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A.C. Frieden’s World Travel & Research Map:

A.C. Frieden is a globe-trotting thriller author, private pilot, scuba instructor, former marksman, and former molecular biologist—along with being one of the country’s leading technology lawyers. His diverse expertise fuels the authenticity of his high-stakes, politically charged novels.

Born in Senegal, Africa, Frieden spent his early years in India, Switzerland, and the UK before moving to the southern U.S. with his parents. After high school, he returned to Switzerland to serve in the Swiss Army, where he trained as a sniper. He later came back to the U.S. to pursue higher education, earning two science degrees and two law degrees, along with his pilot’s and scuba instructor licenses. Today, when he’s not crafting pulse-pounding thrillers, he’s navigating the fast-paced world of tech law. Frieden is fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, and has some knowledge of Russian.

Frieden’s passion for writing took root during his legal studies in Russia, Austria, and Hungary, where his short stories, travel diaries, and poems evolved into the foundation for his future novels. His debut, Canvas Sunsets Never Fade (2004), tackled nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, but it was Tranquility Denied (2006) that introduced readers to lawyer-turned-intrepid investigator Jonathan Brooks. Set in post-Cold War Moscow, Stockholm, and Southern Louisiana, the novel kicked off a gripping series that continued with The Serpent’s Game (2013) and the highly anticipated sequels, The Pyongyang Option (2019) set in North Korea—Frieden is one of the few Western authors ever to visit this hermit kingdom. In 2024, the fourth installment of the series, Midnight in Delhi, was released. His fifth novel in the series, Dead in the Quarter, is scheduled for release at Bouchercon 2025.

To bring action and realism to his novels, Frieden has extensively researched the most challenging conflicts of the Cold War, including the Korean War, the U.S. intervention in Chile, the invasion of Panama, CIA counterinsurgencies in Bolivia, and the August Coup in the former Soviet Union, among other conflicts and crises. He’s also researched key events in the changing post‐Cold War era, such as the sinking of the K‐141 Kursk, the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, and the Libyan and Syrian civil wars. His interest in researching on‐site has brought him face‐to‐face with key political figures, diplomats, journalists and former military officials in Cuba, Venezuela, Turkey, Russia, India, and more than sixty‐five other countries. His research also led him to witness the 2009 Honduran coup d'état firsthand, to interview former combatants in Nicaragua, to visit once‐secret underground mountain bunkers in Switzerland and to visit the former Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine. Frieden also went to China and Vietnam to research another novel, and he recently published a photography book capturing his journey through North Korea, including Pyongyang, Kaesong and the Korean Demilitarized Zone. In addition, his non‐fiction works have appeared in numerous legal, technology and international business publications worldwide.