The author and psychologist Bill Koch discusses his debut novel Hired Gun: Uncovering Buried Secrets (FriesenPress, 2025), with Joseph Planta.
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Hired Gun: Uncovering Buried Secrets by Bill Koch (FriesenPress, 2025).
Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Hired Gun |
Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:
I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.
Bill Koch joins me now. He’s recently published a novel, his first, Hired Gun: Uncovering Buried Secrets. The central character in the book David Lipman is a psychologist, who practices in Vancouver and lives part-time on Gabriola Island. Setting it close to home, makes it compelling reading as Bill sets the mood so well with descriptions of Downtown locales so evocatively, especially when he describes the weather. We taped this interview last month, in mid-September coming off several weeks, if not months where it was relatively dry. Starting the book as I did then, made me nostalgic for the grey, wet weather for which Vancouver is celebrated and derided. David is also contending with the recent death of his wife Katherine. This grief lives with him, as do some of the patients that he sees in his practice. Two patients in his care die, and in succession making the circumstances of their deaths even more intriguing. Part of David’s work is appearing in court as an expert witness. This all comes together as he’s pondering the ethical issues surrounding seeking the killer of his patients, as well as revealing something about his work. I’ll ask Bill to tell us as much as he’d like about this character of David, and the surrounding events in his life that make Hired Gun such a compelling read. I’m nearly halfway through the book, and it’s tough to put down. Bill Koch is a clinical professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine. In his career as a psychologist, he conducted research in anxiety disorders and trauma, and was a highly credentialed cognitive-behaviour therapist. In his career, he also investigated and adjudicated ethical violations for the College of Psychologists of British Columbia. All this naturally, informs the writing of this novel, and possibly other works that I’ll ask Bill about. The book is published by FriesenPress. Visit www.billkochwrites.com for more information. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Bill Koch; Dr. Koch, good morning.
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