The Inquisitor by Mark Allen Smith

By George Ebey

“Geiger was an apostle, a slave to the specific. He was constantly breaking down, distilling, and defining parts of the whole, because in IR—information retrieval—the details were crucial. His goal was to refine the process to an art, which was why every single thing that happened from the moment Geiger walked into the room had its own degree of significance and required recognition. Each facial expression; each spoken word and silence; each tic, glance, and movement. Give him fifteen minutes in the room with a Jones and nine out of ten times he would know what the reaction to a particular action would be before the Jones made it: fear, defiance, desperation, bravado, denial. There were patterns, cycles, behavioral refrains. You just had to pay very close attention to see them all.”

Meet Geiger, an expert in the art of “information retrieval,” and the subject of author Mark Allen Smith’s stunning debut novel, THE INQUISITOR.

Geiger always gets to the truth. His gift: he knows a lie the instant he hears it. And in his business, that gift is invaluable, because truth is the hottest thing on the market. He has few rules … but his newest client just broke his Number 1 rule, and suddenly Geiger is counting down to a deadly face-off.

Mark Allen Smith, a successful television and documentary film producer and screenwriter, used his experience investigating features for the acclaimed ABC-TV news magazine program, “20/20,” as the basis for his debut thriller.   One particular piece of inspiration involved a story dating from the 1970s about the remarkably brutal torture and murder of a 17-year-old in Paraguay, the last true dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere. He was further inspired to action by the shocking death of Lisa Steinberg at the abusive hands of her adoptive father; this event uncorked ongoing interest in the corrosive effect of physical and psychological pressure on children and other innocents. His journey of research convinced him that the novel was his best way to bring his story to the largest possible audience.

The result of his efforts is a spectacularly original thriller that LIBRARY JOURNAL calls, “An adrenaline-fueled cat-and-mouse game… [Geiger] is a fascinating protagonist with a revealing back-story. A compelling debut thriller that blurs the lines between the good and bad guys.”

For Geiger, nothing stands between him and the truth.

And now that THE INQUISITOR is available, nothing stands between you and the book that bestselling author Nelson DeMille says “…may be the most unusual and talked about thriller of the season.”

*****

Mark Allen Smith is a successful television and documentary film producer and screenwriter. The Inquisitor, featuring the controversial hero known only as Geiger, is his first novel. Mark’s experience investigating features for the acclaimed ABC-TV news magazine program, “20/20,” planted the seed for his debut thriller when he was involved with a story dating from the 1970s about the remarkably brutal torture and murder of a 17-year-old in Paraguay, the last true dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere. He was further inspired to action by the shocking death of Lisa Steinberg at the abusive hands of her adoptive father; this event uncorked ongoing interest in the corrosive effect of physical and psychological pressure on children and other innocents. His journey of research convinced him that the novel was his best way to bring his story to the largest possible audience.

A long-time resident of Westchester County, Mark Allen Smith now lives in New York City’s Harlem with his wife, Cathy, and a blended family of six children. He is presently working on the sequel to The Inquisitor, also featuring Geiger.

To learn more about Mark, please visit his website.