About Nathan

Nathan Hale Parker, the main character of Death Comes in the Morning, Dying at a Premium, Scheduled to Die, Running Nameless, Running with Intent, and Running to Cover, is named in honor of an American Revolutionary War hero, Nathan Hale.

Nathan Hale was a soldier in the Continental Army. At age 21, he was captured by the British and subsequently hanged. That was in 1776. His last words were, “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” Nathan Hale was buried in Coventry, Connecticut and was designated as the state’s official hero. The Nathan Hale homestead where he was born is located in Coventry. (Coventry is the town where the author, Don Bissett, graduated from high school.)

Each novel in the Nathan Parker series of books is intended to be a stand-alone story. Yet each book will also reveal a piece of Nathan’s life story. Nathan is not that different from all of us, except of course that he does become entangled in incredible adventures with remarkable characters. In his journeys across the US, he has an uncanny knack for finding dead bodies. Being a curious guy, he is driven to solve the puzzle of why each person died and to make the guilty pay for the crime. As he thrashes his way to the truth, some of the people around him come to despise him and the chaos left in his wake. In spite of this, Nathan falls into intense romantic relationships as he searches for permanence in his life. Yet, these relationships inevitably self-destruct from the disarray that his unconventional investigations create.

In his first adventure, Death Comes in the Morning, his life story starts when he is an out-of-work drifter. Like so many others, he is a victim of the Great Recession of 2008. New people enter and leave his life in each new adventure. Each of them affects Nathan’s path forward, in either positive or negative ways. So over time, Nathan will progress and change, just as all of us do.

I hope you will enjoy each book in the series, joining Nathan in his thriller, suspense, murder, mystery, and conspiracy adventures. And I hope that you also will enjoy the life story of Nathan Hale Parker.

About the Author

The author, Don Bissett, has always been an avid reader of thriller, suspense, murder, mystery, and conspiracy novels.

Don Bissett is originally from New England, growing up in Massachusetts and Connecticut. He graduated from high school in Coventry, Connecticut, the homestead of the American Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale. Don attended the University of Massachusetts, University of Connecticut, and Michigan State University, obtaining degrees in chemistry. He then worked as a scientist in industry in Cincinnati, Ohio.

During his career as a scientist in industry, he published extensively in technical journals and textbooks. That experience nurtured a passion for writing. Upon retiring from his industrial job, he started writing novels. The characters and plots are inspired by real-life people and events extracted from the news: newspapers, magazines, television reports, and the Internet. Personal experiences are also sprinkled into the stories, something that acquaintances might recognize. Contact the author, if you want to learn more.

In addition to writing novels, he continues to use his science experience in consulting with industry. His hobbies include travel and hiking, particularly in the western United States. As a kid growing up in New England, he had been a collector of minerals and US mint coins. Since moving to the Midwest, his interest switched to paleontology, collecting fossil specimens from the rich deposits in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, and many other states. For many years, he has volunteered on the show committee for the Cincinnati Gem & Mineral Show. He is also an avid collector of litter, which he zealously recycles.

Writing Heroes

Don enjoys reading the works of many authors, especially those who write thriller, suspense, mystery, murder, and conspiracy novels. But there are two who have produced such well-written novels that he's read some of them several times. In particular, the two authors below are Don's writing heroes.

Michael Connelly
· His crime stories featuring Detective Harry Bosch of the Los Angeles Police Department
· Favorite book in the series: Lost Light

Lee Child
· His tales about the adventures of the wandering ex-soldier Jack Reacher
· Favorite book in the series: The Hard Way