Latest Books HEROIC MEASURES with Joel Shulkin

The medical examiner’s job is to speak for the dead and protect the living.

But what happens when the dead speak for themselves?

Stephen Englehart, an Armed Forces medical examiner. dedicates his life to bringing peace to the families of fallen soldiers. Tagged as one of the best, he’s able to spot forensic clues others miss. But when the body of a US Marine, supposedly burned beyond recognition, shows up with hardly a scratch, even Stephen is stumped. Were the bodies switched? Then, in the middle of the autopsy, the impossible happens.

The soldier wakes up.

Something incredible—and dangerous—is happening to the military’s elite, and Stephen may be the only one who can figure it out. And when Stephen’s sister, a Green Beret, goes missing, the entire military machine seems designed to stop him from finding her. To find the truth and save his sister, one man must stand against an army. Can he be the hero he never thought he could?

Joel Shulkin recently sat down with The Big Thrill to discuss his latest science thriller, HEROIC MEASURES.

Joel Shulkin

A novel is such a major undertaking; there’s the writing of it, of course, then you’re spending months and months revising, polishing, and then promoting it. How did you know this was the book you wanted to spend the next couple of years on?

Once I had the idea for the inciting event, a cadaver waking on the autopsy table, I knew the premise would be solid, though my agent had reservations that it might be too much like the old sci-fi movie Universal Soldier. So instead of focusing on the plot, I concentrated on developing the characters, telling the story from the medical examiner’s perspective and giving him a unique and interesting backstory. Once I developed Stephen and his sister Sharon’s characters, and their buried traumatic past, I knew I had a story I wanted to see to completion.

Were there any particular books, movies, or songs that were knocking around in your head while you were writing this one?

The main idea was that this would be a Captain America-esque Super-Soldier Project gone bad. As might be expected, I drew from a lot of Captain America stories, including a multiverse story called Captain America: Red, White, and Black about the “forgotten” Captain America Isaiah Bradley, for inspiration, especially as I decided to make Stephen Englehart be a comic geek.

In addition to a great read, what do you hope readers will take away from this story?

I think many forget that the men and women in our armed forces love their country and are dedicated to completing the mission. But, as with everything, there can be those who abuse power and have their own objectives. When you have subjects trained to follow orders, there is the risk of ethical boundaries being blurred or obliterated. We need to hold the leaders accountable and ensure that those risking their lives to protect us receive the same protection and respect.

What can you share about what you’re working on next?

HEROIC MEASURES is the first book in The Death Benefits series, and I’m already plotting the second book, Extraordinary Measures, which will face Stephen against an X-Men type collection of military experiments. In October I’m also publishing an Amazon short story called No Wonder, featuring Sharon Englehart from HEROIC MEASURES. And in 2025 I’ll be publishing Spontaneous Remission, a technothriller that stars Friedrich Gersch from HEROIC MEASURES.