Stefan J. Malecek, Ph. D. is the author of four previous Paul Marzeky novels, and Crucible of Shame, a clinical book discussing the origins of addiction and “mental illness.” He worked in many aspects of psychiatry while serving in Vietnam during the war there, before earning his Ph.D. He retired from private practice in 2013, and has been happily living on the island of Maui and writing full-time since. He is at work on a book presenting his unique take on the retirement years in Transcendental Retirement (forthcoming in 2019), and the fifth book of the Paul Marzeky Mystery Series, The Gilded Edges of Shadow.