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Don Westenhaver

Goodreads author profile

url

http://www.goodreads.com/DonWestenhaver

born

April 07, 1944 in Long Beach, CA, The United States

gender

male

website

http://www.donwestenhaver.com

genre

Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers

member since

April 2010

About this author

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As a boy, I wanted to be a Catholic priest, but then left the seminary because I didn’t want someone else controlling my life. Making the same mistake a second time, I then joined the Marine Corps. The Marines trained me to be a Vietnamese interpreter, but then assigned me to be a platoon radioman near the DMZ. Returning home in one piece, I became a finance executive in the oil industry, traveling frequently to Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa. My military and oil business experiences inspired me to write my first novel, an international thriller titled The Whiplash Hypothesis.

My next job was as a finance director for a Japanese auto company, where I gained more inside knowledge of international business. During the 1990s, I became...more
As a boy, I wanted to be a Catholic priest, but then left the seminary because I didn’t want someone else controlling my life. Making the same mistake a second time, I then joined the Marine Corps. The Marines trained me to be a Vietnamese interpreter, but then assigned me to be a platoon radioman near the DMZ. Returning home in one piece, I became a finance executive in the oil industry, traveling frequently to Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa. My military and oil business experiences inspired me to write my first novel, an international thriller titled The Whiplash Hypothesis.

My next job was as a finance director for a Japanese auto company, where I gained more inside knowledge of international business. During the 1990s, I became fascinated by the Asian Tigers, a group of former Third World countries such as South Korea that were emerging into First World status. Inhabitants of very poor nations were suddenly enjoying huge improvements in their standard of living. I speculated that a relatively small amount of money could propel Vietnam onto the same growth track, because its culture prizes education and hard work. It only required an intelligent plan encouraged by a Communist minister who was secretly a capitalist. The result of this was my second international thriller, The Red Turtle Project.

During a vacation in Italy I loved the ruins of Pompeii, which display in such vivid detail the lives of ordinary people 2,000 years ago. The Romans were like us in many ways, and they took for granted advances in technology that would soon be lost to mankind for a thousand years. I studied ancient Rome for the next four years and created characters and a plot that begins with the Great Fire of Rome. Emperor Nero, usually portrayed as a psychotic monster, actually began his reign as an enlightened teenager guided by moral principles. The plot of Nero’s Concert illustrates Nero’s descent into madness as told by his best friend. The backdrop is the Fire, the search for who caused it, and the collision of the new Christian religion with Roman culture.

I have been married to my wife Ellie for almost 40 years. We live in Southern California and have two grown daughters and two grandchildren. We recently retired and spend our time traveling, assisting four different charities, golfing, and of course playing with the grandkids. I have finished my fourth novel and am a member of the Southern California Writers Association and the Military Writers Society of America.
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Books by Don Westenhaver

Average rating: 4.40 · 5 ratings · 4 reviews · 3 distinct works

	The Whiplash Hypothesis 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	My rating:
	Nero's Concert 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2008 — 4 editions	My rating:
	The Red Turtle Project 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	My rating:

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

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Don's Recent Updates

Don Westenhaver gave to: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand read in May, 2012	My rating:
May 28, 2012 04:30pm
Don Westenhaver marked as to-read: The Summons by John Grisham (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
May 10, 2012 04:53pm
Don Westenhaver marked as to-read: Edge by Jeffery Deaver (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
May 10, 2012 04:52pm
Don Westenhaver marked as to-read: Hondo by Louis L'Amour	My rating:
May 10, 2012 04:50pm
Don Westenhaver marked as to-read: Sugar Skull by Denise Hamilton (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
May 10, 2012 04:49pm
Don Westenhaver gave to: Downsized by Ed McNeill read in May, 2012	My rating:
May 10, 2012 04:48pm
Don Westenhaver gave to: Dark Horse by Fletcher Knebel read in May, 2012	My rating:
May 10, 2012 04:44pm
Don Westenhaver gave to: Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right: How One Side Lost Its Mind and the Other Lost Its Nerve by Bernard Goldberg read in May, 2012	My rating:
May 03, 2012 05:53pm
Don Westenhaver gave to: Crazies to the Left of Me Wimps to the Right by Bernard Goldberg read in May, 2012	My rating:
May 03, 2012 05:52pm
Don Westenhaver gave to: Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan read in April, 2012	My rating:
"A fascinating and funny tale of misadventure in Myanmar" I don't normally read Amy Tan's books because I love thrillers and she typically writes about relationships between mothers and daughters. But the plot of this book intrigued me and I read it f...more
Apr 23, 2012 04:37pm · see review