Ryan Pote is the author of the new novel The Ghost City, a sequel to his novel Blood and Treasure. He is a 12-year veteran Navy helicopter pilot, and he works for the Department of Defense. He lives in New England.
Q: The Ghost City is your second novel featuring your character Ethan Cain—did you know when you wrote Blood and Treasure that you'd be returning to his story?
A: Yes, I did. Ethan Cain came to life in a couple of earlier, unpublished manuscripts before Blood and Treasure. When I wrote that first book, the character and the broader world felt big enough for more adventures right from the start.
Turning the title into a theme of "blood and treasure" that could drive the whole series helped lock that in. I knew I wanted to keep following him. I always knew I'd write more.
Q: What inspired the plot of The Ghost City?
A: I love when some things about history still elude us today. Where was Genghis Khan buried? How do we not understand how Roman Concrete was made? What would happen if the Western Antarctic Ice sheet fell into the ocean? What's under the ice? How is Antarctica depicted on ancient maps BEFORE it was discovered, and drawn as it is without ice?
I love to take these questions and then link them together to get the answer. The ambiguity is all the fun. Then I say, okay, how can I turn this into an action-thriller that someone won't be able to put down? And I have fun figuring that part out.
Q: How has your Navy experience informed your novels?
A: All of my experience really. I was originally trained as a helicopter sub hunter-killer, and really tracked and engaged submarines. My 12 years as a Navy helicopter pilot, including time as a mission commander in a joint interagency special operations task force deployed throughout Central and South America, gave me a foundation for authenticity. My time as a scuba instructor.
I've drawn on all those experiences—counter-drug ops, search and rescue, the feel of high-stakes missions—to shape Ethan Cain as a former special ops pilot turned treasure hunter. It helps with the tactical details, the pace of the action, and making sure the character feels grounded even in the wildest situations.
I've backpacked through Vietnam for weeks on end and was even held up by banditos for all my money. I write what I know.
Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: Research is a big part of what makes these stories fun for me. I do surface research--headlines only--to form the plot and the outline.
Once the story works, I focus my research efforts on what I need to tell the story I want. It's far more efficient that way, like having a hypothesis I'm trying to prove rather than endlessly reading until I come up with a plot.
Instead, I pull from nuggets of history—like Marco Polo's travels—and real locations, blending them with modern threats and technology. My background in history and hands-on experiences as a federal investigator help a lot.
There are always surprises along the way—details about ancient sites or emerging tech that shift how a scene lands—but the biggest ones often come from layering real-world possibilities into the fiction.
I love to find things that have overlap. Then knitting them together with tiny threads of fiction is the fun part. Especially doing it in a way that goes unnoticed by the reader. That's the challenge; that's the fun.
I love when the theme emerges from my outline. Like, okay, this is really what this book is about. The Ghost City has many deep layering of themes.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I'm continuing the Ethan Cain series while also working on the Clive Cussler Sam and Remi Fargo book, The Serpent's Eye, which is in-house at Putnam. There's more in the pipeline for the Blood and Treasure world too—I'm excited to keep building it out.
I have a ton of exciting things on the horizon; stay tuned and follow me on IG @ryanpotebooks or my website ryanpote.com.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: This book (like my previous) has an augmented reality cover experience that can be scanned and viewed through your phone, bringing the book cover to life in augmented reality. The link is on my socials or my website.
But this one is interactive with the novel itself and involves a pretty amazing giveaway contest. Starting pub day 6.30.2026, ending 8.30.2026, you will have the chance to join the hunt and win the ultimate Ethan Cain adventure prize pack: Garmin Fenix 7 solar smart watch, Slidebelts survival belt 2.0, NGC certified ancient Mongol silver coin, Ancient Mongol iron quad fin arrowhead, Encapsulated Ash from Mt Vesuvius eruption that covered Pompeii. One winner.
How to enter? Read The Ghost City when it comes out and find the codes buried in the text. They unlock a puzzle in the augmented reality cover experience for the book. Once unlocked it translates a password that is required to open a locked file Que Sera Sera on Ethan Cain’s laptop.
Where is Ethan’s laptop? You’re late to the game if you’re asking. It’s a hidden passage link on my website Ryanpote.com. To open his laptop you will need his computer password too, which is found in Blood and Treasure. Find the codes, solve the augmented reality puzzle, unlock the file, enter to win.
Everyone who enters will also receive a FREE full length Blood and Treasure prequel ebook that was teased in Blood and Treasure. Who is Vela? What was Project Balboa? How did Ethan get his scars? Find out by entering the contest and downloading the first ever Ethan Cain adventure, Burning Water!! JOIN THE HUNT and check out my website for more information ryanpote.com.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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