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VJ Books presents Mark T. Sullivan! Mark T. Sullivan has written seven mystery and suspense novels that
have thrilled readers around the world, but he took a circuitous route
to becoming a best-selling author.
Mark grew up outside of Boston and says the best job he's ever had was
selling souvenirs at Fenway Park during his high school summers. He
attended Hamilton College, graduating in 1980 with a BA in English. Two
weeks later, he boarded a plane bound for Niger, West Africa, where he
worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Agades, an oasis and trading
center on the ancient caravan route between Tripoli and Timbuctu. Mark
rode with Tuareg nomads deep into the Sahara, immersed himself in their
culture and taught their children English in a regional high school.
Upon Mark’s return to the United States in 1982, he attended the Medill
School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He worked at Reuters,
Ltd., as a financial correspondent covering the Chicago Commodities
Markets from 1983-1984. He left to become a political reporter in
Washington D.C., at a small wire service called States News Service
where his role was backup reporter to the D.C. bureaus of the New York
Times, Newsday and the New York Daily News. He also began to make a
name for himself in the tough world of investigative reporting,
breaking a series of stories about a financial scandal that almost
toppled the nation's mortgage brokerage business.
In 1986, Mark joined the San Diego Tribune as a full-time investigative
reporter. Still profoundly influenced by the experience of total
cultural immersion he had experienced in West Africa, he began to
develop a journalistic style that focused on the cultures of the things
he was investigating. His award-winning work included a series that
examined the culture of children living with addicts, and another that
drew back the curtain on the culture of corporate funeral home
conglomerates.
As a young boy, Mark had been an avid reader who’d dreamed of becoming
a novelist. At the age of 30, he panicked at the thought that he might
not follow through on his childhood dream. So he began writing fiction
in his little spare time and soon had short stories published in
various literary journals.
In the winter of 1990, he took a leave from his investigative duties at
the newspaper and moved to Utah and Wyoming to live among extreme
skiers. That experience yielded his first novel, The Fall Line (1994), which was named a New York Times Notable Book of the year, a rare honor for a debut author.
The following year, he published Hard News
(1995), a mystery that exposed the underbelly of modern newspapers. The
book garnered widespread critical acclaim and has become something of a
cult classic among journalists.
But it was not until 1996, with publication of The Purification Ceremony,
that Mark’s career broke out. The novel, told in the voice of a woman
who is an expert tracker, has been published and on best-seller’s lists
all over the world. It was a finalist for the Edgar Allen Poe award for
best novel, won the W.H. Smith Award for best “new talent” author, and
was named one of the best books of the year by the Los Angeles Times. The Purification Ceremony has been translated into fourteen languages and optioned numerous times for film, though sadly it has not yet been made.
Mark published Ghost Dance in 1999 again to widespread praise and commercial success, especially in Europe, where many of his fans live.
Labyrinth (2001) marked another turning point for Mark’s career. A thriller set in the world of endurance cavers, Labyrinth
was bought for film by Scott Rudin and Paramount Pictures even before
the literary rights sold. The book was an international hit and
expanded the number of countries and languages where Mark’s novels have
been published.
In 2003, Mark published The Serpent’s Kiss,
a mystery novel set in the world of Appalachian snake handlers.
BookSense 76 named the book one of the best mysteries of the year, and
it became a run-away hit in German-language countries, where it sat on
best-seller’s lists for almost twelve months.
Triple Cross, Mark’s newest, about an attack on a ski resort for
the super-rich and powerful, has already been published in Germany
where it is a best-seller under the title Limit. St. Martin’s Press will launch the U.S. edition of the novel in April.
Mark lives in southwest Montana with his wife, Betsy, and two teenage
sons, Connor and Bridger. An avid skier, sportsman, martial artist and
devotee of CrossFit training, Mark is also an entrepreneur with a
start-up company that builds green eco-roads as an alternative to
asphalt.
First and foremost, however, he remains a writer. He’s hard at work on
a new novel set in the world of professional thieves, the CIA and
international crime lords. It is tentatively entitled The Eighteenth Rule.
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