Deputy: Once Upon A Time In Mississippi (Prequel, The Michael Parker Series Book 1): Under contract with X-G Productions for TV Series
by Merle TemplePublish: Jan 11, 2017Crime FictionSuspenseMysteryChristian Fiction
Book Overview
"Deputy is Southern Gothic literature--a complex tale of flawed but fascinating characters, mystery, and the supernatural. Paints images that burrow into your soul, captures the grand stage and social order of 1970, explores race relations and narrows divides. Twists and turns keep you guessing and gasping. Graveyards, mobsters, murder, seduction, and irony...a story that won't let you go."--Jim Clemente, Criminal Minds
BIOGRAPHY Merle Temple is a native of Tupelo, MS. He received two degrees at Ole Miss, and is the author of the Michael Parker series: Deputy: Once Upon A Time in Mississippi, A Ghostly Shade of Pale, A Rented World, and The Redeemed: A Leap of Faith.
The novels are written as fiction but drawn from his experiences as a deputy sheriff, an agent in the first "drug wars," the first captain in the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, a manager in the corporate world, a campaign chairman in the corporate and political wars, and an evangelist in prison.
Merle was held hostage by drug dealers; hit men tried to kill him near Memphis; and he and his team were ambushed by a sniper. He learned that the gangsters, who tried to kill him, were just choir boys compared to the political criminals who use the full power of the state to crush their enemies in an unholy trinity of politics, crime, and business.
Merle signed books for the cast of Criminal Minds in Hollywood, met with producers, dined with Morgan Freeman, and had a private lunch with Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias. His books were received at the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem by Canon Andrew White, the "Vicar of Baghdad," and X-G Productions is now pitching his books for a proposed TV series based on a life story that epitomizes the saying,"Truth is stranger than fiction."
Ghostly, the all-time bestselling novel for Barnes and Noble in North Mississippi, was chosen by one college as required reading for English students, and his books are used in middle school and high school English classes in several states. The novels are favorites in church libraries, shelters, and prisons in eight states.
Merle's books fulfilled a promise to God to tell his story and God's story of second chances and redemption. He signs books across America, does countless interviews on radio and TV, and speaks at churches, schools, civic clubs, and libraries to recount a story that some liken to a modern day Pilgrim's Progress.
