Howard Rahtz

After a nearly 20 year career working in the addictions field, at age 42, Howard became a Cincinnati Police Officer. His writing history began with his assignment as a Sergeant supervising the Community Policing Unit. In researching the area of Community Oriented Policing, he was surprised to see none of the writing had been done by actual police officers. This finding inspired his first book, Community Policing: A Handbook for Beat Officers and Supervisors.

During his police career, Howard served as a Police Academy Commander, Hostage Negotiator, and Commander of the Central Vice Control Unit. His experience has served as the bedrock of his writing, including Race, Riots and The Police, which won an Indie Books award in 2016.

The Spark is his first fiction work. The story follows the efforts of the Cincinnati Police and the FBI to thwart a terror attack by white supremacists. As the story evolves, it touches on the major issues afflicting our society -- the divide between police and the black community; the growing white supremacist movement; and the political fracturing of the American public.

The book finishes with a disturbing but hopeful climax.

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