Pomona, an MBA from Cal State San Bernardino, a private pilot’s certificate, and is a partner in an engineering firm. As a philanthropist, he awards scholarships annually to high school seniors at his alma mater. The author resides in Southern California with his wife of 30 years, whom he enjoys traveling with, and three spunky cats. He spends his leisure time flying, learning about innovative tech, playing golf, and catching up with his grown daughters. Bennecke is a member of International Thriller Writers and looks forward to attending ThrillerFest every year in New York.
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Your first book in the series, Gridlock is a thriller about self-driving cars and transportation. You are a civil engineer in California trying to improve the roadway systems. Is that where you got the inspiration for Gridlock? I was stuck in traffic one day on the 210 freeway and it hit me: Why are we, as a society, still tolerating traffic congestion in the 21st century? All of the tech is available to eliminate it, but at what cost? At the time, self-driving cars wasn’t even a term yet, but I wondered what would happen if the bad guys got ahold of a bunch of the vehicles with the intention of inciting fear. Like Waterborne, Gridlock is a cautionary tale rooted in real-world technologies. What are you working on next that you can tell us about?
jlukebennecke.com Uncaged welcomes J. Luke Bennecke Welcome to Uncaged! Waterborne will release on April 22, and it’s the 2nd book in the Jake Bendel thriller series. The synopsis of this book is actually a bit terrifying on how this could become true in the near future. Can you tell readers more about this series and this book? At the core of each of the four Jake Bendel books is a real-world problem. I’ve done my best to weave in one possible engineering solution to each of these problems, while wrapping it all up in a thrilling tale that takes the reader on an extraordinary adventure. Waterborne presents us with the possibility of terrorists contaminating our water supply. Unfortunately, these types of scenarios have already started to unfold in real life, so my hope is that this book will help shed some light on the problem which, in turn, might nudge our leaders towards taking appropriate preventative actions.
At the core of the third book in the Jake Bendel world—already written/edited—is our ailing power grid at its core as the real-world problem (tentative title: Black Out). I’ve included several (hopefully) unique ways to turn our tech against ourselves with the intention, again, of bringing these potentialities to light in order to take preventative action. After that, I might release another book I’ve written/edited in the supernatural suspense genre that will force readers to question their own reality about what happens after we die. I’ve also written a sci-fi suspense screenplay that I plan to reverse-screen-adapt into a full novel tentatively entitled: Time Goggles. After that, I’ll write the fourth Jake Bendel book, where I’ll explore the structural engineering components embedded in various conspiracy theories of the 9/11 attacks. What are you looking forward to doing when the pandemic is over that you haven’t been able to do? Traveling! Last February, my wife and I had monthly 2020 trips planned to various places across our great country…all cancelled. I’m also a hugger and miss giving/getting hugs with my family and friends. Issue 57 | April 2021 |
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