Shadow Of A Broken Man is generally believed to have been my first novel, but in fact King's Gambit came before that, published first in England and then in the Scandinavian countries. I had already written at least two novels, both well beyond bad, and, not surprisingly, had no success in getting them published. Well. If I couldn't write a novel, I figured the only thing to do was to become a screenwriter and make millions of dollars. Consequently I wrote an original screenplay combining three of my favorite things---chess, espionage, and redemption. I had no more luck selling the screenplay than I'd had publishing the novels. However, I continued to like the story, and I thought I'd written some pretty snappy dialogue, so I novelized my own screenplay. That novel sold and paved the way for a certain dwarf private detective.

John Butler wasn't World Champion, but he was, as he and many others believed, the best chess player in the world. He was also American. And that the Russians didn't like.

So when the young American Grand Master took his lilt at the title, plotting and intrigue were not confined to the chessboard. John found himself sucked into a maelstrom of espionage and deception, in a conflict that only a deadly checkmate could resolve.