Miller, who was born on the Mississippi Delta, brings a lifetime of experience to his work. On his website, www.johnramseymiller.com, he says that he "grew up listening to adults who entertained each other with elaborate tales from their childhoods, of hunting, of daily events from their lives. The Mississippi of my childhood was a place of contradiction, of traditions, strong feelings, complex social relationships, of legends, and of stark contrasts between the haves and didn't haves. It is a land of rolling hills, oceanic cotton fields, swamps and woodland. It is the mother of my imagination, the cradle of my dreams."

After attending classes at both Delta State and Southern Illinois University, Miller spent time as a photographer, an advertising copywriter, a screenwriter, and a photojournalist, and once set up a studio in a narrow hallway of Death Row at Angola and produced a series of formal portraits of the inmates.

His first novel, The Last Family, was published in 1996 to great critical acclaim, and he has been making a living as a writer ever since.

Now, seven books later, Miller reflects on his life as a storyteller.

"I love authoring," he says, "but I'm not really comfortable being an author or maybe by being defined by the stories I tell. I love the fact that I am entertaining people by spinning stories from my imagination, but once I tell the story I have no continuing interest in it. Do I enjoy the process? Yes, but I'm pretty sure it's killing me one paragraph at a time."

But while the process may be maddening, there's no doubt that Miller's work is gold to his readers. A fan of Smoke And Mirrors writes that the author has "created characters that are as real as any I've ever encountered," while another reader, writing about Side By Side, tells us that "Miller hurls the reader along at top speed, careening through more twists and turns than a mountain road..."

Like his previous books, The Last Day promises to be a wild ride, but is also much more than that. As Miller says, "It's a story about love and loyalty tempered by the ultimate loss (their only child) and the forging of a new relationship from the ruins of inner grief and outside danger."

Published by Bantam, The Last Day is available at bookstores everywhere.

Robert Gregory Browne is the author of KISS HER GOODBYE and the upcoming WHISPER IN THE DARK, which received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly.