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Thomas Gifford Books In Order

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Publication Order of Ben Driskill Books

Publication Order of John Cooper Books

The Wind Chill Factor (1975)Description / Buy at Amazon
The First Sacrifice (1994)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Lew Cassidy Books

as Thomas Maxwell

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

The Cavanaugh Quest (1976)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Man from Lisbon (1977)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Glendower Legacy (1978)Description / Buy at Amazon
Hollywood Gothic (1979)Description / Buy at Amazon
Woman in the Window (1984)Description / Buy at Amazon
Guilty Parties (1985)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Saberdene Variations (As: Thomas Maxwell) (1987)Description / Buy at Amazon
Suspense is Killing Me (As: Thomas Maxwell) (1990)Description / Buy at Amazon
Praetorian (1993)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Benchwarmer Bob (1974)Description / Buy at Amazon
Historical Description of the Zetland Islands (1977)Description / Buy at Amazon
Charlie Myers (1998)Description / Buy at Amazon

Thomas Eugene Gifford was an American author of several international thriller novels, which have gone on to become international bestsellers. His first attempt at writing was his 1974 published novel “Benchwarmer Bob” that was moderately successful. The novel was a biography of Bob Lurtsema, a Minnesota Vikings defensive layer. The 1975 published “Wind Chill Factor” was a novel featuring John Cooper a character investigating dark dealings of the Fourth Reich that would be revisited in the 1994 published “First Sacrifice”. Gifford who came into the limelight with the publication of the international crime thriller “The Glendower Legacy” also wrote as Dana Clarins and Thomas Maxwell. Not one to be known as a one hit wonder, he published the explosive Vatican thriller “The Assassini” that established his name as one of the best international espionage thriller writers of his time. The two novels featured the lead character George Washington, the founding father of the United States as a British spy. Similar to many novels following Dan Brown’s international bestseller the “Da Vinci Code”, the novel posits that the Catholic Church is a criminal organization involved in several far-reaching international conspiracies. The bestselling novel “The Glendower Legacy” was adapted into a movie title “Dirty Tricks” in 1981. Gifford’s novels have won several awards over the years including a Putnam Prize for “The Wind Chill Factor” that won bet first novel. “The Glendower Legacy” and “The Cavanagh Quest” have made the shortlist for the Edgar Award.

Thomas Gifford went to Dubuque, Iowa, from where he went to college, before he upped and moved to Twin Cities, Minnesota with his family. He divorced his first wife in 1969 and married a local actress, Camille D’Ambrose. Gifford moved once again this time to Los Angeles before going back to the familiar settings of Orono, MN. After the success of his debut novel, Thomas Gifford would pen several novels over the course of several years in his own name and under his two other pseudonyms, before he shifted his attention to more leisurely pursuits. In 1996, he decided that his childhood home in Dubuque, Iowa would do with some renovations and set about renovating it. Moving back home from New York, he immersed himself in the Dubuque community that welcomed back the prodigal son with open arms. He was featured in his hometown’s leading paper the Dubuque Herald, where he told his life story and experiences and the pleasures and pet peeves of the town. In 2000, he got a terminal cholangiocarcinoma cancer diagnosis and would spend the remainder of his life chatting with family and friends, watching old movies, and reading before he died on October 31 of the same year. He is remembered as a man that made friends from across the globe and lived life to the fullest.

Gifford writing is a combination of evocative, vivid, personal, and smooth textured high caliber writing. He combines violent mysteries in fast-paced plot lines full of characters with believable motivations and resonant emotions. The lead in the novels is never your ordinary Superman or James Bond, but rather an ordinary man that often makes mistakes. Right from international espionage thrillers to conspiracy type stories, he writes intriguing novels of skeletons in closets, which provide not only entertainment, but also lessons in history. For instance, his Assasini novel is an old school thriller about the intrigues of the Catholic Church at the tail end of a Pope’s reign. His Assasini novel is an intriguing and compelling narrative of the politics of the church, which is a mixture of a whodunit and a conspiracy novel that would make for quite a good movie. Shifting between the genres, Gifford writes some of the very best of international espionage thrillers. The novels have intricate and complex plots that traverse multiple locales and continents ranging from the exotic capitals of South America and European capitals to the sleepy towns of the mid-west America. While this type of writing is common in today’s international espionage thrillers, Gifford was one of the pioneers of worldwide scope settings in his novels. To add spice to the novels, there is a romantic element in exotic settings that have made the novels be compared to the best novels from the likes of Forsyth and Follett.

“The Wind Chill Factor”, the first novel in the series is an international espionage thriller following the intrigues and conspiracies of the Fourth Reich. Even though Hitler lost the war, some survivors of his regime viewed his death and defeat of Germany as a momentary setback. They have now put in place measures to revive their Fourth Reich. They have spread their tentacles to every major capital in the world where they have their personnel in every Major Corporation and government ministry. They intend to inherit the good of the land by the end of the century. It is now up to John Cooper, a man that turned his back on the evil of the Reich to expose and neutralize his evil legacy. He has on his hands an explosive secret and a dark legacy that could change the history of the world. The fate of billions of people across the world now rests in the hands of Cooper, who finds himself in the dilemma of his life.

“The Man from Lisbon” is a daring international thriller about a daring fraud that could destroy a nation. Alves Reiz had learned from a very young age that life is short and that it is important for a man to make his money while he still had time. In 1916, he left his home in Portugal and headed to colonial Angola only to have his dreams of easy riches dashed. But in the frustration of crushed dreams he learns that he has a very special talent – he is an exceptional forger. With a steady hand, he can counterfeit everything from countless checks, currency, government documents, and diplomas, which he uses to commit one of the most notorious of frauds. The novel’s inspiration is the true story of one of the greatest fraudsters of the twentieth century as Gifford writes one of the most intriguing of international scams. Before there was Frank Abagnale or Bernie Madoff, Alves Reis was the best of swindlers with uncompromising desire, vision, and talent to succeed, regardless of the might of nation, bank, or official placed in his path.

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