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Vultures circling over the Yucatán scrubland lead vacationing Ben Candidi (Ph.D.) to an ugly sight — a young peasant with his heart cut out, draped over a boulder. Rebecca Levis (M.D.) recognizes the “peasant” as B’alam Chuc, an engineering student at the university in Mérida. He had been interested in her medical outreach project. Although handwritten hieroglyphs found on the body offer clues, the police insist the motive was robbery. The parents — Maya villagers who speak no Spanish — have their eight-year-old Ichik ask Ben to investigate. B’alam’s professors describe him as a brilliant student — but a loner. Armed with a glyph dictionary and a cultural tourist’s knowledge of Mayan history, rites and superstition, Ben searches for what lured B’alam to the scene of his death. He assembles clues from haciendas, Maya villages, archaeological sites and even the coral bedrock. As the picture of an evil and debauched criminal conspiracy emerges, Ben and Rebecca are faced with two questions: Was B’alam truly innocent? And is it time to get out of Yucatán? “From traces of Mayan glyphs, wisps of their history and mythology, and from the fiber of their present-day culture, Dirk Wyle has spun an incredible yarn.” — Steve Glassman, Cities of the Maya in Seven Epochs, 1250 B.C. to A.D. 1903 “. . . Raiders of the Lost Ark meets Eyes Wide Shut. Worth reading . . .” — Kirkus Reviews |
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"First-class mystery." — Booklist on Pharmacology Is Murder "... a potent mix of science, business and crime." — Publishers Weekly on Biotechnology Is Murder "Nifty, light-hearted and deadly." — Edna Buchanan, author of Garden of Evil |
". . . a combination white collar crime medical thriller hard-boiled mystery. ... Ben Candidi doesn't carry a gun or have a PI license. He's witty, complex and a very different sleuth." — Lane Wright, Mystery Books About.com |
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"Wyle creates Ben as the playful idealized man: Mensa member; looks like Frankie Avalon; can fight like a pit bull; has a steady relationship with the beautiful Rebecca while tossing off adversaries with stumbling panache and outwitting the evil . . ." — Shelley Glodowski, Midwest Review on Medical School Is Murder |
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BEN & REBECCA'S FIRST FIVE ADVENTURES |
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As vacationing Ben Candidi and Rebecca Levis sail through International Waters toward Grand Bahama Island, they receive a strange welcome — a sinking cabin cruiser with a dead man at the helm. Ben knows how to patch bullet holes below the waterline and Rebecca knows how to estimate time of death. And they agree that the West End marina is the right place to bring the body. To avoid trouble, they play it dumb and treat the cocaine-smuggling marina tenants as the divers and sport fishermen they are pretending to be. Unfortunately, the mailbox corporation in Miami that owns the yacht ignores Ben's $100,000 salvage claim — and the Bahamian police won't let him move the yacht to Florida. The harder Ben and Rebecca press their claim, the more sinister West End becomes. Should they cut their losses and run? Or is it too late already? "Wyle . . . blends scientific smarts with quirky characters in another fine outing . . . ." — BOOKLIST (May 1, 2005) |
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Ben signed up to be a highly paid pharmaceutical consultant, not an industrial spy in Miami. Rebecca signed up to be a world health physician, not a hostage in the Brazilian Amazon. But strange things can happen when you discover a new kind of gold. "Wyle has given the hard-boiled thriller a scientific twist, making his novels pleasing for both their intrigue and their intellect." — BOOKLIST (Aug. 1, 2003) |
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When Rebecca said it was a great opportunity, Ben had to agree. But with Rebecca in the middle of her training program, Ben's opportunity will mean separation for six months. Ben leaves his physician soul mate in Washington, DC, and returns to Miami's Bryan Medical School to take over a dead scientist's laboratory and two-year grant. And when he is offered $20,000 to write the biography prescribed in eccentric Dr. Peterson's will, Ben accepts that opportunity, too. Collecting humorous anecdotes about the old bachelor and WW-II hero is simple, but making sense of his after-hours "crusades for science and reason" is much harder for Ben. Dr. Peterson made many enemies when he spoke out on public corruption, the right to die, abortion, animal experimentation, human cloning and meat irradiation. And how should Ben deal with rumors that Dr. Peterson had falsified his lab data on dietary supplements? Should Ben heed anonymous warnings to stop looking for substance in Dr. Peterson's crusades? Was last night's burglary just another random act of Miami violence? Can Ben write off the poorly documented crusades as the delusions of an attention-starved old man? Or was it something other than a heart attack that left Old Pete floating in the canal by Bryan Medical School? |
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Ben is hired to answer the 20-million-dollar question and the situation turns nasty. |
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What the Reviewers Said: "Nifty, light-hearted and deadly." — Edna Buchanan, author of Garden of Evil "... a potent mix of science, business and crime." — Publishers Weekly "Against the backdrop of this intriguing mystery, the author takes us on a tour through the Byzantine world of high finance and biotechnology." — Dr. Charles C. Ouimet reviewing for the HMS Beagle (BioMedNet) "... technically accurate and exciting." — Ronald K. Wright, MD, JD, Chief Medical Examiner Emeritus, Broward County, FL |
While Rebecca is gone, working in a Jamaican hospital, Ben Candidi (Ph.D.-to-be) is offered a chance to earn $24,000 for a four-day consulting job. Boston venture capitalist Dr. Brian Broadmoore needs to know whether BIOTECH Florida, Inc. is worth buying for $20 million. The Miami company has three candidate drugs that shrink tumors with amazing speed. But BIOTECH's inventor is amazingly defensive about his patents. BIOTECH's President is blustering and Chief Scientist Cheryl North is playing mind games. And Dr. Broadmoore is surprising quiet. And when Ben walks into the inventor's office to find him dead — cold and clammy — from no apparent cause, he knows it had to be murder. But how and why? Soon Ben is crawling in a web of intrigue. He shakes hard once and it ensnares Rebecca. He shakes hard twice and he's fighting for his life. |
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What the Reviewers Said: “First-time novelist Dirk Wyle skillfully pairs the tone of the hard-boiled mystery with the intricate scientific detail common to the medical thriller. The result is an excellent whodunit. . . . a first-class mystery that combines elements of Michael Crichton, Patricia Cornwell, and even Edna Buchanan.” — Booklist Mystery Showcase American Library Association “ ... one fine debut mystery, combining scientific method with a quirky, humanistic scientist/detective and resulting in the perfect compound ... inventive, intriguing, and, most importantly, evocatively drawn. If you like a puzzle, you'll love this one.” — Les Standiford, author of Black Mountain “Dirk Wyle fuses Miami's cosmopolitan setting with academic intrigue, scientific discoveries, romance and murder to create a unique read. ... this book delivers. ... Wyle explains scientific jargon and theories in clear layman's terms, mixing investigations with in-depth character studies to explore all aspects of the crime.” — Devorah Stone, The Quill |
Talented but professionally dead-ended, Ben Candidi is almost grateful when Chief Medical Examiner Westley fires him "for his own good." Dr. Westley persuades Ben to enter the pharmacology Ph.D. program at nearby Bryan Medical School — and to conduct an undercover investigation. Dr. Westley believes it was murder-by-professor, using a poison that left no trace. But with a half-dozen suspect profs, and with hundreds of their toxins and laboratory drugs to choose from, Ben finds the assignment next to impossible — until he meets a medical student named Rebecca Levis. |
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Thirty years as a career scientist, medical school professor and entrepreneur provided the means for early retirement and the material on which the Ben Candidi Series is based. |
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Dirk Wyle's literary goal is to tell a good story. His benchmarks include tight plotting, authentic detail, vivid characterization and interesting locations. |
| His Ben Candidi mysteries take place in Miami, the Bahamas, the Brazilian Amazon and other unusual locations where has lived or visited. |  |
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His interests include the South Florida and Bahamian waters and marine ecology. |
Other interests include Latin-American and European culture. He worked and studied in Germany for four years. Professional and recreational travel has taken him through all regions of the U.S. |
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Dirk Wyle has shown that a 21st-Century novel can
ring with literary overtones and rumble with serious undertones, with no
loss of reader-friendliness. He is hard at work on additional Ben Candidi/Rebecca Levis adventures and on other literary projects. |
| Dirk's writing affiliations include
membership in the Mystery Writers of America with service on its judging
committees for the Edgar Allen Poe Awards. He received the Icon Award from
the South Florida Writers organization. He appears frequently at national
literary events and does bookstore readings across the country. |
| KEYWORDS FOR NON-FICTION CONTENT
OF THE NOVELS: pharmacology, drugs, biotechnology, biomedical
research, medical school, medical education, Ph.D., M.D., drug discovery,
drug development, ethnobotany, marine science, pharmaceutical science,
FDA, patents, drug manufacture, marine ecology, rainforest ecology, genetics,
cell biology, molecular biology, botany, anatomy and physiology, ecosystems,
nanotechnology, microbiology, biochemistry, forensic science, neuroscience,
forensics, popular science, chemistry, zoology, anthropology, CSI, patents,
crime scene investigation, marine exploration, Bahamas, Brazil, Amazon
region, Amazon rainforest, Amazon Basin, Florida, Amazon Indians, Yanomama
Indians, Yanomamo Indians, shamanism, Bahamian history, Bahamian geography,
Little Bahama Bank, Grand Bahama Island, nautical, yachting, snorkeling,
scuba, sailing, Mayan culture, Mayan glyph writing, Florida, Yucatan |
 Full hour No annoying commercials Reports all major news stories (of type handled by ABC, CBS or NBC) in first 20 minutes Large team of first-class, on-location foreign correspondents who speak the language and understand the country Top quality video, graphics and mapping Covers the two most important news stories in-depth, interviewing together two opposing experts (e.g. progressive vs. conservative; Democrat vs. Republican; disagreeing statesmen etc.), stimulating cross-talk and informative argument. Non-partisan treatment High in factual content Indispensable aid to getting beyond the "sound bite." |
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| Scientific Search Page | Science Fun Page | ||
| Patient's Information Page | Professional Page | ||
| Literary Page | Miscellaneous Page | ||
| All Picks Since 1998 |
| SOUTH FLORIDA CULTURAL | DIRK'S PEOPLE | ||
| S. FLORIDA WEEKENDS | MYSTERY SITES | ||
| SAILING & DIVING IN THE KEYS | |||
| MIAMI BIKE TRIPS (Dirk's Favorites) |
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| TRAVEL TO THE AMAZON | |||