Out of Darkness deals with the abhorrent problem of human trafficking, the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the 21st century, ranking second after drug smuggling. There are more young American girls entering the commercial sex industry-an estimated 300,000 at this moment-and their ages have been dropping drastically-the average starting age is an alarming thirteen.Out of Darkness follows Cynthia Lange from despair-her mother selling her into sexual slavery, to her rescue by the FBI, and her difficult transition to a prominent physician at Brier Hospital in Berkeley, California.While she had escaped from "the life," she can't rid herself from its aftereffects. She deals bravely with them and begins a new life. While the FBI created "legend" obscures her past, circumstances threaten to reveal the truth and destroy all she had worked so hard to create. We discover in this novel that the human spirit can triumph over evil.
About the Author: I was born in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, moved to Queens and ascended to the Island Long Island). After graduating from Valley Stream Central High School, I went to Adelphi, a college then, a university now, and then to medical school in Chicago. The war in Vietnam interrupted my postgraduate medical training with a year in Colorado Springs and another as a Battalion Surgeon in Vietnam. I spent seven months in the Central Highlands with the 4th Infantry and five months in an evacuation hospital in Long Binh outside Saigon where I ran the emergency room. I returned intact in 1968 to complete my training in internal medicine and diseases of the kidney, nephrology. I worked for twenty-three years in Berkeley, California in a hospital-based practice and served as Chief of Internal Medicine and Family Practice. For many years, I was an active member of the quality assurance committee. We retired in October 1995 before fate could intervene. We sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge for a life at sea in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Four years later, exhausted from repairing everything on board, (often many times) we sold the sailboat and within a year took the lazy man's out; we bought a Nordic Tug trawler. We motored around Florida, the Bahamas, and the entire East Coast and Canada. I've written fourteen novels, ten in the Brier Hospital Series, and one non-fiction book, I Love My Doctor, But..., a lighthearted look at the patient/doctor relationship. I write primarily to entertain, but I can't help but pass on to readers observations and beliefs culled from years of practice, and yes, my biases, too. I strive for realism in portraying the medical scene that is gripping enough without melodrama or gimmicks. With even a minor degree of success in writing novels, comes responsibility to readers. I attempt to produce honest material that reflects my beliefs. Exposing these beliefs to the public through my writing requires courage, stupidity, or both. My fans have been generous, and although nobody enjoys criticism, I've learned much from that, too. The novel that expresses most clearly my candor, and my bias, is For the Love of God. The novel reflects my attitudes toward those who are willing to sacrifice the lives of their children for their personal religious beliefs. We live in beautiful Grass Valley with 11 year old Bennie, a Yorkie who just looks like he's on steroids and Wesley, a 1 year old rescue, a terrier of some sort.