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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 Alice Feeney - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into, Spyglass, an enchanting old house in Hope Falls, nothing is as it should be. Her key doesn’t fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that the stranger is his wife. One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying. Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner called Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person's date of death, including her own. Secrets start to unravel, and as the line between truth and lies blurs, Birdy feels compelled to right some old wrongs.

by Dean Koontz - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

The human “oddities” in the Museum of the Strange are less wondrous than the gawking rubes had been promised. But Alida is something else. The real thing. Traveling Depression-era America from carnival midways to speakeasies, Alida is resigned to an exploited and lonely life on the road as the museum’s golden ticket. Until she’s rescued by two compassionate strangers. Franklin and Loretta Fairchild see in Alida a gifted and uncannily well-read girl in need of a loving touch and a family. With the openhearted couple and their three precociously imaginative children, Alida finds it. Yet despite everyone’s overwhelming generosity and acceptance, Alida knows she is still a very different kind of girl. Her dreams bear that out. They’re vivid, unsettling and threatening. Alida fears that they’re also warnings. And that it’s the Fairchilds who may need rescue from a bad, bad world.

by Sophie Hannah - Fiction, Mystery

You think it will never happen to you. The doorbell. The policeman. The words that turn your world inside out: I'm afraid there's been an incident. For Sally Lambert, those words mean only one thing --- danger. Not just for her family, but for Champ, their loyal and beloved dog. A single accusation, a neighbor's grudge, and suddenly the Lamberts are trapped in a nightmare with no escape. Unless they make one. Most people would never run. Most people would never leave behind everything they know to protect an animal who can't defend himself. But for Sally, Champ is more than a dog --- he's one of her children. And most people aren't the Lamberts. No one has ever done this before. No one has ever gone this far. But the Lamberts have never been quite like any other family.

by Simone St. James - Fiction, Horror, Supernatural Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Strange things happen in Fell, New York. A mysterious drowning at the town’s roadside motel. The unexplained death of a young girl whose body is left by the railroad tracks. For the Esmie siblings --- Violet, Vail and Dodie --- the final straw was the shocking disappearance of their little brother. It started as a normal game of hide-and-seek. The three closed their eyes and counted to 10 while Ben went to hide. But this time, they never found their brother. As their parents grew increasingly distant, Violet, Vail and Dodie were each haunted by visions and frightening events that made them leave town and never look back. Violet still sees dead people --- spirits who remind her of Sister, the menacing presence that terrorized her for years. And now, after two decades running from their past, it’s time for a homecoming.

by Ashley Elston - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller, Women's Fiction

Camille Bayliss appears to have the picture-perfect life. She is married to hotshot lawyer Ben and is the daughter of a wealthy Louisiana family. Only nothing is as it seems: Camille believes that Ben has been hiding dirty secrets for years, but she can’t find proof because he tracks her every move. Aubrey Price has been haunted by the terrible night that changed her life a decade ago, and she’s convinced Benjamin Bayliss knows something about it. Living in a house full of criminals, Aubrey understands there’s more than one way to get to the truth --- and she may have found the best way in. Aubrey and Camille hatch a plan. For 12 hours, Aubrey will take Camille’s place. Camille will spy on Ben, and the two women will get the answers they desperately seek. Except the next morning, Ben is found murdered. Both women need an airtight alibi, but only one of them has it.

by Val McDermid - Essays, Memoir, Nature, Nonfiction

Val McDermid has always had a soft spot for winter: the bitter clarity of a crisp cold day, the crunch of frost on fallen leaves, and the chance to be enveloped in big jumpers and thick socks. In WINTER, McDermid takes us on an adventure through the season, from the frosty streets of Edinburgh to the windblown Scottish coast, from Bonfire Night and Christmas to Burns Night and Up Helly Aa. Recalling in parallel memories from her own childhood --- of skating over frozen lakes and carving a “neep” (rutabaga) for Halloween to being taken to see her first real Christmas tree in the town square --- McDermid offers a wise and enchanting meditation on winter and its ever-changing, sometimes ephemeral, traditions.

by Robin Cook - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When Laurie Montgomery temporarily steps down from her position as Chief Medical Examiner at the OCME, she and Jack decide to embark on a weekend getaway. And the timing couldn't be better when they receive a call from Jack's old peer, Robert Neilson, MD, about two strange deaths and their potential association with the upswing in Alzheimer's cases in Essex Falls. Laurie and Jack agree to help. Robert tells them that the deaths are of two troublemakers, known to be white extremists, in their late 20s. Prior to their deaths, their behavior had been somewhat bizarre with both complaining of muscle spasms, nausea and off-the-charts anxiety. As Jack and Laurie get to work, they are led to believe that a dangerous bioweapon might be at play, which, in the wrong hands, could threaten the lives of the entire town...and maybe all of America.

by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart - Fiction, Science Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When Ryan Crane, a cop, spots a gunman emerging from an unmarked van, he leaps into action and unknowingly saves John Ward, a billionaire with presidential aspirations, from an assassination attempt. As thanks for Ryan’s quick thinking, Ward offers him the chance of a lifetime: to join a group of lucky civilians chosen to accompany three veteran astronauts on the first manned mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. As the ship is circling Titan, it is rocked by an unexplained series of explosions. The crew works together to get back on course, and they return to Earth as heroes. When the fanfare dies down, Ryan and his fellow astronauts notice that things are different. Some changes are good, but others are more disconcerting. Before the group can connect, mysterious figures start tailing them, and their communications are scrambled.

by Brad Meltzer - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Andrew Fechmeier is a master at hiding. He’s spent decades concealing a secret that could get him killed. So when he’s diagnosed with a terminal disease, he heads for the local funeral home carrying the blue suit he eventually wants to be buried in. But what no one knows is that Fechmeier secretly tucked something inside, turning the suit into a final, untraceable hiding spot. It's a perfect plan. Until Fetch is brutally murdered by a mysterious killer who will stop at nothing to find the priceless object hidden in the suit. Wasting no time, the cunning but unconventional Roddy LaPointe opens an investigation into Fetch’s murder, recruiting help from his friend, the brilliant “Zig” Zigarowski. But it doesn’t take long for Zig to discover the real reason Roddy cares so much about this case: Fetch’s death is tied to Roddy’s mother, who was murdered decades earlier.

by James Grippando - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Miami criminal defense lawyer Jack Swyteck’s client, Elliott Stafford, has been indicted for murder but has gone silent. He won’t talk to the judge, his girlfriend, or even the attorney fighting for his life. There seems to be no medical or psychological reason for his silence. To some, it’s an act of protest against a broken criminal justice system. Jack doesn’t buy it. Undeterred by the hoopla and calls to walk away, he keeps his client and tries his best to save Elliott from himself. As he digs for facts, Jack discovers a much more disturbing reason for Elliott’s silence. Virtually everything Elliott told Jack before the indictment is proving false, including Elliot’s criminal history, family turmoil and secret past. As Jack plunges deeper, he comes to believe that Elliott isn’t trying to hide his own guilt. He may be protecting someone else --- and the stakes could not be higher.