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News: Dirk Wyle has added a sixth book to the Series: Yucatan Is Murder. It will be debuted at the Bouchercon mystery conference in Raleigh, NC, in a presentation at 2:30 PM.
"From traces of Mayan glyphs, wisps of their history and mythology, and from the fiber of their present-day culture, Dirk Wyle has spun an incredible yarn."
-- Steve Glassman, Cities of the Maya in Seven Epochs, 1250 B.C. to A.D. 1903
"Wyle has given the hard-boiled thriller a scientific twist, making his novels pleasing for both their intrigue and their intellect." -- Booklist review of Amazon Gold, the fourth book in the Ben Candidi Series.
Dirk Wyle believes there are no stone walls separating the realms of popular science, serious literature, formal mystery and cliff-handing suspense. Thus his stories play out in all four arenas. Literary inspiration is a product of his lifelong habit of late-night reading. His interest in mystery and hard-boiled showdowns was kindled by an adolescent admiration of Perry Mason and "a man called Paladin." The scientific twists in his stories come from his professional life, which included a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania; three years of postdoctoral work in Germany; 30 years as a medical school professor and researcher; and the filing of patents and founding of companies (Miami, Google Duncan H. Haynes).
His quick-witted protagonist, Ben Candidi, accepts "straightforward" scientific projects with a ton of idealism, an appraising eye, and a candid desire to share the full experience with the reader. But the projects quickly turn perplexing, then mysterious and sinister. And they usually leave Ben fighting for his life. Soul mate Rebecca Levis, MD, who is often out of the country on world health projects, was spared the moral danger in Ben's second and third adventures. But not so in the fourth one, where she lets Ben tag along on her humanitarian medical expedition to the Amazon rain forest. A non-working vacation can also turn dangerous for the couple, when they come across a sinking yacht while on a sailing in the Bahamas.
Like his protagonists Ben and Rebecca, Dirk Wyle does not regard work and play as necessarily separate activities. Professional reading to keep abreast of "cutting edge science" is not easy work, but it often suggests a new project for Ben. Digesting news reports of ecological and medical disasters is not great fun, but this is of vital concern to Rebecca. A new travel experience is always fun, but the rewards are multiplied if Ben and Rebecca can be imagined in. Story telling endows experience with purpose. Thus, a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula inspired a Ben & Rebecca adventure that has been brewing for some time. Recent inspirational travel has included canoeing through Montana on the Missouri River, and self-guided kayak explorations of the major the rivers and estuaries of the East Coast. The summer of 2013 is being spent in the Bavarian Alps, the Pyrenees, and los Picos de Europa. Thus Dirk reports that new stories are in the works and, as always, he welcomes reader feedback.
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