Jack DuBrul is the author of seven best-selling Phil Mercer thrillers.  DuBrul was educated at the West Minster School and holds a degree in international relations from George Washington University.

“I started writing my first novel at prep school and only abandoned the project after six hundred pages the encouragement of a few people who told me I had the gift but this wasn’t the story to pursue. I started my second, Vulcan’s Forge shortly after graduating from George Washington University while I was tending bar and waiting tables in Florida. It was published after I moved back to my native Vermont where I worked construction for my father.

This isn’t to say all I’ve ever done is work and write. Credibility is one of the keys to success as an author. Readers have to believe you know what you’re talking about or they won’t care about the book. There are two ways to gain credibility. One is to do massive amounts of research and the other is to actually do the stuff you write about. So I’ve taken flying lessons and leaned how to sky dive and scuba. I’m a pretty fair shot with a pistol but much better with a rifle.

I’ve traveled to more than two dozen countries, many of which aren’t recommended for your casual tourist. There was a government warning in place when I was in Peru about avoiding unnecessary travel there, and a couple of days after I left the Shining Path guerrilla organization bombed the town where I was staying. I was on one of the last flights out of eastern Greenland before winter closed the airports. That was early September if I recall. I arrived in Eritrea a week after six Belgian aid workers were gunned down in the region I had planned to explore. Went though Checkpoint Charlie a couple of months before it came down and was in Israel when an airliner was hijacked by radical Palestinians and the country went on lock down.”

Writing in a similar manner to writer Clive Cussler, his own novels focus on his character, Dr. Philip Mercer, a successful mining engineer and geologist who gets involved in various threats to the world.

Jack Du Brul has written seven Phillip Mercer books: Vulcan’s Forge, Charon’s Landing, The Medusa Stone, Pandora’s Curse, River of Ruin, Deep Fire Rising, and Havoc.

Recently, he has been co-authoring “The Oregon Files” novels with Clive Cussler, taking over from Craig Dirgo with the third novel. He has thus far collaborated on the New York Times bestsellers Dark Watch, Skeleton Coast, and Plague Ship.

www.vjbooks.com features signed and limited edition copies of Jack DuBrul titles!