Story Merchant Books

The late William Diehl is the author of numerous fast-paced New York Times bestsellers, including two, Primal Fear and Sharky’s Machine that were made into major motion pictures. Prior to his death in 2006, Diehl had written over 400 pages of manuscript for Seven Ways to Die, and left behind a working outline, notes and chapter drafts. Ken Atchity worked personally with Bill’s widow, Virginia Gunn Diehl, along with his screenwriting partner Michael A. Simpson, to bring this novel to completion. William Diehl was an extraordinarily gifted storyteller who enjoyed an unbroken string of bestselling novels including 27 aka The Hunt, Thai Horse, Hooligans, Chameleon, Show of Evil, Primal Fear (Richard Gere and Edward Norton) and Sharkey’s Machine. Seven Ways to Die is more than a worthy final addition to the Diehl canon. For twenty years he lived on Georgia’s St. Simons Island with his wife Virginia Gunn, a former Atlanta TV reporter. Diehl, who began writing novels at the age of 50, was strongly influenced by his experiences as a ball turret gunner on a B-24 in World War II--for which he earned a Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, and Air Medal.He met Martin Luther King and took part in the Civil Right movement. He became a staff reporter at The Atlanta Constitution, then the first managing editor of Atlanta magazine. Kenneth Atchity, author of fifteen previous books, is a prolific producer of motion pictures for television and theater, as well as former professor of comparative literature and Fulbright professor of American studies. Atchity, author of fifteen books, has been an editor and manager of bestselling authors for twenty-five years, and responsible for twenty bestselling novels.