My Washington times On Crime Column On 'The Seventh Floor,' A Suspenseful CIA Thriller

The Washington Times ran my On Crime column on former CIA analyst David McCloskey’s spy thriller, The Seventh Floor. 

You can read the column via the link below or the text below:

BOOK REVIEW: 'The Seventh Floor' - Washington Times

 

 

David McCloskey (seen in the photo above), a former CIA analyst, has previously written two fine spy thrillers, “Damascus Station” and “Moscow X,” which I covered here.

Mr. McCloskey’s third spy thriller, “The Seventh Floor,” is as gripping and suspenseful as his two earlier novels.

 

I reached out to Mr. McCloskey and asked him how he would describe “The Seventh Floor.”

 

“The Seventh Floor” is a story very close to my heart,” Mr. McCloskey replied. “At its center is Artemis Aphrodite Procter, who, making her return from my previous novel, “Moscow X,” is run out of the service after a series of operations gone wrong.

She eventually makes her way back in a very unofficial capacity to investigate the existence of a mole operating at Langley. She is joined by her good friend — and Damascus Station collaborator — Sam Joseph, a reunion that I feel gives this story some incredible spark. Procter and Sam’s mole hunt quickly leads them to the bleak reality that they must investigate some of Procter’s dearest friends and most cherished enemies. These suspects are denizens of the CIA’s famed Seventh Floor — the Langley executive suites, where the leadership of the organization rules the roost. The book, more than any of my other work, is an exploration of the current nature and culture of the present-day CIA. It is also a story about friendship in a faithless business and to what extent we really know our friends.”

 

How would you describe your CIA characters Artemis Aphrodite Proctor and Sam Joseph?

 

“Artemis Aphrodite Procter is a mildly deranged CIA case officer with a foul mouth, zero patience, a deeply ingrained code of honor and personal loyalty, and a bit of a drinking problem. In this novel, she is wrestling with what she owes CIA, having given it her career (and, arguably, her life), before being cast aside. Must she remain loyal to a place that does not love her back? What’s clear, though, is her unwavering loyalty to her friends. She has many in this novel (and quite a few enemies, too), but first among equals is her old friend from Damascus, Sam Joseph, a stellar case officer whose career fell off the rails after he made a terrible mistake. Sam is a Minnesota boy, a talented reader of people and assessor of risk who’s also, perhaps like Procter, impulsive and prone to thinking with parts of his body that are not his brain.”

Is your thriller based on your experience, actual events, and/or real CIA and Russian intelligence officers? 

“Absolutely nothing in the novel is based on my personal experience, except, perhaps, the sights and smells and sounds inside CIA headquarters at Langley.

 

That said, I did base much of the novel, albeit loosely, on actual events. First, the book is a modern mole hunt, so it was critical to understand how a counterespionage investigation really functions. The novel is, I hope, to some extent an “intelligence procedural” in which the reader is brought into the inner workings of the CIA and the espionage business, and so I invested heavily in researching how such investigations have functioned in the past and how they work today.

 

There are many good memoirs of historical mole hunts (and the psychology of those who commit treason, think Philby, Ames or Hanssen). I was able to tap an exceptional network of former colleagues who are willing to speak to me about such things. Second, another absolutely essential bit was to get CIA and Langley right, everything from the cultural moment down to the tradecraft and the furniture on the actual “Seventh Floor.”

 

I’ve, of course, visited the Seventh Floor many times for meetings and briefings, but now, as a novelist, I am drawn to details that I quite frankly had ignored when I was in the building. For example: How are the offices decorated? What food is served? I was fortunate to be able to go back into Langley once during my research process to refresh my memory on all of this. I also spent hours on the phone with colleagues who helped me piece it all together.”

 

As a former CIA analyst, do you believe there is a “mole” in the senior ranks of the CIA? 

“I sure hope not. And I actually do think it’s quite unlikely that there’s a spy working for a foreign intelligence service in the uppermost reaches of the CIA, though, of course, I can’t be sure. At least in the U.S., history would suggest that while it’s very likely that foreign services are running agents inside the U.S. intelligence community, those assets or agents are very likely to be mid- to lower-level officers, analysts or employees. I think it’s a safe assumption that, at some level, all intelligence services are penetrated by the opposition.”

 

• Paul Davis’ “On Crime” column covers true crime, crime fiction and thrillers.

• • •

David McCloskey

The Seventh Floor

WW Norton, $29.99, 400 pages

A Look Back At 'The Onion Field,' The Book The Late Joseph Wambaugh Said He Was Born To Write

With the recent death of former Marine, LAPD detective sergeant and bestselling author Joseph Wambaugh, I’d like to offer a look back at the true crime book that Joseph Wambaugh told me he was born to write.

 

I interviewed Joe Wambaugh in 2020 about The Onion Field for my Washington Times On Crime column. 

You can read the column via the below link or the text below:

A look back at Joseph Wambaugh's 'The Onion Field' - Washington Times

 

Joseph Wambaugh, a former LAPD detective sergeant and the author of classic police novels such as “The New Centurions,” “The Blue Knight” and “The Choir Boys,” turns 83 on Jan. 22.

 

Mr. Wambaugh has also written classic true crime books such as “Echoes in the Darkness” and “The Blooding,” but he said he was born to write one true crime book in particular, “The Onion Field.”

 

Mr. Wambaugh had published two novels prior to “The Onion Field.” Still a working cop, he took a three-month leave of absence to write “The Onion Field.” He read thousands of pages of court transcripts, and he interviewed more than 60 people involved with the case.

 

The 1973 book tells the tragic true story of an LAPD officer named Ian Campbell who was murdered in an onion field in 1963, as well as the sad aftermath of Karl Hettinger, his surviving partner who suffered psychologically from the ordeal. The book also covers the arrest, trial and conviction of Gregory Powell and Jimmy Smith, the two criminals who kidnapped and murdered the young officer.

 

The two plainclothes officers pulled over Powell and Smith, who were committing armed robberies. Powell got the drop on Ian Campbell and placed a gun in his back. He ordered Karl Hettinger to hand over his gun, and the officer did so reluctantly. The two criminals then drove the two officers to an onion field in Bakersfield, where Ian Campbell was shot and killed. Karl Hettinger escaped by running through the onion field.

 

The LAPD brass released a memorandum that essentially branded Hettinger a coward for giving up his gun. They made him attend roll calls and repeatedly tell his story to the assembled cops.      

 

I asked Mr. Wambaugh what compelled him to write a non-fiction book about the case?

 

“This case always fascinated me because I was on the job when it happened,” Joseph Wambaugh told me. “I’d seen Karl Hettinger around police headquarters, and he looked like such a sad guy. When he got fired from the police department for shoplifting, I thought it must have some relationship to the kidnapping. So I had it in the back of mind and after my success with the first two books, I started talking to people and I was off and running with it.”

 

Mr. Wambaugh ventured to the two prisons holding Powell and Smith and interviewed them.

 

“They were both sociopaths and longtime street crooks and they couldn’t con me as I knew everything except who fired the shot into Ian Campbell’s body after he was knocked down by the first shot,” Mr. Wambaugh said. “As he was running away and looking back, Karl Hettinger believes it was Smith, but he had too much integrity to say for sure. Powell always said it was Smith.”

 

Both criminals pointed fingers at each other. Mr. Wambaugh believes that Smith fired the second shot. The first shot, according to the coroner, may not have killed him, Mr. Wambaugh explained.  

 

“Karl Hettinger didn’t want to talk to me, but I bribed him,” Mr. Wambaugh recalled. “He didn’t want to talk or think about it, but he was a gardener at that time, and he had a family to support.  

 

“He was fragile when I interviewed him. He didn’t understand getting fired, the humiliation, and his crying out for punishment. This was before the days of post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. People didn’t talk in those terms when it came to police officers.” Wambaugh said he was concerned about Karl Hettinger’s reaction to the book.

 

“He said to me, ‘it didn’t make me feel bad.’ Those six words were the best book review I’ve ever gotten in my life,” Mr. Wambaugh said.

 

The kidnapping and the long ride to Bakersfield made this case unlike most cop killings, Mr. Wambaugh noted, as most cops are killed on the spot.

 

“It was never the kidnapping and murder of Ian Campbell that attracted me to the case, even though it was unique for a cop to be taken away and summarily executed,” Mr. Wambaugh said. “What attracted me was the aftermath and what happened to Karl Hettinger.”

 

This case remains significant because the Karl Hettinger experience had a lot to do with bringing post-traumatic stress disorder to the fore as it concerns police officers.”  

 

Although retired from writing books, Joseph Wambaugh hopes to have a TV series made based on his “Hollywood Station” series of novels. The novels offer stark realism, blunt language and abundant humor, which are natural for cable TV, it seems to me.  

 

“The thrust of my creativity as a writer has always been not to depict how the cop acts on the job, but how the job acts on the cop,” Mr. Wambaugh said.

 

• Paul Davis’ On Crime Column covers true crime, crime fiction, mysteries and thrillers.

Note: Below are photos of Karl Hettinger, Ian Campbell and Jimmy Smith and Gregory Powell:

Note: You can watch the film, financed by Joseph Wambaugh, made from his book The Onion Field, via the below link:  

Bing Videos

My Washington Times On Crime Column On The Life Of Jimmy Breslin

The Washington Times ran my On Crime column today on Jimmy Breslin. 

You can read the column via the below link or the below text:

Author Richard Esposito discusses the legacy of New York columnist Jimmy Breslin - Washington Times  

Although I disagreed with Jimmy Breslin’s politics, I always read his newspaper columns, magazine pieces and books. I always found his work unique and interesting. I particularly liked his crime novel, “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.”

I enjoyed reading about him in Richard Esposito’s “Jimmy Breslin: The Man Who Told the Truth.” I contacted him and asked why he wrote the book.

 

“Jimmy Breslin was one of the most influential journalists of the second half of the 20th century and right through the first decade of the 21st. His contribution to millions of readers and their understanding of politics, crime, government was enormous, his contribution to hundreds of young reporters as a mentor and as a role model for great, precise reporting was also enormous, and his reinvention, in the early 1960s, of journalistic storytelling with his “new journalism” colleagues, changed the nature of narrative story-telling,” Mr. Esposito replied. 



How would you describe him as a man, newspaper reporter, and columnist?

 

“There was no hardworking, more exhaustive reporter than Jimmy, and there was no one more exhausting to work with. Period. I did it as a copy boy - one of many to buy him coffee, run his column across the newsroom, get him money, always broke, always in need of money. And I did it as a city editor. And in the course of writing the book, I learned even more about just how exhausting he was with hours on the phone, cajoling, reporting, yelling and prying. He was relentless. And he was, as I said, simply exhausting because his world revolved completely around himself.”

 

Who were his major influences?

 

“Jimmy was influenced, in many ways, by the great sports writers who came before him. Depending on the day, he credited any number of journalists with being his most important influences. But through it all there was Damon Runyon. For Jimmy, Runyon was a role model.”

How did his newspaper column differ from other columns from his era? Why did he move his column from newspaper to newspaper?

“Jimmy acted more like a journeyman than a star. He was constantly searching for a better home. If you looked at it in light of a childhood where he, his mother and his sister were abandoned to penury by his father, you could see it as a pattern of his life. Love, then anger and betrayal. He quit, in a sense, before he thought you were going to abandon him. This was all inside him of course. But the emotions were there in his writing. Rage, anger, the defense of the helpless. All of this was Jimmy in his columns. He differed from the other columnists in many ways. In his columns, in essence, he wrote poetry for a cab driver, his simple sentences were the bricks of his story telling, his sense of humor lifted the entire paper, giving it a life it otherwise might not have had. These are just a few of the ways he differed. No one worked harder than Jimmy Breslin.”

 

What was his relationship with New York cops?

 

“Jimmy respected honest cops. He grew up with cops in his household. He deplored cops who came into New York City from the suburbs, like an invading army he would say, learning nothing about the people they were supposed to serve or the city they were supposed to serve in. Conversely, any number of cops loved to hate Jimmy. But the smartest among them were his confidants and his friends, and the smartest among them were open to reading him, even when they disagreed with him.”

 

What was Breslin’s relationship with New York organized crime figures?

 

“He had solid relationships, if not friendships, with some key members of organized crime. He also had nothing but distain for the selling of drugs which by the 1970s was becoming the way the mob made much of its money.”

Did Breslin report his beating from “Jimmy the Gent” Burke to the police?

 

“Breslin reported his beating by Burke to no one. And Burke, of course, reported it to no one. It was business. In a bar. Between two guys who had a life-long relationship. Both of them had volatile personalities. Burke’s was sociopathic. Breslin’s egomaniacal.”

 

Why did Burke offer Breslin money for his wife’s illness, and why did Breslin refuse?

 

“Burke’s offer came from knowing Rosemary, or “Rose” as he called her, since they were young. He wanted her cured, and in his world, a bag of cash could buy the best of anything. So he tried to give it to Jimmy so he could buy Rosemary the best care. Jimmy didn’t take the money. But he never forgot the offer, and many years later, he wrote about Burke’s generosity.” 

What do you believe will be Jimmy Breslin’s legacy?

“Breslin’s legacy is reminding us all, tell the truth, tell the stories, and then let the readers figure it out. In other words, give them what they need to make up their minds. Don’t preach to a choir that already knows what you are going to say and believes it.”

 

• Paul Davis’ On Crime column covers true crime, crime fiction and thrillers.

 

Jimmy Breslin” The Man Who Told the Truth

Richard Esposito
Crime Ink/Penzler, $30, 360 pages

My Washington Times On Crime Column On Three Books On War And Government

The Washington Times published my On Crime column on three books on war and government. 

You can read the column via the below link or the below text:

Three books on war and government - Washington Times

Back in 1991, before I became a full-time writer, I was a Defense Department civilian employee. I recall attending a Defense Department conference in Memphis, Tennessee, where I heard an Army colonel speak. The colonel was the military assistant to then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney.

 

In the Q&A period, I mentioned to the colonel that I was reading Bob Woodward’s new book, “The Commanders,” a nonfiction work about President George H.W. Bush, Mr. Cheney, Gen. Colin Powell, other administration leaders and the lead-up to Operation Desert Storm. I asked him if the quotes from the Defense Department leaders were accurate.

 

He replied that they were. 

 

I followed up by asking why the senior leaders spoke to Mr. Woodward for the book, as he was not considered a friend of the Bush Defense Department. He replied that Mr. Woodward’s books were popular and highly regarded, so the Defense Department leaders wanted to be included in “The Commanders” and be a part of history.

 

Bob Woodward’s new book, “War,” is similar to “The Commanders,” and recounts President Biden and his administration’s actions and conversations in the lead-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the horrendous Hamas attack on Israel and the Jewish state’s military response.

 

The reader can be privy to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart in October 2022. Mr. Austin was concerned about Russia’s potential use of a tactical nuclear bomb in its war with Ukraine.

 

“If you did this, all the restraints that we have been operating under in Ukraine would be reconsidered,” Mr. Austin told Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. “This would isolate Russia on the world stage to a degree you Russians cannot fully appreciate.”

 

“I don’t take kindly to being threatened,” Mr. Shoigu responded.

 

“Mr. Minister,” Mr. Austin replied, “I am the leader of the most powerful military in the history of the world. I don’t make threats.”

 

In another section of “War,” Mr. Biden informs his aides of his view of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin: “Putin is evil. We are dealing with the epitome of evil.”

The book is clearly biased against former President Donald Trump and favors Mr. Biden. Supporters of the president-elect, however, might still enjoy reading about the inside story of the world’s two current major military conflicts.

’Watchdogs’

 

While performing security work as a Defense Department civilian in the late 1980s and 1990s, I investigated Inspector General complaints regarding waste, fraud and abuse.

 

So it was with some interest that I read Glenn A. Fine’s “Watchdogs: Inspectors General and the Battle for Honest and Accountable Government.” 

Mr. Fine, who served as the inspector general of the Department of Justice from 2000 to 2011 and served as the acting inspector general of the Department of Defense from 2016 to 2020, writes about his time as the IG for Justice and Defense, working cases during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as FBI agent and Russian spy Robert Hanssen, and other high-profile cases.

 

Mr. Fine explains how IG oversight investigations improve government operations, deter wasteful spending and curtail corruption. He also offers several suggestions on how to improve agency inspector generals.

 

This interesting and informative book about IGs is a critical element for good government.  

 

’The Unvanquished’

 

Patrick O’Donnell’s “The Unvanquished: The Untold Story of Lincoln’s Special Forces, the Manhunt for Mosby’s Rangers, and the Shadow War That Forged America’s Special Operations” is a most interesting book about the Civil War beyond the big battles such as Gettysburg.

 

Mr. O’Donnell, a military historian specializing in special operations, offers a fascinating story about President Abraham Lincoln’s special forces, the Jessie Scouts.

 

I don’t believe anyone has covered the Jessie Scouts so extensively. The Union scouts, spies and special operators fought the Confederate army’s counterpart, John Singleton Mosby’s Rangers. The two irregular units performed raids, destroying critical supply lines, and they performed spy missions, often with the soldiers often wearing each other’s uniforms to blend in. If captured, the soldiers would be hanged as spies.

 

Mr. O’Donnell introduces us to memorable characters, such as Union Scout leader Archibald Rowand, the South’s John Mosby and other lesser-known Civil War soldiers, spies and secret operators. Mr. O’Donnell also writes about the Confederate Secret Service, and how they performed election interference in the 1864 race. He covers how the South’s Secret Service and Mosby’s Rangers planned to kidnap Lincoln before there was a plot to assassinate him.

“The Unvanquished” is a well-written, well-researched and dramatic history of the special operators from the Civil War.

 

• Paul Davis’ On Crime column covers true crime, crime fiction and thrillers.

• • •

“War”

Bob Woodward
Simon and Schuster, 448 pages, $32

“Watchdogs”

Glenn A. Fine
University of Virginia, 216 pages, $29.95

“The Unvanquished”

Patrick O’Donnell
Atlantic Monthly Press, 432 pages, $30

My Washington Times On Crime Column's Roundup Of Crime, Spy And Military Thrillers

The Washington Times published my On Crime column’s round up of crime, spy and military thrillers. 

You can read the column via the below link or the below text: 

A roundup of crime, spy and military thrillers - Washington Times

I recall Otto Penzler, editor of numerous mystery, crime fiction and thriller anthologies and owner of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York, telling me that mystery, crime fiction and thrillers were the bestselling genres of books today — and that business was good.

Below are the best crime, spy and military thrillers that I’ve read recently:

"Front Sight: Three Swagger Novellas":

 

I enjoyed Stephen Hunter’s “Front Sight,” three interconnected novellas that follow each generation of the Swagger family, from Bob Lee Swagger, the Vietnam Marine sniper known as “Bob the Nailer,” to his grandfather Charles Swagger, an Arkansas sheriff and gunslinger attached to the FBI to take out the notorious gangsters in the 1930s, and his father, Earl Swagger, a World War II Marine Medal of Honor recipient who takes on postwar criminals.

 

The Swaggers are rugged individuals who are good with guns and possess a strong sense of justice and honor.

 

In “City of Meat,” Charles Swagger is hunting for the notorious bank robber Baby Face Nelson when he traces a tip to the Chicago stockyards. While there, he is assaulted by a madman involved in a narcotics ring. The ring plans to spread its new drug, which makes users insane and kills others.

 

Earl Swagger investigates a bank robbery that left two dead and a fortune missing in small-town Maryland in “Johnny Tuesday.” He uncovers municipal corruption, gang politics, jaded aristocrats, scheming gamblers and a hit man who matches wits and guns with him.

 

In “Five Dolls for the Gut Hook,” Bob Lee Swagger accepts an assignment from the Arkansas police to investigate a serial killer. The three novellas are superb thrillers with action, suspense, notable bad guys who fight the Swaggers and accurate descriptions of guns, as Mr. Hunter is a well-known gun enthusiast.

 

 

"Phantom Orbit"

Many military analysts believe the next big war will be fought in space. David Ignatius’ latest thriller takes the reader into the world of satellites and missiles.

In “Phantom Orbit,” Ivan Volkov, a budding Russian scientist studying in Beijing, begins to unravel a scientific puzzle that will affect satellites and the future of space warfare. He returns to Russia and works for the government.

After enduring years of corruption in his field and everyday life, plus the murder of his prosecutor son and the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian scientist decides to defect to America. Mr. Ignatius’ well-written and well-researched spy thriller is fascinating and, for most of us, educational.

"Sharpe's Command"

 

In Bernard Cornwell’s 23rd Richard Sharpe thriller, “Sharpe’s Command,” a Napoleonic-era British captain is ordered behind enemy lines in Spain.

Sharpe and his small, elite riflemen unit enter a remote village near the Almaraz Bridge. Two French armies are marching toward the bridge to meet Napoleon. If the French armies can meet, the war may be over for the British.

 

Sharpe, the rugged son of a London prostitute and former soldier, must prevent the armies from forming a coalition.

 

This well-written and well-researched historical novel offers accurate and brutal battle scenes along with suspense and romance. Sharpe, whom Bernard Cornwell has described as “a villain, but our villain,’ is a fascinating character, and fans of the series, like me, are glad to have him back.

 

"Clete"

In James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux crime novels, Clete Purcell is a supporting player. Purcell, a huge man and struggling alcoholic, was Robicheaux’s partner when they were with the New Orleans Police Department. Robicheaux later became a detective in New Iberia, Louisiana, and Purcell became a private detective, but the two friends often fought crooks and killers together.

 

In his loud shirts and porkpie hat, Purcell is a troubled Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam, hopeless romantic and violent avenger of helpless victims. Purcell is a fascinating character in his own right, and I have often thought that James Lee Burke should write a novel with Purcell as the lead character.

In “Clete,” Mr. Burke does that. Still, I was somewhat disappointed that Mr. Burke changed the first-person narration from Robicheaux to Purcell as the two men take on the usual suspects in a Dave Robicheaux novel, such as rich, powerful and corrupt men and poor, violent and sociopathic criminals.

 

Although there are flashes of Purcell’s terrible past, I would have liked to read more about him. Still, I enjoyed the well-written crime novel.

• • •

Front Sight
Stephen Hunter
Atria/Emily Bestler Books, 480 pages, $28.99

 

Phantom Orbit
David Ignatius
Norton, 384 pages, $29.99

 

Sharpe’s Command
Bernard Cornwell
Harper, 320 pages, $24

 

Clete
James Lee Burke
Atlantic Monthly, 336 pages, $28

 

• Paul Davis’ On Crime column covers true crime, crime fiction and thrillers.

Retired NYPD Detective Randy Jurgensen Honored For 1968 Heroism

FOX 5 in New York City offers a piece on Randy Jurgensen, the legendary former NYPD detective who finally received the Police Combat Cross. 

NEW YORK - Retired NYPD Detective Randy Jurgensen received a decades overdue round of applause at NYPD headquarters on Thursday as he received the Police Combat Cross.

 

In 1968, Jurgensen was at Arthur’s Nightclub in Midtown Manhattan when he heard screams from a nearby street. A patrolman had been shot multiple times by two suspects who were fleeing the scene. 

 

Despite being off duty, dressed in plain clothes, and without backup, Jurgensen sprang into action. He chased down the suspects and helped the officer suffering from gunshot wounds, all while under gunfire himself.

 

Despite being shot at, Jurgensen was able to subdue one of the suspects by striking him with his off-duty firearm.

"56 years ago you did what we ask every single officer to do every single day," said Police Commissioner Edward Caban at Thursday's ceremony.

Though Jurgensen was the day’s honoree, he chose to share the spotlight with the fallen officer from that night, Patrolman John Vereca.

"On that night, now, I’m thinking of Patrolman John Vereca who lost his life while doing what he swore to do, his duty," Jurgensen said during the ceremony.

You can watch the news video via the below link:

Retired NYPD Detective Randy Jurgensen honored for 1968 heroism | FOX 5 New York (fox5ny.com)

Note: I interviewed Randy Jurgensen, (seen third from the left in The French Connection film) the famed detective who became an author, actor, film consultant and film producer, on numerous occasions.

You can read my Washington Times On Crime column on Randy Jurgensen via the below link:

Paul Davis On Crime: The Real French Connection Cops: My Washington Times 'On Crime' Column On Legendary Detectives Sonny Grosso And Randy Jurgensen

National Book Lovers Day

Today is National Book Lovers Day. 

I love books. I love true crime, crime fiction and thrillers, history - especially military history - biography, and books on many other subjects. 

I’ve been an avid reader nearly all of my life and I’ve been collecting books since my pre-teens. I now have a considerable number of books in my basement office and library (see the above and the below photos of some of my books). 

My youthful reading inspired me to become a writer and in addition to writing crime fiction short stories and magazine and Internet news articles, I also interview authors and review books in my On Crime column in the Washington Times. 

You can link to my On Crime columns via the below link: 

Paul Davis On Crime: My Washington Times 'On Crime' Columns 

And you can read about the National Book Lovers Day via the below link:

NATIONAL BOOK LOVERS DAY - August 9 - National Day Calendar