DIRK WYLE is the pen name of Duncan H. Haynes, Ph.D., a 30-year veteran of biomedical science. Commercial success of his drug microencapsulation technology enabled an early retirement from the laboratory and medical school lecture hall, allowing him to focus on his passion for literature. Believing there are no stone walls separating the realms of popular science, serious literature and mystery/thriller fiction, Dirk Wyle creates exciting but realistic stories that play out in all three arenas. His creative process involves thinking up scientific projects, perplexing challenges and mortal threats for his free-spirited protagonist, Ben Candidi.

For his debut, Ben was fired from his technician job at a medical examiner's laboratory and was induced to enter a pharmacology Ph.D. program to look into a suspected poisoning, to be investigated while taking classes and working on his degree. Solving the mystery seemed impossible, until he met and fell in love with a medical student named Rebecca Levis. In the stories that followed, Ben's scientific projects confront the couple with mystery and intrigue. Rebecca's world health expeditions often supply an exotic backdrop.

Dirk does not regard work and play as necessarily separate activities. Keeping up with scientific reading is not a chore when it inspires new challenges for Ben. And footing a hefty bill for a long stretch of cultural tourism is no problem when it turns up fascinating locations for a new Ben-and-Rebecca adventure. For itineraries, check out www.dirk-wyle.com.