Mr Rick H Drew

I spent my career in Florida law enforcement, where the reports were supposed to stick to the facts. Writing was never my strong suit. Early on, while still on probation, my sergeant pulled me aside with a blunt warning: if my reports didn't improve, I might not survive my probationary period.

Fast forward to 1984. In the immediate aftermath of the homicide that would one day inspire Is He Dead?, I found myself at a bachelor party, still processing what I'd seen, telling the story to a small gathering of guests. Among them, unbeknownst to me, was a well-known author. He listened quietly for a moment, then interrupted.

"Are you going to write a book about this?"

I laughed. "I can't write a book. I have trouble getting my police reports approved."

He didn't laugh back. If a book felt too ambitious, he said, I should at least write a screenplay. It was good advice, advice I promptly didn't take.

Nearly two decades passed. In 2002, I stumbled across my copy of the murder book buried in my belongings, and something shifted. I finally put pen to paper. Is He Dead? was published in 2014 and re-released in 2026. It tells the true story of a murder committed by two children who, after years of abuse at the hands of their father and years of neglect at the hands of society, finally decided to take justice into their own hands. Reliving that investigation sent shivers down my spine, even after all that time.

My second book, Behind Every Badge Is a Beating Heart, is a tribute to Kissimmee Police Officer Bart Bartholomew, who was killed in the line of duty on July 18, 1983. It is the story behind the badge, the human cost the headlines never carry.

I write true crime and memoir the way I lived it, plain and honest, from the inside. If that's the kind of story you're after, follow me here on Amazon and I'll let you know what comes next.