Top stories
writer Nelson DeMille
USINFO | 2013-08-04 19:09
Nelson Richard DeMille (born August 23, 1943) is an American author of thriller novels. His works include Word of Honor (made into a 2003 TV movie starring Don Johnson), The Charm School, The Gold Coast, Plum Island, and The General's Daughter (made into a 1999 movie starring John Travolta).
DeMille has also written under the pen names Jack Cannon, Kurt Ladner, and Brad Matthews.
DeMille was born in Jamaica, Queens, and resides in Garden City, New York, a village on Long Island. He attended Elmont Memorial High School in Elmont, New York, and graduated from Hofstra University.
DeMille served in the United States Army as a First Lieutenant and saw action in Vietnam.
He is a member of Mensa.
Writing style
Many of DeMille's books are written in the first person, and as such his books follow a linear plotline in which the reader moves along with the main character.
Although the tone of his writing varies from novel to novel, one consistent tool is DeMille's liberal use of sarcasm and dry humor.
Most DeMille novels, especially the more recent, avoid Hollywood endings, and instead finish either inconclusively or with the hero successfully exposing the secretsolving the mystery while suffering in his career or personal life as a result. There are generally loose ends left for the reader to puzzle over, Night Fall being a perfect example.
DeMille sometimes names the characters in his books after those wishing to be named in return for their generous contributions to various charities.
Works
DeMille often uses Long Island as a setting in his novels, as in The Gold Coast, Plum Island, Word of Honor, and Night Fall. His most recent novels have followed two main characters, John Corey (starring in six novels) and Paul Brenner (starring in two novels, with also a part in Corey's sixth novel). In earlier works, the storylines were completely separate, but there have been hints in the novels that they are part of a larger DeMille Universe that references events and characters in earlier novels, such as The Gold Coast and The Charm School.
DeMille has written himself into Up Country and Wild Fire. He spends approximately two years crafting each of his novels due to the extensive research involved, and because he writes them longhand on legal pads with a number one pencil. The author himself states that he writes in longhand on legal pads, most recently in the acknowledgments following The Panther.
One of his most recent efforts, the 2011 Mystery Writers of America Annual Anthology The Rich and the Dead, edited by DeMille, and to which he contributed its introduction and first story, was released May 2, 2011.
DeMille has released his latest book, THE PANTHER, in the John Corey series on October 16, 2012. The setting is a troubled Yemen of 2004, in a follow-up investigation of the terrorist USS Cole bombing.
Joe Ryker Series
The Sniper (1974)
The Hammer of God (1974)
The Agent of Death (1975)
The Smack Man (1975)
The Cannibal (1975)
The Night of the Phoenix (1975)
Stand-alone Novels
The Quest (1975)
By the Rivers of Babylon (1978)
Cathedral (1981)
The Talbot Odyssey (1984)
Word of Honor (1985)
The Charm School (1988)
Spencerville (1994)
Mayday (1998)
John Sutter Series
The Gold Coast (1990)
The Gate House (2008)
Paul Brenner Series
The General's Daughter (1992)
Up Country (2002)
John Corey Series
Plum Island (1997)
The Lion's Game (2000)
Night Fall (2004)
Wild Fire (2006)
The Lion (2010)
The Book Case (2011)
The Panther (2012)
Short Fiction
Revenge and Rebellion, in The Plot Thickens, (1997)
The Rich and the Dead (2011)
The Book Case (2011)
Death Benefits (Kindle Single) (2012)
Rendezvous (Kindle Single) (2012)
DeMille has also written under the pen names Jack Cannon, Kurt Ladner, and Brad Matthews.
DeMille was born in Jamaica, Queens, and resides in Garden City, New York, a village on Long Island. He attended Elmont Memorial High School in Elmont, New York, and graduated from Hofstra University.
DeMille served in the United States Army as a First Lieutenant and saw action in Vietnam.
He is a member of Mensa.
Writing style
Many of DeMille's books are written in the first person, and as such his books follow a linear plotline in which the reader moves along with the main character.
Although the tone of his writing varies from novel to novel, one consistent tool is DeMille's liberal use of sarcasm and dry humor.
Most DeMille novels, especially the more recent, avoid Hollywood endings, and instead finish either inconclusively or with the hero successfully exposing the secretsolving the mystery while suffering in his career or personal life as a result. There are generally loose ends left for the reader to puzzle over, Night Fall being a perfect example.
DeMille sometimes names the characters in his books after those wishing to be named in return for their generous contributions to various charities.
Works
DeMille often uses Long Island as a setting in his novels, as in The Gold Coast, Plum Island, Word of Honor, and Night Fall. His most recent novels have followed two main characters, John Corey (starring in six novels) and Paul Brenner (starring in two novels, with also a part in Corey's sixth novel). In earlier works, the storylines were completely separate, but there have been hints in the novels that they are part of a larger DeMille Universe that references events and characters in earlier novels, such as The Gold Coast and The Charm School.
DeMille has written himself into Up Country and Wild Fire. He spends approximately two years crafting each of his novels due to the extensive research involved, and because he writes them longhand on legal pads with a number one pencil. The author himself states that he writes in longhand on legal pads, most recently in the acknowledgments following The Panther.
One of his most recent efforts, the 2011 Mystery Writers of America Annual Anthology The Rich and the Dead, edited by DeMille, and to which he contributed its introduction and first story, was released May 2, 2011.
DeMille has released his latest book, THE PANTHER, in the John Corey series on October 16, 2012. The setting is a troubled Yemen of 2004, in a follow-up investigation of the terrorist USS Cole bombing.
Joe Ryker Series
The Sniper (1974)
The Hammer of God (1974)
The Agent of Death (1975)
The Smack Man (1975)
The Cannibal (1975)
The Night of the Phoenix (1975)
Stand-alone Novels
The Quest (1975)
By the Rivers of Babylon (1978)
Cathedral (1981)
The Talbot Odyssey (1984)
Word of Honor (1985)
The Charm School (1988)
Spencerville (1994)
Mayday (1998)
John Sutter Series
The Gold Coast (1990)
The Gate House (2008)
Paul Brenner Series
The General's Daughter (1992)
Up Country (2002)
John Corey Series
Plum Island (1997)
The Lion's Game (2000)
Night Fall (2004)
Wild Fire (2006)
The Lion (2010)
The Book Case (2011)
The Panther (2012)
Short Fiction
Revenge and Rebellion, in The Plot Thickens, (1997)
The Rich and the Dead (2011)
The Book Case (2011)
Death Benefits (Kindle Single) (2012)
Rendezvous (Kindle Single) (2012)
