RICK CAMPBELL, a retired Navy Commander, spent more than thirty years in the Navy, serving on four nuclear-powered submarines. On his last submarine, he was one of the two men whose permission is required to launch its nuclear warhead-tipped missiles.Upon retirement from the Navy, Rick was contracted by Macmillan / St. Martin's Press for his novel The Trident Deception, which was hailed by Booklist as "The best submarine novel written in the last thirty years, since Tom Clancy's classic - The Hunt for Red October". His first six books became Barnes & Noble Top-10 and Amazon #1 bestsellers. Rick lives in the Washington, D.C. area and continues to work on new books across the submarine and science-fiction genres.