What is the title of your latest release?
ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE BOURNE ESCAPE
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
My seventh Bourne novel takes the series back to its roots – including characters from Ludlum’s original novel, THE BOURNE IDENTITY. As he struggles with his lost memory, Bourne must rescue Treadstone’s founder and his surrogate father, David Abbott. But the search for Abbott will take a personal toll on Bourne in ways he can’t possibly imagine.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Most of the Bourne novels involve international settings, so I’m always looking for overseas places that will enhance the drama of whatever’s happening in the novel. In this book, that means taking the reader from Paris to the Greek islands and from the beautiful Black Sea coast to the ruined countryside on the Russia-Ukraine border.
Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Hang out with Jason Bourne? No way! Too many people are trying to kill him!
What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Determined. Cynical. Loyal.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
Well, in the prior Bourne novels, I learned that life imitates art! It’s almost creepy the extent to which aspects of my Bourne stories have ended up playing out in real life. Let’s just say that given the plot of this new book, I hope that trend doesn’t continue!
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
Both. I’m an obsessive editor. I’m constantly editing along the way, and then I love to tweak every sentence from start to finish after I’m done. Usually, the Putnam people have to pry the manuscript out of my hands!
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I do have a weakness for churrascarias like Fogo de Chao and Texas de Brazil. A carnivore’s paradise!
Describe your writing space/office!
Well, since moving to Florida, I’ve found that I do most of my writing outside. I have a little desk set up in the back, overlooking the little lake behind our house. Needless to say, I couldn’t do that very often in Minnesota!
Who is an author you admire?
There’s too many to count! We have so many amazing writers in the mystery/thriller genre.
Is there a book that changed your life?
Back in 1980, when I was 17 years old, I read a new thriller by Robert Ludlum called THE BOURNE IDENTITY. If you’d told me back then that four decades later, books would be coming out with my name and Ludlum’s name on the cover, I’d have said you were crazy. But here we are. That book changed my life in ways I could never imagine.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
In 2004, I’d been trying to get published for some twenty-plus years. I had five novels sitting in my nightstand drawer, dating back to when I was thirteen. Then I sent the manuscript of IMMORAL to an agent in London. A week later, she called back and said she’d stayed up until one in the morning finishing it and had already been pitching it to UK publishers. Four weeks later, we had two-book deals in the US and UK. By the end of the year, we’d sold IMMORAL in 17 languages, and it had been selected as Bookspan’s International Book of the Month. Wow!
What’s your favorite genre to read?
The funny thing is, I really can’t read my own genre anymore! When you write suspense all day, it feels like work to curl up with someone else’s suspense novel in bed. So I mostly read nonfiction – history, biographies, memoirs.
What’s your favorite movie?
Tough call! I think I’ll go with ROAD TO PERDITION.
What is your favorite season?
Now that I’m in Florida – it’s every season!
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Quietly! Marcia and I typically put a couple steaks on the grill and order a marble cake with buttercream frosting. Plus, a good red wine!
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I’ve been struggling to find things I like these days! But I finally watched DEAD TO ME on Netflix, and it was superb.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Pretty much anything!
What do you do when you have free time?
“Free time.” That’s a phrase I’m not familiar with, given that I wrote three books last year. No, seriously, I just enjoy walking, hanging out with friends, watching the birds on the lake. When you love where you live, why go anywhere else?
What can readers expect from you next?
I’ll be keeping you busy! My stand-alone mystery, PHOTOGRAPH, comes out October 9. And then Bourne is back in January with THE BOURNE REVENGE. And for all you Stride fans, I’m diving into my first Jonathan Stride novel in three years right now. It’ll be out in 2026.
ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE BOURNE ESCAPE by Brian Freeman
The death of a lover plunges Bourne into a maelstrom of violence and deceit in this latest installment in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.
Jason Bourne is on a boat in the Mediterranean moonlight with his lover, Johanna. He’s happy for the first time in years. Then in the next instant, he finds himself floating on wreckage as fire and smoke choke the sky. Johanna is gone. And Bourne finds the darkness of lost memory closing around his mind again.
As he did once before, Bourne must piece together the fragments of who he is, even as assassins hunt him across Europe. He teams up with his spy chief, Shadow, who reveals the shocking secret that Bourne’s surrogate father – David Abbott, the founder of Treadstone – is alive and missing. Together they must find Abbott before his enemies do.
But Shadow is a master of manipulation who won’t hesitate to betray Bourne to get what she wants. With his memory returning in bits and pieces, Jason discovers that the explosion that stole away his identity is part of a deadly game being played among powerful adversaries from Moscow to Washington. It’s a game with no winners – because even if he finds David Abbott, Bourne may still find himself with no way out and everything to lose.
Thriller Political | Thriller Terrorism [G.P. Putnam’s Sons, On Sale: July 29, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9798217046188 / eISBN: 9798217046195]
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About Brian Freeman
Brian Freeman is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than two dozen psychological thrillers, including the Jonathan Stride series and multiple popular stand-alone novels. He was also selected by the Robert Ludlum estate to take over Ludlum’s iconic Jason Bourne series. He has since published five Bourne novels and brought the series back to the New York Times bestseller list for the first time in many years.
Since 2005, Freeman has sold books in 46 countries and 24 languages. He was an Edgar Award finalist for his novel THE DEEP, DEEP SNOW, and his novel SPILLED BLOOD won the award for Best Hardcover Novel in the ITW Thriller Awards. Kirkus Reviews named his novels among their Best Mysteries and Thrillers of the year in both 2020 and 2021 (for THE BOURNE EVOLUTION and INFINITE). He is a two-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award.
All of his books are available in audio editions. His novels THE BONE HOUSE and SEASON OF FEAR were both named finalists for the Audie Award for Best Audiobook in Thriller/Suspense.
Freeman’s writing has been praised by critics and bestselling authors alike, including Michael Connelly, Nelson DeMille, Jeffery Deaver, and Lisa Gardner. “A master of psychological suspense,” Gardner said of Freeman. London’s Daily Mail called Freeman “up there with Harlan Coben in the psychological crime stratosphere.”
Freeman lives in Florida with his wife, Marcia. They have been married for 40 years.
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