David E. Knop is a retired Marine officer with twenty years of service. He saw two tours in Vietnam as an artillery forward observer and naval gunfire support officer. As a staff officer, he wrote and edited numerous military operations plans. Dave also authored feature articles for the Field Artillery Journal and Marine Corps Gazette. In civilian life, Dave became a technical writer and produced many electronic and automotive manuals for industry leaders. An alumnus of Book Passage Mystery Writer’s workshops, Taos Institute of the Arts, Maui Writer’s Retreats. Dave is a lifelong student of Native American mythology.

Dave’s first novel, The Smoked Mirror, a supernatural thriller featuring former Marine, Cochiti Pueblo police officer Peter Romero, placed honorable mention in both the Maryland Writers' Association and Reading Writers contests. The manuscript also qualified top ten in the Wahmpreneur Books Fiction contest. Dave’s second mystery, Mining Sacred Ground, brought the role of spirit warrior to the subgenre of Native American detectives and became a semi-finalist in a recent Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Contest. The thriller placed top ten in the Killer Nashville contest. Dave’s third novel, Poisoned by God’s Flesh was awarded a bronze medal by the Military Writers Society of America. A fourth novel, Animal Parts, received honorable mention at the Public Safety Writers Association.