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Ray Palen

Biography

Ray Palen


Ray Palen is an award-winning actor, drama teacher, and former executive producer/director for 15+ years of a highly successful regional theatre group that is still based on Long Island. Additionally, he is a published playwright with several short plays being registered with the Writers Guild of America. One of his short plays that featured his fictional hero, Sherlock Holmes, won first prize in a Holmes short play contest.

Ray's go-to pastime, however, has been reading. He has been an avid reader and writer throughout his life --- reading at least three books per week for as long as he can remember (a love of reading and lifelong insomnia being the dual cause of this). His book collection numbers in the thousands, and he prides himself on his rare and signed first editions. Ray has been reviewing books, movies and theatre for decades with several online and print publications.

In 2015, Ray relocated from the New York City area, where he lived his entire life, to Central Florida for a job opportunity with Walt Disney World. He also satisfied his burning itch to act again when he starred as the psychopath Harry Roat Jr. in a production of Terrence Knott's "Wait Until Dark," which was performed at Walt Disney World's Contemporary Resort. Recently, Ray has been acting at a popular theatre in Central Florida where he had starring roles in both "And Then There Were None" by Dame Agatha Christie and "Dial 'M' for Murder" by Terrence Knott. Ironically, he was cast in both plays as the villain --- which he plays off as both preferring more complex, villainous roles and relishing the opportunity to show off his native British accent! Currently he works as a Customer Operations Supervisor for the sports-tech entertainment company FanDuel.

His greatest personal production to date is his beautiful daughter, Anna, who is now seven and loves growing up in the shadow of Cinderella Castle. She already has a fond appreciation for books and reading! Ray resides just 20 minutes outside of Walt Disney World in Clermont, FL, with his wife Debbie, his little Princess Anna, and three cats (Mickey, Rory and Lorelei). There is a very good possibility that he is probably reading a novel right now. Cheers!

Ray Palen

Reviews by Ray Palen

by Graham Norton - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Always on the periphery, looking on, young Frankie Howe was never quite sure enough of herself to take center stage. After all, life already had judged her harshly. Now old, Frankie finds it easier to forget the life that came before. Then Damian, a young Irish caretaker, arrives at her London flat to keep an eye on her as she recovers from a fall. A memory is sparked, and the past crackles into life as Damian listens to the story Frankie has kept stored away all these years. Traveling from post-war Ireland to 1960s New York --- a city full of art, larger-than-life characters and turmoil --- Frankie shares a world in which friendship and chance encounters collide. A place where, for a while, life blazes with an intensity that can’t last but perhaps will live on in other ways and in other people.

by Andrew Welsh-Huggins - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Mercury Carter is a deliveryman who takes his job very seriously. When a parcel is under his care, he will stop at nothing to deliver it directly to its intended recipient. Not even, as in the current case, when he finds a crew of violent men at the indicated address who threaten his life and take the woman who lives there hostage. That’s because Carter has special skills from his former life as a federal agent with the postal inspection service. After Carter dispatches the goons sent to kill him, he enters a home besieged by criminals --- but the leader of the gang escapes with attorney Rachel Stanfield before the mailman can complete his assignment. With Rachel’s husband, Glenn, in tow, Carter takes off in pursuit of the kidnapper and his quarry. Along the way, he slowly picks off members of the crew and uncovers a far-reaching conspiracy and a powerful crime syndicate.

by Joseph Finder - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Paul Brightman is a man on the run, living under an assumed name in a small New England town with a million-dollar bounty on his head. When his security is breached, Paul is forced to flee into the New Hampshire wilderness to evade Russian operatives who seemingly can predict his every move. Six years ago, Paul was a rising star on Wall Street who fell in love with a beautiful photographer named Tatyana --- unaware that her father was a Russian oligarch and the object of considerable interest from several U.S. intelligence agencies. Now, to save his own life, Paul must unravel a decades-old conspiracy that extends to the highest reaches of the government.

by Freida McFadden - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn't realize she's heading straight into a blizzard. She never arrives at her destination. Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she's made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle occurs: she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears. But something isn't right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is in grave danger. This safe haven isn't what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet. And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself --- and her unborn child.

by Robert Crais - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Traci Beller was 13 when her father disappeared in the sleepy town of Rancha. The evidence says that Tommy Beller abandoned his family, but Traci never believed it. Now, 10 years later, Traci is a high-profile influencer with millions of followers and the money to hire the best detective she can find: Elvis Cole. Elvis heads to Rancha where an ex-con named Sadie Givens and her daughter, Anya, might have a line on the missing man. But when Elvis finds himself shadowed by a gang of vicious criminals, the missing persons cold case becomes far more sinister. Elvis calls his ex-Marine friend, Joe Pike, for help, and they follow Tommy Beller's trail into the depths of a monstrous, hidden evil. The case flips on its head, victims become predators, predators become prey, and the question becomes: Can Elvis Cole save them all from this nightmare?

by Matthew Pearl - History, Nonfiction, True Crime

On December 10, 1887, a shark fishing boat disappeared. On board the doomed vessel were the Walkers --- the ship’s captain Frederick, his wife Elizabeth, their three teenage sons, and their dog --- along with the ship’s crew. The family had spotted a promising fishing location when a terrible storm arose, splitting their vessel in two and leaving those onboard adrift on the perilous sea. When the castaways awoke the next morning, they discovered they had been washed ashore --- on an island inhabited by a large but ragged and emaciated man who introduced himself as Hans. It turned out that Hans had a secret. And as the Walker family gradually came to learn more, what seemed like a stroke of luck to have the mysterious man’s assistance became something ominous, something darker.

by Brian Freeman - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

A hacked database known as the Files has upended the intelligence community. Careers are being destroyed. Dirty deals are showing up on the front page. Assassinations are spreading from Europe to the U.S. The new head of Treadstone sends Jason Bourne on a mission to find out who has the Files and get them back --- or destroy them. But Bourne isn’t alone in this race. The Chinese want the Files. So do the Russians. And the only woman who may be able to help him is a treacherous spy known as Johanna, Bourne’s former lover, who sees the Files as the key to her own vendetta against Treadstone. Bourne has a rule for friends and enemies alike: Trust no one. That rule may be the only thing keeping him alive, because the hunt for the Files soon takes him inside a twisted labyrinth of murder and betrayal, where everyone has a hidden agenda. Including Bourne himself.

by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch - History, Nonfiction

John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, is often ranked among Americans’ most well-liked presidents. Yet what most Americans don’t know is that JFK’s historic presidency almost ended before it began --- at the hands of a disgruntled sociopathic loner armed with dynamite. On December 11, 1960, shortly after Kennedy’s election and before his inauguration, a retired postal worker named Richard Pavlick waited in his car on a quiet street in Palm Beach, Florida. Pavlick knew the president-elect’s schedule. He knew when Kennedy would leave his house. He knew where Kennedy was going. From there, Pavlick had a simple plan --- one that could’ve changed the course of history.

by Thomas Perry - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Los Angeles attorney Charles Warren has dedicated his career to aiding people in financial straits. He is particularly skilled at the art of recovering assets that have been embezzled or hidden. In his newest case, helping a beautiful young widow find the money missing from her late husband’s investment accounts, Charlie recognizes a familiar scheme --- one that echoes the con job that targeted his own widowed mother many years before and led him, as a teenager, to commit a crime of retribution that still weighs on his conscience. He can’t get the present case out of his mind, but within hours of starting his investigation, he is followed, shot at and has his briefcase stolen. As Charlie continues to pursue answers, he quickly becomes too entangled in the web of fraud, betrayal and career criminals surrounding the theft to escape its deadly snare.

by James Patterson and Andrew Bourelle - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller, Western

Texas Ranger Rory Yates protects his home state wearing a five-pointed silver badge and carrying a Sig Sauer. When a native woman disappears on the summer solstice, clues point to a cold case. Yates, a quick-draw champion, partners with expert archer Ava Cruz of the Tigua Tribal police. The investigation leads to the edges of Texas’s most unforgiving landscape, where the officers take dead aim with every shot in their arsenals.