I am a retired clinical/IT pharmacist. After graduating from Purdue University, I practiced for over 40 years at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, specializing in solid organ transplant and oncology. I also ran a cancer and post-op pain service for 15 years. I now write character-centric stories that combine real life with history and humor. Readers will always find characters whom they will love to love or love to hate, and I hope they wonder, “Where are they now?” long after they have finished reading. My writing is influenced by authors such as Ken Follett, Erik Larson, Stephen King, Dan Brown, and many others.

Thus far, I have published four novels: The Resistance Gene, a biotech thriller, and The Jonathan Dearfield Trilogy.

The Resistance Gene:

The Resistance Gene is a gripping tale where high-stakes genetic science and raw human resilience collide. This novel delves deep into genetic engineering, corporate greed, and the unyielding search for truth amid a world of manipulation and misinformation. Inspired by current headlines and conspiracy theories, and rooted in scientific reality, it explores the dark side of unchecked corporate power.

When a powerful biotech conglomerate in East Troy, Wisconsin, uncovers RTC23B, a rare and revolutionary gene, its leaders will stop at nothing to seize control—even if it means killing the scientist who discovered it. Now, seven years after her parents died in a suspicious natural gas explosion that was believed to have taken her life as well, the conglomerate continues to hunt RTC23B gene carriers. Rising like a phoenix, Madison is back and on a journey of redemption, until she is forced to take a drastic turn toward retribution.

The Jonathan Dearfield Trilogy comprises three stand-alone stories with their own distinct atmospheres and structures, spanning three generations and nearly two decades.

Perfect Posture (a classic cop vs. killer murder mystery/psychological thriller) aims to create a palpable good versus evil tension in the reader—much like that effected by Erik Larson’s classic Devil in the White City—by taking them inside the mind of a killer while chronicling the lives of those committed to stopping the escalating carnage. This book is rich with Chicago area history and filled with personalities and relationships—both dark and occasionally comical—that readers will grow to love or hate as they follow the non-stop action to a twisting, catastrophic end. (Think Bosch with a Devil in the White City vibe.)

Deep Waters (a historical fiction/mystery thriller hybrid) follows Jack as his life evolves from a 15-year-old high school football quarterback to a crew member of the USS Indianapolis—the ship that delivered the nuclear bomb that helped end World War II and then suffered the worst open ocean shark attack in U.S. naval history. Jack’s story starts in Janesville, Wisconsin, then carves a path across the globe—Lake Geneva, Great Lakes Naval Base, Glenview Naval Air Station, San Francisco, the Philippine Sea—and home again. Upon his return, Jack finds he is a war hero everywhere except in his hometown. As Jack grapples with the ghosts of his past and the weight of survival, he becomes unknowingly entangled in a shadowy conflict between ancient forces of good and evil. A mysterious rumor of a second bomb aboard the Indianapolis resurfaces, threatening to ignite a new catastrophe. Then, years after the war, with the covert help of twin sisters—descendants of a lone Templar knight from a remote island in Japan—and his estranged son, Jack must confront his past, uncover a 700-year-old secret, and prevent the nuclear destruction of an American city. (Think Unbroken meets The Da Vinci Code.)

Daddy’s Girl (a not-what-it-seems father-daughter murder mystery thriller with overlapping timelines to show differing perspectives of the evolving storyline) is a tale of a father’s torment, a daughter’s love and perseverance, and retribution for a wife and mother that starts with Leah Avondale’s father being arrested for her disappearance and possible murder, among other crimes. As the story moves from the Chicago suburbs to Mountain, Wisconsin, just northeast of the Menominee Reservation, the “truth” evolves throughout this story of friendship, cruelty, deceit, and hope. Further woven into this story of survival and courtroom drama are a corrupt cop, a deceitful priest, FBI agents, mysterious Druid ceremonies in the forest, missing girls, gullible teens, powerfully evil men, a deaf Native American named Silent Wolf, a killer bear, and an albino princess who dupes them all. (Think Gone Girl flipped on its head.)

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