Welcome to DouglasDeBono.Com, the Cyberspace Home of author Douglas De Bono

Welcome to DouglasDeBono.Com, the Cyberspace Home of
author Douglas De Bono.

After Word

During the writing of No Safe Harbor, I talked to people about the idea and the plot. Everyone I spoke with regarding a terrorist attack on an American shopping mall immediately seized on the idea of taking down the Mall of America. The Mall of America is built on land a mile from my parent’s first Minnesota home. I graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School when the Met Stadium still stood on the property, and I attended Vikings and Twins games there.

My reasons for not basing the story at the Mall of America are largely explained by Ian Maxwell in the opening chapters. It simply is too large and too complicated a structure to seize with a modest force of thirty men. Since I tend to write realistic novels, where the line between fact and fiction is blurred, a take down of the Mall of America seemed like fantasy. While it would have been fun to explore Camp Sniper (a.k.a. Camp Snoopy) or have a running gun battle along the terraced corridors, I think somebody might have noticed the thousand heavily armed men necessary to make it happen.

Besides, the essence of No Safe Harbor comes down to the fierce independence and self-reliance that is the American spirit. It is that spirit engendered in the sacrifice depicted in this story and aboard United Flight 93 that will ultimately triumph. The setting of the East Towne Mall outside Madison served those purposes.

Hambali, Jemaah Islamiah, and the Bali bombings are all historically accurate. Recent news reports confirm that the CIA and MI6 are running secret prisons.

I want to thank Amanda Holzmer for her help in preparing the manuscript; Dan Holzmer for the art work and cover; and my wife Cathy for her love and patience.

July 2004
Minnetonka, MN
Ocracoke, NC
www.DouglasDeBono.com