“Packed with action, emotion and suspense.” Crime
Writers Association
“A must read for any fan of the thriller genre”
Joe
Nassise, Internationally best selling author Of Eyes to See and the Templar
Chronicles
An International Debut Dagger Award Finalist.
US Marine Travis Deacon always loves catching some
R&R. And he loves being in Wales to catch it, until his best friend, SAS
Major Gareth Jones, dies in an "auto accident." When Travis asks too
many questions about Gareth's death, MI5 steps in and tries to send him back to
Afghanistan. Then, the international terrorist who killed his friend, tries to
send Travis to hell.
It gets worse when Detective Sergeant Dee Jones, Gareth's
sister, arrests Travis to find out if he’s involved. Together, convinced that Gareth
was murdered, Travis and Dee search for the killer. They dodge terrorist
assassins and British agents in their search across Wales for the truth.
Suddenly, the murder investigation becomes a frantic race to prevent a
terrorist attack that could change the world.
“Strap
yourself in for Rickard B DeMille’s
HELLFIRE, a page-turner full of humor,
reluctant romance, and plot twists that will have you writhing in your seat.”
--Margaret Bailey, author of Diamond in the
Sky and the Waves of Amber trilogy
The Author
I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada to Rickard and Anita
DeMille, who also provided five younger siblings for my amusement- four
brothers and a sister. After graduating from Las Vegas High School I attended
Brigham Young University. After my freshman year I spent two years in Venezuela
and Colombia doing missionary work, then returned to BYU where I graduated with
a BA in Spanish. Since then, I’ve focused my efforts on BS.
After college I was commissioned an Officer of Marines. I
became a Combat Engineer, and ran my battalion’s computerized maintenance
system. Soon after leaving the Corps, I moved to Houston, TX, where I resumed
working with computers. I’d also picked up three kids along the way - Rick,
Dave and Rob. Ten years later, I moved to Dallas, re-married the wonderful
Tracy Ellis, and picked up two stepsons, Mark and Matt. I also began working
with a group of exceptional Welshmen. It’s been over twenty years, Tracy and
the Welshmen are still in my life. In those years I’ve also earned a Masters of
Ministry and a Masters of Divinity from the Golden State School of Theology.
Preparing a masters thesis rekindled my passion for writing.
A few years ago, I began to write seriously. Since then, I’ve had short stories and
articles published, in print and online. My work has been published by BeWrite,
Darklines, Eros and Rust, and others sites. One of my short stories was
published in the Australian anthology ADUMBRA. I also write screenplays and
finished 18th in the 2010 Writer’s Digest Screenplay competition in 2010, and
16th in the 2011 competition.
Recently I finished my first novel, HELLFIRE (formerly A
MURDER IN MUMBLES), a thriller set in Wales. HELLFIRE was a finalist in the
2010 Debut Dagger contest sponsored by the Crime Writers’ Association in
London, and the 2010 SouthWest Writers contest. In 2011, I signed a contract
with Transit Publishing, and HELLFIRE was published in February of 2012 as an
eBook. In July of 2012 HELLFIRE was republished by MacDonald, Barclay and Co.
in both paperback and eBook formats.
I published my Masters Thesis entitled BIBLE STUDY:
DEFENDING DANIEL, an examination of the historical, archaeological and
linguistic context for the Biblical book of Daniel. I have already begun work
on a sequel to HELLFIRE, currently titled COYOTE MIDNIGHT, which is set in
Texas.
An Excerpt
1.
The book begins with US Marine Travis Deacon on leave from Afghanistan and
enjoying his vacation to Wales. Wales is part of Great Britain, but it’s
definitely not English:
They
say that Wales can change a man. I never found out who “they” were, but three
grey, eternally overcast days there had certainly changed me.
I
was still a hard-charging U.S. Marine, but I’d been Enlightened. I’d come to
believe that Welsh dragons were real, while my memories of the sun were simply
delusions. And, I’d been converted to the one true religion—Rugby.
This
transfiguration had taken place in Swansea, a port city on Britain’s jagged
southern coast. I’d learned that the Welsh were not English, but a separate and
proud people with their own nation, culture and language—a language that seemed
to use vowels as a diversion rather than for grammatical consideration. My
working theory was that the ancient Romans took the wayward Welsh vowels as tribute
and forced them on the Hebrews, who hadn’t had any yet.
The
previous day I’d almost performed the Heimlich maneuver on a frail old lady in
our hotel restaurant. Turns out, she wasn’t choking, she was just asking for a
glass of water in Welsh.
This book sounds great! Definitely one I'll be buying.
ReplyDeleteI agree, MK. I enjoy a book that has substance and subtle humor and this excerpt had both.
ReplyDelete