Banking VP Chris Kneer pens his first financial thriller

Imagine if you will a banker – a successful executive in a three-piece suit – daydreaming, Walter Mitty-style, about training as a spy and going deep into the dark side to root out evildoing in the banking business. Covert ops, military training, bad guys, weapons, disguises, the whole deal.

Chris Kneer is First Senior Vice President, Director of SBA and Business Banking at Valley National Bank, in Tampa, and the fact that his first novel is a financial thriller set in the world of high-stakes banking is (almost) entirely coincidental.

Kneer’s book, Bluebird, follows bank security expert Jason Miles, of Tampa, Florida, as he uncovers a tax fraud scheme that leads directly to upper management.

Bluebird is fast-paced and heart-pounding. Everything bank work (presumably) isn’t.

“Banking is a fascinating industry,” Kneer says. “You meet so many different people, different personalities. You learn about all these different kinds of businesses – ones that work, ones that don’t. And you also meet some kind of shady folks, and I think when you have a creative mind you start putting these things aside and remembering the personalities.”

Twenty-first century surveillance, tracking and recognition software are part of the banking industry, too. “As we start to move into the technology world … every day we’re being fed here at the bank information about things to watch out for, different schemes,” Kneer observes. “AI is really opening a can.

“Especially for somebody who wanted to write, it’s been invaluable to be able to take notes and think ‘Hey, that guy would make a great character.’”

In the narrative, Miles had worked security at a bank in Israel, where he was recruited for an undercover operation by members of Shin Bet, an arm of the Israeli Intelligence Community.

Ten years later, he’s married to one of the agents and living in Tampa, heading security for Safe Harbor Bank.

Neither of them have forgotten their training, although there hasn’t really been any reason to call on it.

Until Miles and an associate uncover evidence of massive fraud. And something unpleasant hits the fan.

“The main tax scheme in the book, that’s a pretty legit one that’s happened at different times, in different parts of the world,” Kneer points out. “I think that’s the great thing about being a fiction writer. You kind of take real-world situations, embellish them a bit – you can stretch some things that might not be quite reality.

“I think that’s what a financial thriller is. You take these things and try to make them more interesting, without getting too deep into the weeds where you’re going to bore people.”

Setting the story in Tampa and Ybor City allowed Kneer to name-check local hotspots and watering holes, as well as reference area history. Miles is a card-carrying member of Ye Mystic Crewe, the “pirate mob” that stages the annual Gasparilla invasion.

“I think Tampa’s just an awesome backdrop for a thriller,” Kneer says. “There’s so many cool things here. This mixing all the different things about Tampa is really fun.

“I’ve worked in Ybor for close to a decade now, and I’ve lived in Florida for 30 years and been coming to Ybor the whole time. I just think it’s so fascinating, the history, and it’s just different than other parts of Tampa. I love the gritty feel of it, there’s a lot of different characters … and everywhere you look, there’s something you can throw into a story.”

His goal, he explains, is to make Jason Miles the hero of a series. It’s right there on the cover of Bluebird – over the title is written A Cigar City Thriller.

“You write what you like. And I love series, so when I read a series of someone who’s got maybe 20 books, some of them do an amazing job of bringing back all these characters that might have showed up in one of the books. And then start weaving them together. I’d love to be able to do that.”

He estimates the second thriller in the series is 20 percent finished.

“I enjoy my career, and it’s been good to me, but I’m about to turn 55,” Kneer says. “And as I kind of look at the second stage of life, I’d love if it took off – I could spend every day writing and I would be happy as can be.

“I’m not rushing to do that, but certainly every writer, in their heart of hearts, says if I could do this all the time, that would be a dream.”

Bluebird is available from Amazon, and from author Chris Kneer’s website.