The Deadly Deal – J. Lee (INTERVIEW) – Episode 70

The Buddies were thrilled to welcome J. Lee, author of the newly released thriller: The Deadly Deal. The Buddies got a chance to ask J. some hard hitting questions such as: What is his go to McDonald’s order, what conspiracy theories he believes in, and they got to quiz him on his Seinfeld knowledge. They also of course asked him about his new page-turning thriller, and were even able to get him to reveal the original alternate ending. So don’t walk, run to your nearest bookstore/internets and purchase The Deadly Deal which is out today, then join us here at the Buddy Book Club.

Intro: (0:00-1:15)
Interview with J. Lee (1:16-28:43)
Stock Up/Down (28:44-47:44)
Favorite Scene/Character (47:45-50:13)
Love/Hate (50:14-58:36)
Casting the Movie (58:37-1:00:18)
Conclusion/Review (1:00:19-1:02:25)

 Next Book: ANXIOUS PEOPLE by FREDRIK BACKMAN

Transcript for SEO purposes 🙂

I’m Dylan here with my partner in conspiratorial crime Keith what’s up chicken wing Theory the chicken here at the Buddy book club we’re working down some best sellers and this week we’ll be discussing a brand new thriller coming out on September 12th the deadly deal by Jay Lee it’s his uh third novel this was a great one this one was fun so you obviously haven’t read it because considering that this is being dropped uh the day it comes out so pause it here rent to the bookstore pick up a copy read it come back we actually have an exclusive interview with the author so if you just want to listen to the interview to get spiced up a little bit before you read the book you should do that so listen to the interview and then get the book either way get the book it was great if you’d like to recommend a book for us to read or reach out to us about any past episodes you can visit the website betterbookhub.com or DMS on Twitter Instagram buddy book a podcast you can listen to us wherever you get your podcast so please download And subscribe we’re gonna get straight into the interview and we’ll do our normal categories afterwards so here’s our conversation with Jay Lee all right guys today we’re speaking with Jay Lee author of The Deadly deal which will be released on September 12th if uh you don’t want to wait or feel of the book as much as we did and want to check out other books by Jaylee head over to your local bookstore and pick up copies of the Hubbly case and Silent Cardinal Jay glad you’re here welcome to the program so much for having me guys I’m honored to be here it’s our pleasure we got a couple questions for you we’re going to keep it spoiler free for the readers out there so the book comes out on the 12th it’s available everywhere right yeah we’ve got pre-order already set up through all the major Distributors local bookstores Indies and all that sort of stuff and it’s on uh ebook platforms as well love that and as we understand it you had a draft of the deadly deal stashed in the drawer I think in the acknowledgment section you said the proverbial drawer which I appreciated for six for 16 years what made you come back to it as your third novel this has been such a reflective and in a lot of ways emotional process at the risk of being long-winded the full story is that I wrote this book way back when decade and a half ago when I was working in an industry that’s tangential to the pharmaceutical industry and I really like the idea and I like the plot and it sort of drafted a first version and actually had secured a literary agent to help me get it published and shortly after he and I signed together about two weeks before he was going to start reaching out to Publishers he received a diagnosis of terminal cancer and uh he called me up and he’s just the nicest man in the world I mean I only knew him for a couple of months but here he was telling me that he was so passionate about the project he really wanted to push it through he said I’m going to try to get this published for you essentially before I die and I said Jay I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your support but look you need to go be with some family you need to stop working this is way more important than getting some book published man and um a couple of months later he did pass away and when that happened you know poor me right when that happened I I got you know you know frustrated whatever I I kind of just shoved the book back in the drawer and and life a lot of Life happened between then right I met this girl we got married now we got kids I got two other books that have been published but throughout that entire time I’ve always been intrigued by the story I’ve always thought that the premise of the book was very captivating to me personally and you know decided to take it out and the plan was let’s just make the changes right 16 17 years ago by car models change the internet’s changed all that sort of stuff and the plan was hey you’ve already written this it had an agent I mean you know it’s it’s it’s pretty tight just make a few changes and be done yeah a year later I pretty much reread the entire thing my wife flipped it to shreds the title switched the only thing that has stayed the same basically is the original plot like the high level story but I gotta tell you guys seeing that book you know make its way to formal publication on September 12th it’s been very emotional it’s made me think about my former agent it’s made me think about all the life that’s happened between when I first remember writing it and today and I’m a I’m an older dude now like oh you know the young people would look at me and say you’re an old guy and back then I wouldn’t have been I wouldn’t have been an old guy and and it’s just been it’s been very emotional because in a lot of ways this this feels like my writing baby yeah I mean it really wasn’t and I think we’re both glad that it finally came to light because it’s such a great book and it’s such a fun premise one thing we always talk about is pacing it in books that kind of play out like movies in our heads and I think your book is a perfect example of it how do you toe line between keeping things action-paced while also setting up twists while also kind of developing these characters that’s a really good question and I’ll answer it by saying of course every writer is different and to a certain extent I’m envious of the writers that can just sit down and free write their way through a fantastic story I don’t have that ability I’m not that good what what I have to do is I have to pretty much map it out on paper and an outline first so the outline helps me because what it does is it gives me a sense of of where I might want to put a red herring where a Twist would be appropriate if I know down the road that this guy needs to be revealed as a bad guy you know what earlier chapters what little things can I throw in there to kind of kind of give a hint to the reader so that they could look back and say ah I should have figured that out this genre and a lot of similar genres yeah they focus on plot but people fall in love with characters not fun so you gotta give enough backstory but how do you do it in a way that’s not boring I utilize the outline to say okay in the middle of these action scenes what’s help the readers understand who these people are a little bit more let’s help them relate to these people a little bit more it feels like so many times with Paige Turner’s there’s a lack of character development but I felt like in this book they were so fleshed out that they felt real and especially because the premise felt so real so wonderful job on that and it’s a it’s a great title The Deadly deal you know really sets the stakes it’s a title that if you saw on a bookshelf it makes you want to pick it up read the back cover and purchase of course the deadly deal level September 12th of bookstore near you how’d you come up with the title because there was a title change from the original yeah well I I really appreciate that thanks for saying that the original title was actually called the triangle trade and the reason why I had chosen that not really necessarily thinking through geopolitical things and like you know I just I like the alliteration and I like the premise that you had these three powerful entities the United States government a pharmaceutical company and an insurance company that basically tell this story about how the three of them could conspire to uh serve their own interests and each one of the three gets benefit from the other two I just thought that was kind of a cool title 16 years later I’m sort of like well I’m a little bit older I’m a little bit wiser I’m a little bit more aware of you know some of the negative connotations of that in general and the title just didn’t really jump out at me as having a sense of urgency but I really liked the alliteration aspect so I sort of just started brainstorming what are things that sound catchy and what’s this book about and you know if you think about trade versus deal there’s there’s somewhat synonyms and then I just sort of tried to piece together to say you know how do you express urgency and landed on the deadly deal I’m so much happier with that title than the original but to your point I think it’s a strong title that conveys urgency and hopefully puts a little bit of intrigue out there for people who might be looking to give it a shot 100 and you managed to work it into the text which is always appreciative that’s a lot of fun you notice that right you’re you’re into the details I like that very cool very cool I like a good conspiracy theory I know this is fiction but this book felt completely grounded in reality and I know you have a background in pharmaceutical industry so how strict are they with the uh based on a true story and what percentage of this is real or could be real I don’t want to turn you into another David here I don’t want to get you in trouble but you know you know can you give us a little ballpark on uh how real this could be that’s funny so first and foremost it is truly a work of fiction right it is not based on any specific example it is not based on anything that’s happened in the past there have definitely been obviously instances in the past where there’s been some pharmaceutical industry snafus there have been things that you could look up but it’s not based on any of that it is however from my vantage point plausible because the idea that I got sort of originated when I learned how the FDA regulatory process worked the job I had was as an analyst for a company that made technology that served pharmacies and one of the things that I had to understand was how does the pharmaceutical Market work how does the pipeline of a new drug work how does the approval process work what are some of the different branches of that process in general and the more I learned about it the more interested I became and the more maybe a little little nervous I became because I I noticed that like wow if you know the right people and you’ve got the write-ins on the various process you could do some pretty scary stuff here that’s what the Genesis of the book was all about was this purely fictional yet seemingly realistic scenario where if you had enough people high enough at each of these individual entities that were selfish enough to do something like this they just might actually get away with it so I can I give you a percentage on How likely it is not really but can I tell you that you know that that it certainly seems like there are some loopholes that could be exploited by the wrong person in the process yeah there absolutely are they’re absolutely once we turn the recording off we’ll get the real answer we know what’s going on here yeah all right okay now that’s the dress down version also come off after this yeah yeah I read this book and watched the Hulu series Dope Sick back to back and after that my percentage is a hundred percent I don’t trust the FDA at all and that stuff but there are some big conspiratorial figures in the book I mean and who doesn’t love a good conspiracy I think we all do are there any conspiracies Jay that you believe in you know grassy knoll government hiding UFOs in the desert Chemtrails the chicken wing conspiracy at any of those or others boy what a good question uh I gotta say based on my intricate knowledge of movies and past reels as well as the Seinfeld episode I do find it incredibly hard to believe that Oswald did what he supposedly did back in 1963. when you look at the mechanics and the physics of what that magic bullet would have had to do and you consider how good of a shot that would have to be and that all these people heard things from this direction and that one I guess if you put me on the spot deep down which you have by the way thank you um I I’d say I’d say that that there’s more to that story than a lone shooter from The Book Depository how about you I’m gonna put it right back on you you got any conspiracy I couldn’t agree with you more on that one I actually watched that Seinfeld episode last week and and that’s why I was laughing as you were answering that question because it’s just such a phenomenal episode I mean on the grassy knoll I’m in on the whole thing you know also the JFK movie if people haven’t seen that check it out phenomenal government definitely is hiding UFOs I’m with there and Keith is probably put 30 000 words down about the the chicken wing conspiracy which he has that chickens are being secretly bred to have like eight wings I think his calculation came out too based on the amount of chicken wings that are consumed he doesn’t know where where the rest of the chickens are being eaten so uh yeah you can check check out buddybookclub.com to catch those 30 000 words maybe after the after the release the book when you got some down time that sounds like a plan yeah it’s nice to know you’re a fellow Seinfeld fan as well I I’m here to tell you that I recently almost won a local Seinfeld trivia a competition and that that about made my day that’s phenomenal yeah that’s probably some in-depth questions there because I’ve been getting lambasted by Keith over the past few months because I’m not a huge Seinfeld guy more of a curb guy and he is a massive Seinfeld guy so I’m trying to do my part and and watch them well given that interest I’ll just share with you I’ll just tell you the question that that wound up making or break in the competition was what is the name of the subway stop that the characters tend to want to get off to grab the sandwich got to that level of of specification I certainly did not know the answer to that one the the team that won was a group of 20. Jesus oh come on there’s too many people together and you know your odds go way up meanwhile it’s just me and my wife and she’s just there for moral support so I feel pretty good about the outcome of it in all honesty yeah I mean you should they should have just given you the award because 20 seems like cheating and they were all into it too but yeah that was the question that separated the men from the boys like it uh well Jay now that you’re on your third novel is there is there any part of the writing process or you know the build up to the book being released that’s stressful for you or you know is it kind of you’ve seen it before you’ve done it before no sweat now that’s it that’s a great question and most certainly yes uh there are stressful parts of it I will say that that this past week I’ve not been able to sleep very well there’s been a lot of excitement and just a lot of emotion I think in particular this book you know I’ve been thinking about my my former agent j a lot and and just sort of the the bigger picture of life because it’s been such a such a large span of time but the excitement and this sort of internal reward of seeing the book get published I I don’t think that that will ever get old for me I will say the hardest part of the process is without question the detailed editing I’m the guy that loves to write the first draft loves to get the book sort of on paper and then sort of gruels through the editing because it’s a necessary evil yeah and that tends to be a little bit stressful it helps I mean my wife as you said your wife helped a lot with that which is great yeah she rips everything to shreds you know it’s you know I love her for it but she’s a very talented writer and a very very voracious reader and she’s helped tremendously but that’s a stressful part and and just just a busy week of it of it being coming up as soon as it is uh there’s definitely been some sleepless nights hopefully afterwards you know you get to Relish in and enjoy the sense of accomplishment because uh it is indeed that it is a great accomplishment so and there’s a surprising just to get back to the book here this is a surprising amount of food references in the book specifically fast food I mean I think we got Dunkin Donuts Taco Bell uh Captain Crunch McDonald’s of course and it makes sense when you’re on the lamb you know you don’t really have time for fine dining David’s McDonald’s order though a two double cheeseburgers and extra fries a phenomenal and economical order I mean that was you know rewind 20 years or whatever in high school that was my order I could go in there for three dollars and you know get 2 000 calories I need to know though did that come from your particular McDonald’s order or do you have a different McDonald’s order no no that that is not my particular order that just seemed like if somebody was trying to fill up as quickly as possible and and you know kind of get right to it without being seen what would they do I gotta say my go-to and and I tend to be a burger and fries guy in general but it’s hard to go against the old nine piece McNugget meal from McDonald’s that’s probably my go-to I don’t get to eat there very often anymore because you know like you said back in high school you could wolf down a couple of Whoppers or uh cheeseburgers from McDonald’s no big deal a little bit more punishing these days but uh so it’s it’s not often that I go there but when I do oh boy it’s hard for me to turn down a good chicken nugget deal yeah and quick follow-up what kind of dips are we working with because McDonald’s is known for having some pretty good dips you’re gonna want to shoot me through the screen here but honestly the the only thing that I’ve ever found success with on the dipping front is ketchup you came to the right place I’m a big ketchup guy it’s been hit several times over I’m a Heinz guy through and through I do enjoy some McDonald’s fancy ketchup here and there but uh but yeah the ketchup’s totally fine totally acceptable all right I’ll tell you what you talk about being out on the uh out on the ledge there I mean you actually got a completely different way

so we pretend to kind of be movie Producers here and you know cast actors from books we read I’m curious did you imagine certain actors for these characters or is there any dream actors or actresses that you would love to star in an adaptation of your book oh wow that’s a really good question I can’t say that I’ve ever sat back and pictured a character of mine being played by person X Y or Z I certainly love good action movie and there have been plenty of actors who have portrayed a lot of different characters in the movies that I’ve really enjoyed I personally think if you look at breadth of roles and just how wide a range you know he’s had it’s hard to argue with with a guy like Tom Hanks and I’m showing my age there a little bit but not at all I mean you know to do everything from Forrest Gump to Philadelphia all the way back to Big here’s a guy who’s got some versatility but I think I think if you put me on the spot and said who would be a really fun character to play in in one of your stories it’s kind of hard to go against you know just for popularity’s sake to go against a guy like Leo because you talk about versatility I mean he’s been in everything from Titanic to to that to that movie about the Mobsters in in Boston departed yeah I mean he is a badass so I

person to see the role of David centrali and what he would do with it yeah Tom Hanks might be a little too old for the role but you know I don’t want to put anything past past Tom you know so if uh Tom you your agent are listening it gets an opportunity to hit the 24 7 Fitness you know get put some bulk on you know go for that Oscar role it could be here with the deadly deal once it once it hits the big screen so yeah you never want to bet against Tom right that was more of a hindsight comment that I made in general but I’m with you and I would say if we’re reversing time referenced in the book Mel Gibson Lethal Weapon three it would be confusing if Mel Gibson’s playing it and there’s a lethal weapon for three reference but at the same time you’re on it you are on it my man interesting pulled Lethal Weapon three I just have to say you know Joe pastry’s introduced really got Rene Russo in that one definitely not my number one Lethal Weapon movie but if you were to hide some secret information that would probably be a good DVD to do it well I mean that was that was just picked by uh what I I happen to be watching at the time that the draft was written I mean this is but yeah I’m with you it’s probably not the best Lethal Weapon movie I I gotta go with the original on that one but believe it or not Joe Pesci he came up in Lethal Weapon too oh he was the guy that they had to protect right right yeah he came back as such a different character in part three that you didn’t even recognize in this one right yeah and I’m glad you’re going back to watch the lethal way and honestly if we’re talking Lethal Weapon 3 yeah it’s not the best of Lethal Weapon movies but in terms of overall movies way up there love me some local weapon yeah oh for sure for sure

I’m in here you know yeah I like you guys there’s a lot of synergy if you know from our fast food to our Seinfeld to our movies and we support the same football teams right Keith [Music]

cut it we’re cutting that we’re cutting that part if you want to jump into some uh some spoiler stuff boiler warning for uh listeners out there if they haven’t picked up the book yet go get it but my first one was the book itself is pretty cynical with the in terms of the leadership and government did you ever think the end to that all the main characters might die or be killed because when Walter Buck dies I was like anything could happen right now I I might kill them at like this planes might blow up I was like kind of on the edge of my seat at the end there because I was like what’s gonna happen what’s gonna happen was there every thought in your mind like oh everyone’s gonna die that is an incredibly insightful question and I’m a little worried that you have my computer bugged true story in the very very very first draft and this this wound up getting changed you know even before I got the agent before Jay and I started working together but in the very very first draft you know that final scene at the end where uh was watching the reporting of the outcome and and you know she’s in the ocean it ends with a single bullet and him slumping over and blood staining the television I I don’t know quite why I changed it I mean honestly I don’t recall specifically saying this ending doesn’t work I need to change it it probably had something to do with wanting to have a somewhat less down ending but I really can’t remember but absolutely I mean if you think about it at the end of the day the highest levels of government Got Away Scott yeah exactly they’re they’re free and clear the guys kind of took the fall for it but basically the real perpetrators the head head honchos they got away and my argument at the time that I wrote it I do remember thinking there’s absolutely no way that they would let this guy hang around they would they would end this and uh and I actually had that in the draft that the final scene was he was smiling because he was watching the video and then all of a sudden pop and and all that was left was blood on the TV the end I don’t know I mean like I said I think he got me bugged here but it would have to be plugged from 16 years ago so maybe not maybe a coincidence yeah Dave David Goes Down from from this the shot and then Anne gets eaten by a shark right

and it’s interesting that you didn’t include it because I still felt there was stuff going on afterwards that we don’t even know about you know maybe it came his luck ran out down the line but it does leave it kind of up to our imagination whether they are able to live happily on the beach and also you know we don’t really even know necessarily where they are because she wanted to stay in the states he didn’t they’re on a beach you know could be in the states could be in Hawaii who knows could be in Guam but it’s also realistic because if if you were that guy and there was an element of wanting to make him you know sort of an everyday Joe even at the end of it you had the money you’re sitting on the beach whatever there wouldn’t be a day that goes by that you wouldn’t look over your shoulder it probably even comes across in the final book is even a little happier than I even meant it to because a part of the reality is the main bad guy you know the main antagonist got away yeah and he’s still out there and he’s in a position of authority and and I don’t think that you would ever totally rest easy if you were David I mean that’s that’s a part of the price that you would pay for your part in this whole crazy week but I love the idea that it’s not like so nice and neat and everything falls into one box there would be angst and and you would wonder and and it’s kind of fun to hear you think that when you read it you had that Vibe too that’s really cool to hear thanks for sharing that this is more of a comedic one but it’s all right I need to know this Doug by all it counts he’s a pretty terrible person not likable not very bright an alcoholic what kind of game was he spitting in order to get David’s fiancee Tiffany how did he get her to cheat with him like I’m just need to know I need to know what kind of game he was spinning yeah like David seems like the full package and and Doug’s like no package he’s that he’s a torn up Amazon box you get and and so what was he doing with Tiffany there my guess would be that if you guys think long and hard about your own personal Network there’s some relationship somewhere that doesn’t make a hill of beans where the sets right [ __ ] the hell is possibly be call it Florence nighting

Nightfall that there’s reasons that ugly folks like me and Dirks like Doug wind up uh having success with uh pretty and intelligent women and unfortunately it’s a part of life and and on the serious side that was one of the things about David really kind of deliberately put in there you know he starts out on the cynical side untrusting you know kind of Jaded by what happened and understandably so right like you know if if that had happened to me I would be I would be reluctant to jump into a trusting relationship as well but he’s kind of forced throughout the book he’s kind of forced to put that aside and decide you know am I gonna continue to Harbor this this anger and this frustration and and let it limit my tomorrow or am I gonna say man that really sucked that never should have happened I got a really raw deal but I’m not gonna let it affect the rest of my life I think that’s a very real thing that a lot of people on some level have to kind of come to terms with in their own life yeah for sure I’m not sure I would have given them the 30 million but I agree with the rest of it fair enough well again you know like like the other question I’ll I’ll give you the true story once we hang up you’ll hear about it you know that supplies ending where the bad guys did certain people well maybe he doesn’t get David yeah

well Jay it was really great talking to you I mean we’re we’re super excited for the book to be released we had a great time reading it and as a reminder to tell readers out there it’s available September 12th at a bookstore or ebook retailer wherever you want to go uh definitely check it out it’s it’s a little late for Beach season but I live in Cape Cod and the beach weather continues through the next month or so this would be a phenomenal Beach read so for those people out there or who want to enjoy the Chris Paul air and have a nice Thriller by their side this is this is the one hey Dylan Keith thank you so much really appreciate you guys taking the time to have me it was a lot of fun to catch up with you guys have a conversation and I wish you guys the best got nothing but respect for the Buddy book club all right that was Jay thanks for joining us that was a lot of fun honestly we had a really good time with that interview we’ve had a couple of those and uh to be honest that was the best one I don’t I don’t usually like to pick favorites but uh I’m picking them mostly because of the the Duke Clemson stuff which I think we talked about off the air that didn’t start the interview off well you know but Clemson just lost to uh Duke and a terrible college football game and uh I’m a Clemson grad and he’s a Duke grad so there was a little bit of animosity to start a little rivalry there yeah I liked it thank you all right Keith let’s jump into the categories for the deadly deal stock up stock down stock up what do you got stock up expensive suits in Bourbon I mean there’s already a big stock up you know me a kid you know me power suits power tie power steering we already know me kid I knew when the book said that the guy had a power suit on yeah I had to because a lot of the characters a lot of how they were described was immediately bought either their their suit like this guy was wearing a three thousand dollar tailored suit or whatnot or what kind of drink they were drinking like it was some sort of bourbon which I honestly think is all I need oh this person was drinking a bush light you think of you know me the tailgate you know me having a good time if someone’s wearing like a two thousand dollar Armani suit you think of demon out of the wine and Cheese Conference you know like so you understand the character right away like someone that’s down to earth normal like like me or d-man who’s you know wearing his expensive suits drinking his expensive drinks but you kind of can tell that character just by those two things I really thought that was kind of interesting how he included those and and that kind of like really made the characters right away yeah it’s probably an easy way to just level up is to start drinking brown liquor and buy unfortunately I do not drink brown liquor I’m uh I’m a clear clear liquor guy yeah both of those work for me okay you know there are some brown Tequilas I’ll enjoy Reposado or an Anejo heroin naturally but yeah Jay even said he spent some time in Boston and enjoyed a cape codder which is a delicious cranberry vodka that’s a pink liquor no well the vodka’s walk clear and then the mixture comes in yeah I’m more of a gym shorts and vodka guy so it makes me sound like Duck really just you know melting into my lazy boy maybe I’ll just level up next time my first stock up is yearbooks high school yearbooks specifically it turns out based on this book that they actually do serve a purpose besides being a hundred and fifty dollar doorstop which is right did when you went to high school were people signing your yearbook I can’t remember honestly when he was like oh it hasn’t been cracked open at all and I’m like mine wouldn’t literally look brand new it might be still completely brand new right now because I don’t remember even opening it yeah I remember like Middle School yearbooks those are important yeah it being a big thing to write hags in you know very important but High School you kind of get right because you’re about to graduate I don’t remember anyone signing it but it’s a great vehicle that moves the story along what I liked about it in the deadly deal was that it was like the starting point clue but it did nothing but provide more questions you know obviously they work through it and got a little bit but in general it was just more questions it had a little bit of like National Treasure or like one of those Dan Brown books to it I remember writing a note like oh it’s kind of Da Vinci code-esque right now when I first got it so yeah for sure except instead of some like weird Leonardo da Vinci cryptograph thing it’s just a yearbook we can all associate it yeah I know right right there’s a little bit more down Earth it’s written for the Layman like us which we appreciate um what else do you have for stock up slacking off at work stock up not that I would ever do this not not me but David is obviously like a hard worker he’s kind of like built his way up he’s like 11 year run what did working hard do for him and rising to top is unknowingly about to get killed like right when the book is introduced to him he’s like has to go in front of all these big bored people and he’s he’s basically about to get killed and he has no idea why it’s basically the only reason is because he knows like a friend of a friend right it’s like yeah he’s like a patsy you know it’s like this is going to be eventually be like the scapegoat for this thing or something potentially who knows and also he’s only making 200k and I mean like 2008 is a great salary obviously 200k to get killed we gotta be seven figures you can’t buy a house for under a million in California so I mean what are we even doing here and also 200k to be in charge of Business Development for the biggest pharmaceutical drug that is going to hit this country in its history seven figures like what’s the big deal here yeah maybe he’s just not negotiating if you tell me here’s seven figures there’s a 50 chance you get killed in a conspiracy I’m okay with that yep fine sign me up but 200k bro like come on figure it out Moral Stories don’t work hard my next stock up fast food I mean we talked about this a little bit in the interview but you know particularly McDonald’s it’s great comfort food it’s good for the price we all know here at the bunny book club that I love me some McDonald’s I don’t get to eat it enough as I would like I’m more of a health conscious person unfortunately these days but it’s my favorite part about going on a road trip is I just get to stop McDonald’s three times and and get whatever I want I’m more of a McDouble guy as opposed to the double cheeseburger I don’t think you don’t need that extra slice of cheese especially because you’re going to get a couple of them Jaylee said he was a fan of the Nuggets that’s obviously part of my part of my order you know you get a couple McDonald’s you get the burgers and then you’re like oh I’ll get like an appetizer yeah exactly the nuggets are the app no the fries are kind of the appetizers the nuggets the dessert and if you really lucky in that ice cream machine’s working you get you get an ice cream there yeah yeah really just reading this whole book there’s a lot of references to fast food and whatnot in here just you know popular culture in general and it got it got my tummy grumbling and I think I might have to get some McDonald’s after this I had one more and it kind of ties in with the uh Seinfeld slash curb stuff we were discussing and it’s Anonymous donations stock up I know there’s an entire curb episode about this so I don’t want to uh just repeat what was said there but our boy David pays for a random boy’s surgery to save his save his life but then makes the family swear not to tell anyone oh like like that’s actually gonna happen this poor family all of a sudden dude you didn’t like that I like that no I did I did okay I’m saying that this is genius this Anonymous donation I mean it happened in curb with Ted Ted Danson he was like I’m Anonymous and everyone’s like oh did you hear Ted dot dance since Anonymous and then it’s like it’s anymore he’s dead dancing but on top of that David takes the entire Big Brother little brother group out to a Yankees game and then denies it to his co-workers which just keeps the scuttlebutt going you know everyone’s talking like oh did you hear David did that and then he just pretended like he didn’t he’s such a great guy it’s it’s smart it’s like getting two for one that could backfire it’s like hey David I saw you out with a bunch of kids the other day at a game were you volunteering no no I wasn’t what were you doing with them nothing true all right interesting yeah that’s a very interesting point it’s like well I definitely saw you at a Yankees game with 20 children so something was going on there and then my last talk up is the lethal weapon series we already discussed it in the interview but it but it’s but it’s phenomenal that’s that’s an easy one stalk down what do you got talking back to Hitman Hitman Hitman yeah Hitman Hit Men it’s plural like multiple hit men’s it seems like a lot of back and forth between the like the power players and like the government and in the corporation and like the people like Marcus who will murder you in your sleep instantly like yeah once he said one time to me Hey listen I’m gonna run it you shut your mouth I’d be like yes sir you’re right no you’re right you know and I wouldn’t want to know the gritty details I’d just be like get it done let me know what happens I’m not gonna be questioning the guy who’s like can murder you in your in your sleep about how he does things it’s like asking Bill Gates about how Microsoft worked you know he’d be like shut up why would you ask me that you know yeah all right I guess yeah okay like how does your new operating system function he’s like this doesn’t matter like doesn’t matter to you you’re an idiot like I’m gonna take care of it for sure yeah I got you I got you there my first talk down brotherly love it’s important to be close with your family members not too close it’s important to be close especially you got some brothers it’s nice to be close with them because you know when you’re growing up you know you emulate them especially they’re your big brothers it makes a lot of sense but this book made me realize that there’s a non-zero chance they will hook up your with your fiance so maybe it’s not that cool to have brothers thoughts yeah I mean I’ll get into this my next stock uh stock down but no longer brother after he does that right no in the words of many people he’s dead to me yeah right but you don’t pick your nose you don’t pick your friend’s nose and you definitely don’t [ __ ] your brother’s fiance that’s the saying I was thinking of yeah yeah there you go all right perfect I mean what’s your stock down because I want to talk about like why Tiffany bone dug and we did talk about this with with Jaylee and he said you know these things can happen in life just like I said there’s a non-zero chance and it was you know I think it was more about David allowing himself to to forgive to forgive his brother and move yeah yeah and then also like how it affected his life so much down the line which obviously like you walk in on your brother hooking up with your fiance but I don’t feel like we got a great answer as to like what kind of pheromones Doug was throwing out there that got Tiffany at like a Christmas Gathering she never met this guy before he’s disgusting honestly he’s a like a gross slob who’s yeah doing okay for herself so a rethinking tripod that’s what I was I thought he was inferring right away that’s I honestly thought that I was like oh he’s got a big old elephant hog on it huh it’s one of those I’m like all right all right same less you know yeah okay uh what did you ever suck down a Christian Gray from run away stock down bargaining chips kidnapping his shitty brother and his ex-fiance talk about having zero leverage huh like just complete shitty people it reminded me of the Austin power scene where uh Austin Powers takes Scott hostage and he’s like seems like the tables have turned he’s like not really kill the bastard we’ll see if I care yeah Dad but we had a breakthrough group I had the whole group vaporized

like so yeah just kill him I’m like I don’t care about them that’s what I thought he was going to say immediately I guess he’s the hero that we can’t you know but if that’s me I’m like okay it doesn’t even talk to the dude in like six years I don’t care about it no no give me the gun oh thanks for getting them for me appreciate that yeah on top of that which was also kind of interesting have you seen red dragon the like second sounds of the Lambs movie no he basically shows them like a slideshow of like all the Terrible Things he’s done but for some reason to really Hammer this home to David they just show him a bunch of pictures of Doug like here’s Doug with electric cords taped to his nuts here’s Doug with all these surgical implements it’s like no no I got it like I understand you have him kidnapped and you’re good like which one do you want me you want me to pick out which uh tool you want me to use on him okay yeah let’s go hammer first I think and then yeah I’m just picturing them also like setting up the photo shoot you know being like okay let’s get Doug over here in this corner and duct tape him to a chair okay now let’s get Doug over here the lights a little better and I’m gonna put some surgical implements down I understood it after the first one I know what you guys were thinking you were gonna do I really didn’t need all the all the photo evidence but uh I guess it worked because you know David fell for it at least to some degree yeah it’s like the uh what’s the Stanford experiment another experience you don’t the Stanford Prison experience yeah if you’re just hearing someone like scream or something you’re like I keep pressing the button but if you’re seeing it if you’re much more likely to uh not hurt the person no if that’s what yeah I just might have combined like six different studies

there’s like the thing where they keep press the button I do they test it one where you only can hear it and they test it again where you can see the person and he’s like acting like he’s like getting really in pain and they stop when they see them but if they hear it they’re just like all right like keep typing it interesting checks out I believe it humans are weird my next talk down expert in military training what good is it honestly like what good is expert military training if you can’t kill a mid-level pencil Pusher with a 24 7 Gym membership maybe it should be stock up to 24 7 gym memberships either way we’re going to stock down an expert military training our boy Marcus and not a good look by him he’s a CIA op that does all the wet work you know he’s one of those guys that can just do anything you put him alone somewhere you know he’s a force multiplier he acts as 20 men but he’s one guy he’s got no situational awareness he’s in the the boat storage place and he’s asking where the heck Ann is well at the same time she’s uncovering a tarp and picking up a boat anchor which has a chain on it you know you think you you’d hear something nope nothing at all gets brained by the anchor doesn’t die right there so I guess stock up to him for being a little stronger than you know the normal man but then these firing shots into this car can’t hit either of them and just decides to stand right in front of it another Austin Powers thing it’s like the guy in front of the steamroller so yeah no it was like uh come on Marcus like be be better and then that’s not even the only one though you got the guys in the gym the The Hitman in the gym at the end during this time you know David’s whole plan is okay wait for the alarm to go off and then pull up a little gun out this whole thing one of the train Killers this is a guy who is presumably been in war zones or at least heard a loud noise before he actually covers his ears when the hourly alarm goes off covers his ears while he’s in a Mexican standoff because of a moderately loud noise it’s like oh my God this guy’s gotta do better in military training don’t they just like you know bombs going off left and right and you still got to keep your cool Under Fire so not a good look for the experts they also did the the same thing in the gray man that where yeah you have two people you know where they are they don’t know where you are and instead of just waiting for them to walk out and shooting them they’ll rush into the place I’m like this is day one stuff there’s no reason to to attack a Target if there’s nothing in there that you need you just wait till they walk out with the stuff you kill them yeah yeah they have no idea you’re there stake out their car which they’re going to go back to because they have to leave yeah and when they come out you shoot them there you go we’re done yeah Marcus was uh yeah he needed to figure it out he was he was getting lacks our boys getting lacks I mean he was way too too concerned about people questioning his authority rather than just doing a good job these people probably should be questioning her like what you’re doing because you’re sucking at it yeah that’s a great point you know he was too concerned about the peripherals than actually doing his job he would not be good on a Bill Belichick LED team no no do your job yeah my last one uh engagement stories I’m jazzed for for Mary and Jake well not not that they got burned alive in a fire but I’m jazzed about you know how deeply in love they are that’s great you know I appreciate that I really do but Mary retelling their engagement story every time she sees David that’s a bit much you walk in hey haven’t seen you in a while she’s like have I told you about the engagement story yeah you have and on top of that it’s not a good story it’s not unique it’s not that interesting they had a romantic dinner on his parents boat and he told her to get a flashlight but instead she found a ring whoop the freaking do like someone and telling me that story over and over again and and you know it’s one of those things like as time passes the each of them are kind of forgetting and they play it off each other so she’s like so yeah we had wine and he’s like no it was champagne she’s like oh right yes it was it was it was champagne it’s like oh my God the story is you know David’s also like oh yeah when you found the ring they’re like no no we’ll tell it it’s like oh God damn yeah I didn’t know it was the ring at first like he told me to get a flashlight it’s like yes I understand he didn’t say go get the ring from me I’ve heard this six times now oh my God damn it yeah and also it leads off the story leads off with Jake being concerned his parents would him wouldn’t let him take their boat out I mean he’s saying I’m gonna propose to this woman can I use the boat and he’s thinking they might not let him to me that just says that his parents must not have been huge fans of Mary well maybe his parents were like Step Brothers uh parents you can’t touch the boat like that’s his whole life maybe yeah okay yeah sure it’s like but his dad not only let him take the boat out he cleaned it for him it’s like wow what a [ __ ] Saint and did has he ever tried to take 30 kids to a Yankees game and pretend like yeah yeah right what the [ __ ] so uh yeah you know engagement stories it’s nice just say you got engaged I don’t need to hear the whole thing you know I can I can put the pieces together I get it I’m sure it was something special we actually had a guy at work who did this he had a he basically proposed on a ski mountain and set up his phone to like do the whole thing and it’s like at the lodge of a ski mountain it was like a 15 minute video and he had like 20 people around his desk watching it on his phone I was like this love video is gonna be 15 minutes long like what the [ __ ] are we doing here why is everyone here and pretending like this is amazing guess what he got down on one knee and gave a ring and she said yes oh oh wow spoiler alert yeah I get it I’m good I don’t ever want to see myself doing anything ever unless it’s something that’s funny or athletic other than that get me I don’t want to ever see it yeah exactly I don’t even want to say anything funny either actually scratch that athletic is the only thing I would watch sure sure and if only if it’s good I’m not watching anything bad which is very hard to find on film so yeah well I got a couple of them we went to Dallas the state yeah exactly that’s what I was thinking of like a slow motion catching the end zone you know something like that that’s cool yeah I was thinking if uh we went to the National chip and there was a uh like a skills competition and there was all like six and seven year olds lining up and I’m like eight beers deep and me and my buddy are like stretching and stuff getting ready because we were timing and filming it to see who’s better yeah

oh I did well it was in question because his ball was a bad throw quote unquote uh they didn’t let us throw the ball so the people just kind of [ __ ] I had to lay out and made a catch you know and that’s just being an athlete that’s all so obviously I send the video like every like once every year I send it to them yeah just make sure he knows that he dropped and I didn’t so yeah you gotta you gotta check your homies you know what I mean yeah right of course you got to make sure they’re humbled stay humble did you have a favorite scene in this one I mean I’m thinking for me it’s probably the not like C necessarily but the whole store getting leaked you know once he gets the reporter I can’t remember what his name was the guy that died R.I.P Walter Buck yeah Walter Buck once David’s plan becomes clear like what he was because they kept saying like he had this plan he had this plan I’m like okay what’s the plan because time’s running out and once that news cycle starts going I was like oh I get it like and that makes a lot of sense so I kind of liked how those pieces came together that was that was good for me he also mentioned the Departed and that’s my favorite movie I mean it’s obviously it’s if you’re a grope outside of Boston it’s a required viewing you know you have to basically watch The Departed the reason it’s my favorite movie is because it’s just like immediate deaths and like people you don’t think are gonna die are dying right the main character is dying here like that and so that’s why I kind of asked him too if you ever thought about just making it the ending spoilers having the main characters die but the fact that anyone was disposable anyone could die you know I love that aspect it’s not just like well these people were nice so they’re not gonna die or you know anyone gonna die at any point that’s like kind of what overall created that tenseness where like well the main character could die like you don’t know you know like I think our boy Jay Lee there I think he broke some you know some new info on this book when he you know when you asked him about that the ending yeah at least for my understanding you know he hadn’t said before about this uh alternate ending if you will and when I was growing up back in the uh when you had to have the DVD age and there was the alternate endings I used to love that stuff you know we got our own taste on the alternative for the deadly deal do you have a character character you like character you love favorite there’s a dog obviously

he carries around a big old Alvin hog that’s one but two he was just a punching bag it was funny he’d ask a question and they’d be like shut the [ __ ] up Doug like just shut up you [ __ ] idiot I was like yes I like that I loved it every time yeah it was great he was asking stupid questions though like shut up like I wish he’d die I mean come on dude shut up you know yeah no the fact that Doug gets off scot-free he spent like two days with some terrorists and like couldn’t drink for two days so yeah maybe he had the shakes but besides that you know the shakes are worth the 30. so you get 10 million dollars a guy like Doug he’s dead in what a week oh yeah for sure for sure maybe he knew he’s gonna kill him he’s like all right whatever yeah it’s like a guilt-free way of doing it jumping some love hate what’d you love Keith the pace the action it was good to just get back into a thriller or a summary like you mentioned I read this by a pool and it physically read it usually listen to audiobooks and it was just it was just easy to pick up jump in the pool come back out pick it back up it’s one of those books that’s perfect it’s not wanting it to like reread something be like what just happened you know yeah I love those type of books yeah I couldn’t agree with you more and that’s that’s it for me I mean short chapters love that yeah it’s definitely you know short chapters I feel like are somewhat recognizable in the in the Thriller genre but even The Thrillers we’ve read I feel like we’ve done a lot more audiobooks of them and it’s less recognizable in audiobook format because you’re just kind of like listening through whereas for this you know you read it in a pool I read it at like a mixture of like going to the beach or like on my back porch with the pup and a cocktail which is a great way to to enjoy a book catching some rays but it’d be like if I had to go inside and do something I’d be like no problem the next chap this chapter is done in two pages I’ll go inside I’ll do that come back pick up right where I left off so you know the pace was really great as well uh you know not a ton I feel like necessarily happens in the first half of the book but it felt fast I mean obviously stuff’s going on but it’s not the action-packed first half of a book that you sometimes get but it’s still the pace of it was so well written that it it felt it felt fast and here at the BBC we you know we may talk about a lot of books but we don’t do a lot of reading we do quote unquote reading and uh reading this was just was just a breeze the pages were flying by it wasn’t boring at any time it kept kept moving you know new information kept getting released yearbook photos and whatnot some books too I think there is like every single chapter or a couple chapters has to have some sort of action set right where this you mentioned it like it wasn’t like the beginning the first half almost didn’t have a ton of like guns were pulled out and things like that yeah but it was setting up stuff and you like stuff around him was occurring so it felt like there’s action going on but it wasn’t just like and then this guy shot me and then this you know it’s not like car chase scenes every single exactly which I like too which is like it feels like it’s action but it’s not action right yeah he he didn’t like fall back on just like oh I have to stuff some action in here because this is a thriller I was like no let’s Let It build what they get away from from movies these days there’s no Jaws anymore you know there’s no waiting 45 minutes to see the shark it’s shark off the bat so I I did appreciate how he took his time letting it develop on its own did you have other loves conspiracy is where I mentioned it yeah I’ve already been very negative multiple times at The Spot towards Pharmaceuticals government media and he just crushes all of them here so I love that obviously and then probisio provisio every time I read that that was a Harry Potter spell right to you every time I saw it I don’t know what that means but I loved it Harry Potter spells for sure stock up let’s get into the hates and we don’t J J our boy we love the book we ain’t hating on it but hey it’s part of the podcast you know what I mean it’s what we got to do we gotta do what we gotta do you got a job we got a job would you hate Marcus sticking out I mean just based off Mitch rap you got to be able to blend in with the world my guy right like you can’t be six six and every single person sees you and says like holy [ __ ] that’s the most intimidating person I’ve ever met kind of guy you can’t be like wait is that Kevin Durant down the road is that Tyson Prince I don’t know that’s Marcus the dude that’s coming here to kill me like get shorter or fake smile just throw on a fake smile so that people because you can’t just be this angry man walking around all these people see that and they’re like this guy’s super intimidating he was smiling when he was thinking like torture and stuff which I kind of liked and I was like all right Marcus all right I don’t hate that but you got to get shorter you can’t be that tall bud foreign because that’s what we do we’re honest it wasn’t a really good conspiracy you know conspiracies need a few people involved which this one technically had if you’re gonna have to step outside or keep people in line whatever the case is you need to be able to cover Your Tracks the conspirators just didn’t do a lot to cover their tracks or rather they left elephant-sized tracks they killed the guy who’s in charge of ensuring provisio okay I mean you know sometimes collateral damage [ __ ] has to happen but then afterwards you know I’m even gonna leave out the Jake stuff but then afterwards they forced the medical lead on provisio to kill himself okay that’s two not great then they set the head of Business Development for provisio’s house on fire these are all things that are gonna tie back to this one drug if anyone’s looking at this with any sort of Keen Eye the thing is like the insurance company ensures ton of difference they used this insurance company just for provisio no but they use it they did just provisio that pharmaceutical yeah for medsic then they had 10 other foreign

not necessarily tie it back but get going no that that was pretty much it if you want to Stomp all of my point that’s totally fine but when you see it on paper and you say these guys all worked on these things and you’re like oh yeah okay I get that but if a guy works on 10 things and the other guy works on 10 things that’s 10 factorial or whatever the [ __ ] that is you know I mean like that’s a hundred different possibilities right that’s not what factorial means ten times nine times eight times seven what’s that that’s factorial yeah well you have to connect the dots a lot more you know yeah it’s it seems like some dots easy easy enough to to connect I don’t think you’re going to tie it back to the president of the United States no no but I think you could say there’s there’s some shady things going on what else to eat I didn’t understand how everyone knew his history people would be like oh and then 11 years ago is he telling everyone if you break up with someone and move to another state they’re not like unless you’re telling everyone how would they never know that that happened to you yeah we already know that David’s really good at saying nothing happened and then everyone finding out so that’s one factor additionally David is quite the coxman in this you know he gets around with all these beautiful women he’s known for that how do you think he gets all these women how easy do you think a woman would lay you if you just said yeah I haven’t been in a relationship for a while because my fiance cheated on me with my brother over Christmas break yeah I’m sorry if if someone said that to me I’d be like okay like we can have sex like what’s this deal yeah they’re like really what’s your brother’s name yeah that’s a good point though I like that thanks yeah actually Jay told me that yeah Jay listen on that one my final eight here and I wrote this down early so I’m glad that it came to be what happened later in the book because it made sense once David and Anne had all of the information they got it from Dr Malik they found all that stuff and then Additionally you know including the tax information they had basically everything they had this whole conspiracy dead to rights in paper why don’t you just make copies of all of that information and mail it to all of the biggest news organizations yeah and they eventually did do that he picked one and did that so it made sense but for a while they were like what are we gonna do here like how do we handle this information I mean the abstinence design stuff they just were like we’re not covering that it’s like wait what we have all this information like no we’re not doing it we’re not gonna they’re not just report on it just because it’s the right thing to do yeah maybe their interests yeah maybe if uh just watched that uh that Watergate movie too recently what’s that one with uh Dustin Hoffman I haven’t seen that but go on oh God it’s deep throat oh it’s great shoot why is it all the president’s been is that what it’s called I think it’s called All the President’s Men I don’t know what you’re watching you know I just think that there’s supporters out there that aren’t necessarily doing it for the him picking someone out and being like this guy will do it that was the move I think that was the right move yeah I also didn’t know how he knew all these reporters in Richmond that were uh so into their own ego but good for David you know he’s he’s a good business development guy he knows where to go to when to go you must know that he’s that guy Ruffles feathers uh made sense did you want to cast anyone I know Jay Lee said a couple a couple of names there including Leo which we love but uh did you want to cast anyone I had a few casted but I mean I think Leo would be great as David I had I’ll roll through mine real quick and was Halle Berry a little older woman that’s still got it oh yeah and gets a short shrift a couple of times I mean when she dyes her hair red David’s like oh yeah she’s like Julia Roberts and pretty woman but older older you know it’s like well yikes like you know okay chill out and then when she meets Byron the first time or whatever she’s like oh you must be Anne you look a lot older in person it’s like yikes with this lady’s age like chill out guys you know yeah that was that was I felt like Ann still had it so did David so yeah evidently she can’t surf for [ __ ] but uh so Halle Berry I like that for Anne who else you got Marcus you mentioned him earlier Army Hammer a little skinnier version but he’s a psychopath cancer yeah that’s why bring him back for this and then this is the most obvious casting hopefully you picked up on it but Dr Malik Dennis Hopper oh dead is he I’m pretty sure Dennis Hopper’s dead ah [ __ ] well do you know why I cast him oh my Dr Malik got like the gun pointed at him at one point he kept on saying hot shot oh speed Little Speed 2010 so now yeah yeah all right way down well either way hey it’s 20 23 let’s just see it’s like you’re like dead yeah CGI and then all right hot shot though Hot Shot lives on forever kid I don’t care if he’s passed away R.I.P I’ll be respectful and like Dylan thank you a deadly deal coming out September 12th J Lee author would you recommend this book out there to our listeners yeah we already we already touched on multiple times but yeah like I said you want a thriller you want a good summer read even though I know where summer is coming to the end here pick it up I already compared it a little bit I think DaVinci Code slash okay Jack Reacher novel but like a common man Jack Reacher it’s like kind of that Vibes yeah if you’ve ever read one of those so that’s I mean I think that’s the right right up your alley if you like those yeah I mean I was it’s like a 328 page book or something like that 323 Pages it’s the perfect number to me low 300 is perfect number and especially because you sit down in a sitting you read 50 pages you know this is a it’s a six six sitting book which is perfect for me yeah you know that’s six beach chairs you sit there for an hour and you do it or uh six sits in the backyard whatever you like so yeah I thought it was uh it was definitely a super fun read I I I’m amazed at all these people who can write books every time you talk to these people I forget that they’re like real people and not just names on the front of covers and it brings me away that people are able to do that yeah that’s smart yeah to actually do this yeah I can barely put two sentences together yeah we loved it and uh we’re really excited to have Jay Leon and uh we hope it all goes well with the launch so people out there do your do your part go buy the book and uh and let us know what you think because uh we want to know what do we got coming up next next we got anxious people by Frederick backman uh yeah it’s already been made I think into a TV show and then he also wrote the man called Otto yeah a listener recommended book so we’re excited to get into that and uh we’ll probably have that coming out to you like next week or so so anxious people coming up next and we got a lot more in the line to close out the year so uh should be a fun one Keith as always it’s been a blast good luck with the rest of the Clemson football season which is now technically over um and uh I love I love you that’s really all right all right all right thanks to J Lee we appreciate it and we’ll catch you all next time I know I know [Music]