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Spooker
The author of the best-selling thriller, The Ransom of Black Stealth One delivers a story of espionage and murder about a ring of killers that targets intelligence agents for their "spooker" survival kits. 35,000 first printing. $35,000 ad/promo.
Hardcover
First published November 1, 1995
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About the author
Dean Ing
75 books34 followersDean Charles Ing was an American author, who usually wrote in the science fiction and techno-thriller genres.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Fresno State University (1956), a master’s degree from San Jose State University (1970), and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon (1974). It was his work in communication theory at the University of Oregon that prompted him to turn to writing in the 1970s.
Dean Ing was a veteran of the United States Air Force, an aerospace engineer, and a university professor who holds a doctorate in communications theory. He became professional writer in 1977. Ing and his wife lived in Oregon.
Much of Ing's fiction includes detailed, practical descriptions of techniques and methods which would be useful in an individual or group survival situation, including instructions for the manufacture of tools and other implements, the recovery of stuck vehicles and avoidance of disease and injury.
In addition to his fiction writing, Ing wrote nonfiction articles for the survivalist newsletter P.S. Letter, edited by Mel Tappan. Following in the footsteps of sci-fi novelist Pat Frank, Ing included a lengthy nonfiction appendix to his nuclear war survival novel Pulling Through.
In Ing’s fiction, his characters are involved with scientific or engineering solutions and entrepreneurial innovation, elements drawn from his own experience. A lifelong tinkerer, designer, and builder, he was an Air Force crew chief and a senior engineer for United Technologies and Lockheed. His characters know how things work, and they use ingenuity and engineering to solve situational challenges. Ing's work reflects the Oregon traditions of self-reliant independence and suspicion of authority.
“Since I deplore the voracious appetite of the public for entertainment-for-entertainment’s sake,” he told an interviewer in 1982, “most of my work has a clear didactic element. . . . I believe that Jefferson’s ideal of the independent yeoman farmer should be familiar to every generation because I mistrust a technological society in which most members are thoroughly incompetent to maintain the hardware or the software.”
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Fresno State University (1956), a master’s degree from San Jose State University (1970), and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon (1974). It was his work in communication theory at the University of Oregon that prompted him to turn to writing in the 1970s.
Dean Ing was a veteran of the United States Air Force, an aerospace engineer, and a university professor who holds a doctorate in communications theory. He became professional writer in 1977. Ing and his wife lived in Oregon.
Much of Ing's fiction includes detailed, practical descriptions of techniques and methods which would be useful in an individual or group survival situation, including instructions for the manufacture of tools and other implements, the recovery of stuck vehicles and avoidance of disease and injury.
In addition to his fiction writing, Ing wrote nonfiction articles for the survivalist newsletter P.S. Letter, edited by Mel Tappan. Following in the footsteps of sci-fi novelist Pat Frank, Ing included a lengthy nonfiction appendix to his nuclear war survival novel Pulling Through.
In Ing’s fiction, his characters are involved with scientific or engineering solutions and entrepreneurial innovation, elements drawn from his own experience. A lifelong tinkerer, designer, and builder, he was an Air Force crew chief and a senior engineer for United Technologies and Lockheed. His characters know how things work, and they use ingenuity and engineering to solve situational challenges. Ing's work reflects the Oregon traditions of self-reliant independence and suspicion of authority.
“Since I deplore the voracious appetite of the public for entertainment-for-entertainment’s sake,” he told an interviewer in 1982, “most of my work has a clear didactic element. . . . I believe that Jefferson’s ideal of the independent yeoman farmer should be familiar to every generation because I mistrust a technological society in which most members are thoroughly incompetent to maintain the hardware or the software.”
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
couldnt-get-into
June 20, 2013is the whole thing exposition? The first six chapters are. It's like reading a very dull government report.
October 9, 2013
This was one of those very rare instances where I could not bring myself to finish a book. I have read and enjoyed Ing's work in the past, so I was hopeful with this book, but there was a scene that I found so repugnant and disturbing that I couldn't complete it.
November 7, 2018
Pretty freaky. The premise is clever. The characters are quite wacky. I read this book years ago but I haven't forgotten it since.
February 18, 2023
Like 007 for the short bus
June 17, 2007
I had a love/hate relationship with this book. For a thriller, you can't get much better in character development then Ing does in this novel. Descriptions of serial killers act though were horrible and almost unreadable.
January 22, 2015
This book really held my attention. It is very different than the usual thriller. Starts off dry and slow, but builds up to an exciting concept that kept me marveling at Ing's inventiveness. The bad guys are really creepy and sick, and the ending is a shocker.
September 29, 2013
I had forgotten how good Dean Ing is. Psycho-thriller at its best. Well worth the time to track down.
January 10, 2015
If I recall correctly, this is the book that mentions that the Vienna Inn (an actual place down the street from where I worked) was a CIA hangout.
January 11, 2017
If the best way you have of showing how evil and messed up a character is, is by including a scene in which said character fucks a hamster, you need to rethink your life choices.
December 13, 2012
Great descriptions of tradecraft colliding with the world of serial killers, hated the ending.
March 28, 2017
I have begun reading the older books from my collection. Some stand the test of time, others not so much. This book had a very original storyline. However the characters weren't that interesting. The romantic angle seemed pretty forced and distracted. This book was fairly predictable with very little suspense.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews