Name This Author (Round 18)

We've had success in the last few rounds. Let's see if we can do it again. And this time I've roped in another guy!!!

This round's author of tense thrillers is a husband and father who lives on the west coast. He grew up in the midwest in a house built by his great-grandfather. It was a farmhouse when he built it and is in the middle of the suburbs now. Author Travis Thrasher and our featured author went to the same high school, though they weren't in the same class. The town motto of the place where he went to college is "Cows, Colleges, and Contentment." He says he is married to an alien, and adds that he has to say "qui tam" a lot as part of his day job. Can you name this author?

The Rules:

• Entrant must put their guess in a comment on the Write Thinking blog. Commenting on Facebook or Twitter doesn't count toward a chance to win. (At present, commenters are not required to sign in, making it easier for more folks to play.)
• Entrant must have a USA mailing address to be eligible to win a book. (Sorry. Cost of postage outside the US is too prohibitive.)
• The first person to name the featured author correctly wins a Robin Lee Hatcher novel (of Robin's choice). If no one has guessed correctly by Friday morning, there will be no winner for this round.
• If there is a winner, he or she will be announced in an update at the bottom of this post. If the winner fails to contact Robin at her Write Thinking email address (see left sidebar) with his/her mailing address, no prize will be awarded to a runner-up.
• No one who has won a book within one month is eligible to win.

Be sure to check back to this post on Friday to see the answer and to see if you've won.

UPDATE: We have a winner! Fred St Laurent correctly identified this round's author (much too easily, I might add). Congratulations. Please contact me at the email address listed in the left sidebar with your mailing address so I can get a book out to you. As a bonus, Rick has agreed to send the winner one of his books as well.

Our featured author, Rick Acker, writes his novels while commuting to and from his "real job" as a Deputy Attorney General in the California Department of Justice. Award-winning author Colleen Coble says his most recent novel, WHEN THE DEVIL WHISTLES, is "a legal thriller you won't want to miss!" To read more about Rick and his books, please visit his web site.

Come back next Wednesday for another round of Name This Author!

~robin