Bruce Hutchison - Historical Intrigue And Modern-Day Suspense

After a long career as a Ph.D. clinical and forensic psychologist, Bruce Hutchison turned his focus to writing novels. He served as Chief Psychologist at Maryland’s Upper Shore Mental Health Center, taught graduate-level therapy and psychopathology, consulted for law enforcement and rehabilitation programs, and testified as an expert witness. A Stanford graduate with a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, he is also the author of Psych-Logic. Today, he spends most of his time at the keyboard, following where his imagination leads.What first pulled you toward Schliemann’s Trojan treasure mystery—was it the historical controversy, the gaps in the record, or the human psychology behind obsession?What pulled me into the Trojan treasure? Part of it was psychology. Heinrich Schliemann said he had always dreamed of “a life of adventure and exploration,” a dream sparked by his father’s stories of ancient Greece, especially Homer’s Iliad, with its legends of ancient Troy and Helen of Troy, “the face that launched a thousand ships.”As the son of a poor Lutheran preacher who quit school at 14, Schliemann had no way to live a life of exploration and adventure. But the dream remained. He was bright and took to languages easily, working his way up from a cabin boy on a ship to an office assistant at a shipping company, and later to a bookkeeper.At age 22, he took a new position with B. H. Schröder & Co., an import/export firm, where he worked his way up to management. Then at age 27, Schliemann’s brother Ludwig, a wealthy California gold speculator, died, leaving his fortune to Schliemann.Schliemann immediately set up a bank in Sacramento and sold off close to a million dollars in gold bullion in less than six months. Now he was wealthy. Now he could pursue his dreams of exploration and adventure. Now he could search for that “face that launched a thousand ships.”Not quite yet, though. He had even more money to make. It was not until 1858, at the age of 36, that he retired from business and, as he later wrote in his memoirs, “set out to dedicate myself to the pursuit of Troy.”The novel asks a provocative question: Did Schliemann truly find Helen of Troy’s necklace—and if so, where is it now?He did find what he called the “Treasures of Priam,” which he mistakenly believed belonged to the Trojan king Priam mentioned in the Iliad. That treasure trove included a necklace his much-younger wife, Sophia, wore in an 1877 photograph for the London-based illustrated newspaper The Graphic, believing it was Helen’s necklace.Did Schliemann actually find Helen of Troy’s necklace? No. He didn’t. He didn’t even find Troy. What he did find was the location of Troy. He excavated the wrong layer—somewhere between 3,000 and 2,000 BCE, about a thousand years earlier than Homer’s story of the Trojan War.In 1881, Schliemann donated the treasure to the Berlin State Museums to preserve it as a single collection. During World War II it was “confiscated”—many say stolen—by the Russian Red Army and taken to Moscow, where it is currently housed in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.Turkey, the site of Schliemann’s dig, believes the treasure was stolen from them and continues to seek its return.What guided Schliemann? How did he know where to look?Schliemann remembered and reread Homer’s Iliad, which his father had read to him as a child. He studied maps of Greece and determined how winds and currents would have carried an invading army, as described by Homer.“Simple,” Schliemann wrote in his memoirs. “No one had thought to do that before. To take Homer literally.”Did Schliemann destroy the site?No, he didn’t destroy the site—but he tried. He dug what became known as his “Great Trench,” 45 yards wide and 15 yards deep, straight down the center of the site until he believed he had reached the original Troy.In his defense, archaeology was in its infancy. It had not yet evolved into the painstaking, layer-by-layer process used today.What was the spark that made you realize this could anchor a modern thriller?I wanted to write a series of adventure thrillers in which the hero must investigate an actual historical mystery to solve a contemporary case.In The Shakespeare Conspiracy, a manuscript is found written in the hand of the real author of the Shakespeare plays—and it isn’t William. In The Romanov Conspiracy, two tons of Tsarist gold vanish en route to Siberia during the Russian Civil War.For this novel, The Trojan Treasure Conspiracy, Heinrich Schliemann and the Trojan treasure offered the perfect mix of danger, mystery, and historical intrigue.You weave real archaeological debates into a high-stakes contemporary conspiracy. How did you strike the balance between factual grounding and narrative freedom?Schliemann’s real-life adventures provided the plot and sequence. For the historical moments where the record is silent—like what Sophie said to Heinrich when they uncovered the treasure—I imagined them in the trench and let them speak.When writing works well, it feels less like inventing and more like keeping up with what’s unfolding.The timeline stretches from 19th-century Turkey to modern-day South America. Which era or location was the toughest to render authentically?The South American jungle was the hardest, since I’ve never been in a dense jungle. Once I got into it, my imagination scared me enough that I just kept writing so I could escape before something carried me off or ate me.Reviewers call Clayton Lovell Stone “a charismatic, cerebral adventurer.” What were the key ingredients you wanted in your protagonist—and what flaws interested you most?Stone studied in St. John’s College’s Great Books Program before transferring to American University and then Stanford, where he earned a master’s in psychology. That broad education helps him track lost or stolen art and antiquities.The FBI recruited him for his relentless pursuit of clues—but fired him for the same stubbornness when he defied orders to rescue a friend from a Syrian prison.After leaving the Bureau, Stone buys a struggling Annapolis restaurant and takes on sporadic antiquities contracts. When there’s downtime, he drinks too much. He’s addicted to the chase.He lives in a converted water tower near Annapolis, drives a 1957 turquoise Chevrolet Bel Air named Martha, solves New York Times crosswords, plays chess with himself, and remains puzzled by his fleeting romantic relationships.Clayton is an art-and-antiquities investigator, but the plot pushes him into bioengineering, espionage, and murder. How did you keep him credible?I gave him a broad education and FBI experience, then let him enter each case knowing only what a real investigator would know. As Stone learns by consulting experts, the reader learns with him.After a long career in clinical and forensic psychology, what elements of your professional life seeped into this story?In court, judges always asked for the basis of fact behind an opinion. That trained me to think in terms of evidence—what behaviors or dialogue support what I’m trying to convey.Many characters operate from obsession, greed, fear, or ideology. Did your psychology background help shape antagonists?I don’t want readers to like my antagonists, but I want them to understand them. I learned early on never to prejudge. Knowing how an antagonist became who they are adds depth beyond simple evil.The book features dense history and a large cast. What were the structural challenges?I work hard to establish each era or character vividly enough that readers will remember them later. If I’m unsure, I build in reminders.The book leaves some threads unresolved. Was that intentional?Absolutely. Readers like to resolve the unresolved. Say enough—but not too much.The story bridges myth, archaeology, and bioengineering. What connects these worlds?A quest for human perfection and beauty—whether in myth, marriage, eugenics, or modern science.What drives humanity’s obsession with ancient treasure?Material gain, historical narrative, legacy, and the often-nefarious paths treasures take through time—all fertile ground for adventure.What research surprised you most?Eugenics began in America, not Germany. The Nazis expanded it—and may have continued experiments in Brazil after the war.And then there’s the mystery of whether Helen of Troy or even the Trojan War truly existed. We’ll never know.Were any real discoveries too unbelievable to include?No—but much fascinating material was left out simply because it didn’t advance the story.Readers describe the ending as a controlled cliffhanger. What comes next?What if a Shakespeare manuscript surfaced—written by someone else? Who would kill for it? That’s The Shakespeare Conspiracy.And what happened to the missing Romanov gold? That mystery drives The Romanov Conspiracy.Do you see the series leaning toward historical mystery, geopolitical thriller, or science?A blend of historical mystery and contemporary adventure thriller.Why do you write?Writing challenges me. It lets me create something that feels real without the boring parts. It’s often the best part of my day.How do you write?You don’t wait for inspiration. You write. If I don’t write, something feels missing. I write because that’s what I do.