t write without direction, as the
risk of losing both yourself and your reader is high. Crafting good
literature is an art. Learn to write in a captivating language and
master the literary tools to engage your reader from start to finish.
Be
meticulous with facts. In today’s Google-driven world, mistakes are
never forgotten. Once you’ve finished your book, give it to someone you
trust for feedback. Don’t hesitate to use AI to enhance your language
and correct mistakes—nothing more.
Remember,
when you’re finally satisfied with your work, the real challenge
begins: marketing. Whether you have a publisher, buy services, or
handle it on your own, know that doing it all by yourself makes
achieving great success more difficult. But don’t be discouraged. No one
can take away the fact that you’ve created something truly special.
Best of luck! If you have questions, I will be happy to answer: trauboth.autor@gmail.com
The Death of the Kremlin Czar is available at Amazon (U.S. edition) and Amazon (German edition).
