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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 the Vietnam War. He is also a member of Mensa.^[1]

DeMille has also written under the name 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.

Another characteristic of the most recent novels, in addition to the reoccurance of the main character, John Corey, is a bit of a stylistic change. Here, under the secure cover of a more renegade Corey, there exists the creative license to develop more of an entertaining sarcasm and wise guy wit. Through this character, the author serves up a more rough around the edges, non-politically correct, fare. Stylistically, what has been missing lately is the prior trademark high brow sentence structure, instead now giving way to an easier yet more simplistic read.

In a 2006 Newsday (Long Island) interview, the author confided that in "Wildfire" he originally intended that the villans be Evangelical Christians. DeMille did not say what persuaded him to ultimately pull back from that plan. Though, inexplicably, some who have directly observed the author in more recent years, have noted a seemingly irrational animosity toward most anyone who is Christian. We shall see if this curious state of mind manifests itself somehow in any forthcoming stories.

Fictional themes, people and places in general can often have a germinated basis in reality. Some have speculated whether John Corey's personna, could be one of the author's alter egos.

The fictional Army post in The General's Daughter was a combination of Fort Benning and Fort Stewart.

Contents 1 Recurring characters 2 Bibliography 3 References 4 External links

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.

• 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 (Released November 6, 2006), ISBN 0-446-57967-X
• Untitled sequel to The Gold Coast

1. ^ (July 2004) "They're Accomplished, They're Famous, and They're MENSANS". Mensa Bulletin (476): p. 28. ISSN 0025-9543. 

• The "official" DeMille webpage
• 1985 audio interview with Nelsen DeMille by Don Swaim