By David Rogers. DURHAM, N.C. — Advertised as a historical fiction thriller, much of the new CIA spy-type novel “Reign of Secrets” is actually based on historical fact, said author James P. Cain on July 11 in an exclusive interview with Blowing Rock News at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Durham.

Cain and his wife, Helen, have been seasonal residents of Blowing Rock for more than two decades, calling Raleigh their more full-time home. Cain attended law school at Wake Forest University, served as President of the Carolina Hurricanes professional ice hockey team for several years, worked on Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign and served four years as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark under the George W. Bush administration.

I had to apologize to the Danish royal family because I killed off the Crown Prince’s brother in the first chapter!

“In September 2006, my wife and I were at the Royal Cathedral outside of Copenhagen for the reburial service of Empress Maria Feodorovna. Most people have never heard of her,” said Caine is discussing the original inspiration for his novel. “She was the youngest daughter of King Christian IX, more widely known as Princess Dagmar of Denmark. She was married off to Alexander III, who became Czar of Russia. Her eldest son, Nicholas II, was the last Emperor of Russia, ruling from 1894 until his abdication in March of 1917. So she was an Empress of Russia, the mother of the last czar of Russia, grandmother to Anastasia and the one for whom all of the Faberge eggs were made.

“She fled Russia when the Bolsheviks invaded in 1907, then to Crimea and her nephew, who is the king of England by this time, helped her escape,” Cain added. “She got back to Denmark and died there in 1928, never knowing that her son, “Nicky” (the Omar Sharif character in the Oscar-winning film, Doctor Zhivago) was murdered. She thought he would eventually come back on the throne in Russia.”

There’s a secret and Vladimir Putin is out to find it.

For Cain, attending this special event was the genus of inspiration.

“I was sitting there surrounded by all the royal families,” Cain recalled. “Every royal family in Europe had somebody at this cathedral that day because Vladimir Putin had written a letter to the Queen of Denmark, asking for the return of the long buried remains of this former Russian empress. This is all fact. We were all there for the reburial, taking her out of her crypt and to take her from Denmark to St. Petersburg, which is where Putin had asked for her remains to be sent.”

But Cain asked himself the obvious question: “Why would Vladimir Putin want the remains of this long dead Empress back in Russia?”

“Well, it occurred to me, 20 years ago,” said Cain, “that Putin was trying to bring the empire back and there was something relevant about this empress. It also occured to me that the Danish royal family has been on the throne for over a thousand years while every other royal family in Europe had either been assassinated, kicked off the throne or had their bloodlines mixed. Britain’s royal family has been on the throne for some 300 years and they aren’t even British, really, they are German. They are newcomers compared to the Danes.

Cain’s intellectual curiosity was piqued.

“Why is it that the same royal family has been on the throne in Denmark for a thousand years and all the others have fallen by the wayside?” Cain asked, rhetorically, before hinting at his novel’s theme, “Well, there’s a secret and Vladimir Putin is out to find it. And that’s where the fiction comes in. Everything else is historical fact.”

Asked whether he had heard from Putin since the book appeared in print, Cain chuckled and said, “No, but my wife is worried that Vladimir might put a hit squad out on me because, as you might expect, he doesn’t come out very well in this story.”

It is historical fiction but it is based a lot on historical fact.

Cain said he had heard from Denmark’s royal family.

“I don’t want to reveal the plot, but I had to apologize because I killed off the Crown Prince’s brother in the book’s first chapter!”

Cain said the research he undertook in writing the book was intensive.

“Well, it is historical fiction so there is a lot of historical, anecdotal facts that come into the book,” said Cain. “In fact, there are 13 retropsective, historical scenes in the book that tie to plot. It is a bit like what Dan Brown did with The DaVinci Code. There are a lot twists and turns, intrigue and international travel. Like The DaVinci Code, there are ancient secrets and the role of the Church and that sort of thing. But the scenes that start some thousand years ago are based on historical fact.

“For example,,” continued Cain, “there is a scene in the book where Benjamin Franklin has a conversation with the king of Denmark in London in 1782 or 1783. That conversation relates to ‘the secret,’ of course, at the heart of the book. That conversation is really intriguing and it is based on fact. The only royal family member of any country that received Benjamin Franklin was the king of Denmark. He was the ambassador to France, but never received by Louie, who did not want to acknowledge the Colonies. While the scene is imagined (fiction), the conversation is very realistic.”

While Cain was at Barnes & Noble autographing books, dozens of well-wishers stopped by to have their books signed by the author and to trade stories. A few of the visitors he greeted were seasonal residents of Blowing Rock, living and working in the Raleigh, Durham, Research Triangle and Cary area.

Cain and family member will be in Blowing Rock next weekend for Symphony on the Mountain.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. “Of course I enjoyed the lake venue, but this promises to be exceptional with a natural amphitheater for seating and plenty of parking. We’ll have a sponsor tent again to entertain all of our friends.”

Other than writing books, Cain is busy these days serving on a few boards, looking for opportunities to be involved in impactful projects, do some consulting helping U.S. companies expand internationally “… and spend as much time as I can with my four-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter, Adeline.”