New Novel, "Killing Depths," Heads into Final Production

Post date: Nov 23, 2012 4:45:11 PM

Well, I did it.

On Thanksgiving, I pulled the trigger and put my first full novel, “The Killing Depths,” into final production. In a few days, it will be available in a print edition from Amazon. A Kindle version will soon follow.

“The Killing Depths” is a military mystery thriller set aboard the first joint-crewed (male and female) American attack submarine. (Today, much larger ballistic submarines – also known as “boomers” – are joint crewed, but attack subs are still a male domain.) This is from the back cover:

“A killer lurks beneath the waves of the western Pacific Ocean. The USS Encinitas, the first attack submarine crewed by both men and women, stalks the Crescent Moon, a renegade Iranian sub armed with nuclear-tipped missiles. But another predator hides aboard the American sub, a murderer who has already left a trail of dead women behind on shore. While the crew of the Encinitas plays a deadly game of hide-and-seek with the Crescent Moon, NCIS investigator Linus Schag must discover the killer’s identity before his – or her – blood lust leads to the submarine’s total destruction.”

Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent Linus Schag originally appeared in the short story, “Destroyer Turns,” published by Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine in 1995—eight years before TV’s NCIS, I might add. “Destroyer Turns” is also one of the stories in my short story collection, “Duty: Suspense and Mystery Stories from the Cold War and Beyond.”

I am in no way an expert in submarines. In my Coast Guard and Navy service career, I was always a surface sailor – what submariners call a “target” – or a ground pounder. In writing this book, I was lucky to have the help of several experienced submariners who endured endless questions about submarine service either online or in person. Unfortunately, so many years passed between first conceiving this story and completing the novel, I no longer remember them all. I was also lucky to receive permission from the Navy to tour a Los Angeles-class attack submarine.

Interested? You can read a sneak a sneak preview by visiting my Goodreads author page by clicking here.