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Stephen Mertz, born May 3, 1947, is an American fiction author who is best known for his mainstream thrillers and novels of suspense. His work covers a wide variety of styles from paranormal dark suspense (Night Wind and Devil Creek) to historical speculative thrillers (Blood Red Sun) and hardboiled noir (Fade to Tomorrow).

His novels have been well-received critically. Booklist called Nightwind, “fast-paced...a white-knuckle read.” Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine labeled Mertz, “an action specialist.” Edgar-winner Joe R. Lansdale supplies this career assessment: “Stephen Mertz writes a hard-edged, fast-paced thriller for those who like their tales straight and sharp and full of dark surprise,” while Booklist had this to say about The Korean Intercept: "Fans of political thrillers will relish this high-action tale. An adrenaline rush!” Ed Gorman wrote, “Stephen Mertz just keeps on getting better, each novel more dazzling in story and style.”

Mertz is also a popular lecturer on the craft of writing and has appeared as a guest speaker before writer’s groups and at universities. Early in his career, he was a prolific writer of paperback originals under a variety of pseudonyms, work he now dismisses as "commercial scribbling," although his work on Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan series is regarded by fans as some of the best in that series. He also created the MIA Hunter and Cody's Army series, written under the pseudonyms Jack Buchanan and Jim Case respectively.

Stephen Mertz has traveled widely and is a U.S. Army veteran. He presently lives in the American Southwest, and he is always at work on a new book.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Stephen Mertz", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0