Keith Thomson (Author of Born to Be Hanged)

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Keith Thomson

欧宝娱乐 Author

Born

February 02, 1968

Website

Twitter

Genre

Mystery & Thrillers, Fiction

Member Since

February 2012

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Keith Thomson has been a semi-pro baseball player in France an editorial cartoonist for Newsday and a screenwriter. Now a resident of Alabama, he writes about intelligence and other matters for The Huffington Post. His novels include Once a Spy, a New York Times Best Seller, Twice a Spy and Pirates of Pensacola.

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How do you deal with writer鈥檚 block?

Keith Thomson After answering this question, I will post a link to it on my computer desktop. The answer is: Go to a movie! It always works. But, even though I know鈥辞谤别After answering this question, I will post a link to it on my computer desktop. The answer is: Go to a movie! It always works. But, even though I know that, I feel guilty about leaving the office in the middle of a workday to go to a movie theater. So I usually just gut it out. To no avail. But maybe next time...(less)

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What鈥檚 the best thing about being a writer?

Keith Thomson Research.

Here's an example:

De Beers, which controls more than half of the world鈥檚 diamond mines, has a PR department that gives out too much informati鈥辞谤别Research.

Here's an example:

De Beers, which controls more than half of the world鈥檚 diamond mines, has a PR department that gives out too much information for the company鈥檚 good. On the De Beers Web site鈥檚 media page, I learned about a Brinks truck delivery of two cases of rough, unpolished gems to a vault in a big city diamond center.

I decided to use that vault as a model for the fictitious one the characters in my new novel would rob. The question was this: How would they do it?

As it happens, the vault manufacturer鈥檚 site boasted of their big sale to the diamond center. They also detailed the system鈥檚 cool new heist-proof tech. Under cover as an "Examiner" reporter writing a story about vaults, I gained admission to the diamond center, and then鈥攖wo floors below ground to a windowless antechamber the size of a typical kitchen鈥攖he four-ton steel vault door. The combination wheel had numbers from 0 to 99. To enter the vault, I would need to dial four numbers, meaning 100 million possible combinations. But by using the right subminiature video camera, I might remotely view the vault being opened.

From my previous spy novel research, I owned five or six such cameras; the most I ever spent on one was $30 (eBay). I stuck one of them on the wall opposite the vault. At seven the next morning, a guard ambled up the vault door and dialed the combination. I watched on my iPhone in the room I was staying in under alias at a hostel on the other side of town.

I decided to try breaking in. There鈥檚 just no substitute for first-person research to gather the sights, smells, truth that is stranger than fiction, and so forth. If caught, I鈥檇 go with a gonzo-journo cover.

The break-in would need to be at night, after the guards locked down the vault, cleared out of the building, and sent the steel roll-gates slamming down and sealing off all entrances to the vault. During the night, no one patrolled the interior. The diamond center trusted their ten layers of security.

I needed to figure out how to bypass all of those layers. In the course of researching other crime novels, I鈥檝e learned that each time someone invents a security system, someone else finds a way to vanquish it. Take the near-indestructible U-shaped metal Kryptonite lock, a staple of bicycle rack security for fifty years. One day in 2004, a guy in South Dakota figured out that by wedging in the somewhat malleable plastic barrel of a Bic pen, anybody could pop the lock. Thanks to the Web, the next day his discovery was known all over the world. More recently, a home security expert took to the Internet and boasted that he could thwart most burglar alarm systems by finding remote controls from other types of systems鈥攁 video game that operated on the same radio frequency, for instance.

A few nights later, I attempted to covertly enter at the rear of the diamond center building, via the courtyard that abuts it.

Using a coil of lightweight climbing rope tipped by a miniature titanium grapnel with retractable flukes, I reached a small terrace on the second floor. A heat-sensing infrared detector monitored the terrace. From my knapsack, I produced a homemade polyester shield; I鈥檇 read that the low thermal conductivity of polyester prevents body heat from reaching the heat sensor. It seemed to work now. No alarms鈥攁t least that I could hear.

Next I disabled a garden-variety alarm sensor on one of the balcony鈥檚 windows鈥攕o simple a task that it鈥檚 not worth relating. I climbed through the window into a vanilla executive office. Still no alarms. The entire building was silent.

Adrenaline overriding all of my emotions, I proceeded across the hall and then descended the stairs to the antechamber. All the lights were on. Good. I would need them to see, as I鈥檇 totally overlooked night vision goggles. I covered the security cameras with garbage bags, then, to cover my tracks, removed my own subminiature camera I鈥檇 placed on the wall during my first visit.

The vault鈥檚 most significant obstacle was a pair of abutting metal plates, one on the vault door itself and one on the wall to the door鈥檚 left. When they鈥檙e armed, the two plates form a magnetic field. If I were to break the magnetic field鈥攂y so much as cracking the door鈥擨 would trigger the alarm. From my knapsack I took a slab of aluminum and, using industrial-strength double-sided tape, stuck it on the plates that regulated the magnetic field, then unscrewed their bolts. I鈥檇 read about this on a bank security Web forum. What I was trying to do here is loosen the magnetic plates so that I could pivot them out of my way. I managed to do it, then taped the plates to the antechamber wall, keeping the magnetic field intact. Thus I was able to unlock the vault door鈥攖hat is, once I correctly entered the combination and deployed the key made from a still photo taken from my subminicam feed.

Before swinging the door open, I flipped off the lights so as not to trip the light detector inside the vault. Once inside, I had to contend with a heat sensor, against which I couldn鈥檛 use the polyester shield because I would need both hands free. Turns out if this sort of sensor is coated with a transparent, oily mist, it鈥檚 insulated from fluctuations in the room鈥檚 temperature, chiefly 98.6-degree me entering. Pam Cooking Spray did the job.

That got me to the inbound and outbound cables powering the remaining security systems and returning their data. I linked the two cables using a precut four-inch length of copper wire, creating a bridge that rerouted the incoming pulse to the outbound wire before the signal reached the sensors, meaning the security company monitoring the vault would get no electronic news tonight.

Resisting the urge to look around, I darted straightaway to the storage compartments, drilled open the De Beers boxes, and tipped the two cases of raw diamonds into my knapsack. As the gems rained against the fabric, I considered for a moment that I might be dreaming. Could I possibly have gotten this far? I hadn鈥檛 figured I鈥檇 even on making into the vault.

I planned to return the diamonds to the diamond center. Until, back in my room at the hostel, I took a handful out of the knapsack and was enchanted by the way they transformed the harsh light of the overhead fluorescent tubes into the full spectrum.

Unfortunately the one thing you can鈥檛 find on the Web is a good fence.(less)

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Keith Thomson鈥檚 books

Average rating: 3.75 · 6,463 ratings · 861 reviews · 24 distinct works 鈥� Similar authors

	Born to Be Hanged: The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune 3.80 avg rating — 2,516 ratings — published 2022 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Once a Spy (Spy #1) 3.76 avg rating — 1,999 ratings — published 2010 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Twice a Spy (Spy #2) 3.72 avg rating — 831 ratings — published 2011 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Paradise of the Damned: The True Story of an Obsessive Quest for El Dorado, the Legendary City of Gold 3.76 avg rating — 410 ratings — published 2024 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	7 Grams of Lead 3.60 avg rating — 411 ratings — published 2014 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pirates of Pensacola 3.56 avg rating — 236 ratings — published 2005 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Gus Openshaw's Whale-Killing Journal 3.66 avg rating — 50 ratings — published 2006 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	What Was Your Great Grandmother's Name? 3.75 avg rating — 4 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Manipuliert by Keith Thomson (欧宝娱乐 Author), Jochen Stremmel (Translator) liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fossils: A Very Short Introduction liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Plum Island (John Corey, #1)

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Keith Thomson rated a book it was amazing Paradise of the Damned: The True Story of an Obsessive Quest for El Dorado, the Legendary City of Gold by Keith Thomson (欧宝娱乐 Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Quotes by Keith Thomson (?)

“It being a certain truth that those who who are born to be hanged will never be drowned.”
― Keith Thomson, Born to Be Hanged: The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune

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“The indomitable Cox may have been the only member of the crew to remain calm鈥斺€渋t being a certain truth that those who are born to be hang鈥檇 shall never be drown鈥檇,鈥� as he explained.”
― Keith Thomson, Born to Be Hanged: The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune

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