In Conversation with Terry Shepherd

Chad Boudreaux - Mob Justice

• Terry Shepherd

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0:00 | 19:08

From DOJ Corridors to Chicago Syndicates: Chad Boudreaux on Crafting Mob Justice

Imagine starting a high-stakes job at the Department of Justice on September 10, 2001. For our guest today, Chad Boudreaux, that was reality. After spending decades navigating the overlapping spheres of homeland security and defense leadership, Chad has channeled a world of classified briefings and calibrated language into a thrilling second vocation as an author.

In this episode, Chad joins us to discuss his latest novel, Mob Justice, the highly anticipated follow-up to Scavenger Hunt. He takes us behind the scenes of his writing process and into the gray areas where the law’s formal architecture meets the improvisations of survival.

We explore his protagonist, Blake Hudson—an earnest, tested DOJ attorney—who is dispatched to a Chicago still haunted by the lingering aura of the Prohibition-era Chicago Outfit.

In this episode, we cover:

  • A Trial by Fire: What it was like for Chad to start at the DOJ the day before 9/11 and how those decades in federal service shaped his fiction.
  • The Anti-Action Hero: Why Chad chose to make Blake Hudson an earnest, naive protagonist navigating a system that rewards calculation, rather than a preloaded "marquee star."
  • Authenticity Over Melodrama: How Chad consulted former FBI agents to master the true "vocabulary of surveillance" and ensure his wiretap scenes carried documentary restraint.
  • The Ultimate Antagonist: A breakdown of the book's most arresting confrontation featuring Enzo—a former Supreme Court clerk who chillingly pivots into a mob consigliere.
  • Institutions & Humanity: Exploring the novel's core themes of loyalty, betrayal, and finding the irreducibly human elements beneath the marble floors of Washington.

Whether you love legal thrillers, organized crime history, or just want to hear how an insider translates real-world government experience into page-turning fiction, this episode is for you!

Get the Book: Pick up your copy of Mob Justice and its predecessor, Scavenger Hunt, wherever books are sold.

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