Benjamin King is the kind of person who seems to always have the question
"What if . . ." on his lips. As an author of the critically acclaimed Civil War
thrillers A Bullet For Lincoln and A Bullet For Stonewall,
he has taken characters from the past and speculated on new relationships
between them. This has resulted in his two novels that have essentially
rewritten the sequence of events during the Civil War—or at least put an
extraordinary spin on perceptions of it. What makes King so successful is his
drive for research and his experience in military history.
His skills have served him equally well in his third novel, as he has
targeted his sights on WWII, rather than the War Between the States. In The
Loki Project, the fate of the Fatherland lies in just one man—not
Adolf Hitler, but Dr. Maximilian Lamm, professor of physics, SS officer, and
would-be inventor of the atomic bomb. Again, King weaves his story so that
fictional characters interact with historical figures including Reinhard
Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler, and Wilhelm Canaris.
King's love affair with history and the military is a lifelong obsession.
After graduating from the University of Connecticut with a degree in history,
King enlisted in the army. His eleven-year tour of duty took him out of the U.S.
for eight years, including one year of service in the Vietnam War, where he
served with the 101st Airborne Division (the Screaming Eagles), and was awarded
both the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.
Today, King serves as command historian for the U. S. Army Transportation
Center and Fort Eustis. Hiss military service has included work with the
Pershing missile systems, and his experience and knowledge have led to published
articles in Field Artillery Journal and Vietnam magazine, as well
as an appearance on the Discovery Channel's Machines That Won the War.
King's expertise in all manner of things military has given him the ability
to develop the compelling characters and intriguing scenarios that propel all of
his novels.