Nelson DeMille
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Nelson Richard DeMille (born August 23, 1943) is an American author. DeMille was born in New York City and resides in Garden City, New York, a village on Long Island. He is a graduate of Hofstra University and served in Vietnam.
DeMille has also written under the names Jack Cannon, Kurt Ladner, and Brad Matthews.
DeMille often uses Long Island as a setting in his novels, for example in The Gold Coast, Plum Island, Word of Honor, and Night Fall. His most recent novels have followed two main characters, John Corey and Paul Brenner. At first, the story lines 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."
Most DeMille novels, especially the more recent, avoid "Hollywood endings" and instead finish either inconclusively or with the hero successfully exposing the secret/solving the mystery while suffering in their 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.
The fictional Army post in The General's Daughter was a combination of Fort Benning and Fort Stewart.
[edit] Recurring Characters
John Corey, a retired New York City police detective on special assignment for the F.B.I. He was introduced in Plum Island and reappears in The Lion's Game, Night Fall, and Wild Fire.
Paul Brenner, an investigator for the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division. He was introduced in The General's Daughter and reappears in Up Country.
Kate Mayfield, an F.B.I. agent. Introduced in The Lion's Game. She marries Corey and reappears in Night Fall and Wild Fire.
Colonel Petr Burov/Boris Though not explicitly stated, DeMille hints that Burov, the antagonist in The Charm School, is the same person as the mysterious "Boris," a character in The Lion's Game.
Ted Nash, a CIA agent and arch-rival of Corey, who is introduced in Plum Island and reappears in The Lion's Game, Night Fall, and Wild Fire.
Col. Karl Hellman, Brenner's superior officer at the CID. Appeared in The General's Daughter and Up Country.
[edit] Bibliography
- 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)
- By the Rivers of Babylon (1978), ISBN 0-15-115278-0
- Mayday (1979, updated 1998) (with Thomas Block), ISBN 0-446-60476-3
- Cathedral (1981), ISBN 0-440-01140-X
- The Talbot Odyssey (1984), ISBN 0-385-29322-4
- Word of Honor (1985), ISBN 0-446-51280-X
- The Charm School (1988), ISBN 0-446-51305-9
- The Gold Coast (1990), ISBN 0-446-51504-3
- The General's Daughter (1992), ISBN 0-446-51306-7 (also a movie)
- Spencerville (1994), ISBN 0-446-51505-1
- Plum Island (1997), ISBN 0-446-51506-X
- "Revenge and Rebellion", in The Plot Thickens, ed. by Mary Higgins Clark (1997), ISBN 0-671-01557-5
- The Lion's Game (2000), ISBN 0-446-52065-9
- Up Country (2002), ISBN 0-446-51657-0
- Night Fall (2004), ISBN 0-446-57663-8
- Wild Fire (To be released November 6, 2006), ISBN 0-446-57967-X
