Michael Balter is an award-winning author and natural storyteller whose debut novel, Chasing Money, won multiple accolades, including the 2023 Best Indie Book Award for Crime Thrillers, the 2024 Feathered Quill Award for Best Mystery/Thriller/Suspense novel, and the 2024 Crime Thriller of the Year from BestThrillers.com. Born in post-war Berlin, Michael grew up in a bombed-out building with bars on the windows and bullet holes in the walls. When the Berlin wall went up, his family fled to Ottawa and then moved to Detroit at the height of the 1967 riots. During the Vietnam War, Michael served as an air traffic controller at the Udorn Air Force base in Thailand. After graduating college with an aerospace engineering degree, Michael joined Intel Corporation, entering Silicon Valley on the ground floor, and built a successful career in sales and marketing. In 1998, Michael was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and joined a voice recognition startup. Over the next 20 years, he became a serial entrepreneur, helping to create and launch new businesses in Oregon, ranging from a renaissance art company to a private equity firm. One of Michael's business partners was kidnapped by a Russian mobster, which inspired a portion of the plot of Chasing Money. His second book, The Vatican Deal, springs from his adventures in Italy in 2005, where he licensed the Vatican Seal for his art company. Michael now lives in Charlevoix, Michigan, and is writing his next Marty and Bo thriller. Learn more at mbalter.com