Chris Berg

Claymore and Page Turner award winning authors Chris Berg and Paul James Smith debuted THE NIGHT POLICE, BEYOND THE LINE OF DUTY in 2020!

Chris Berg was born in the '50s in Gridley, California to a state game warden and his Army nurse, wife. Except for a short stint living in New York City, he's lived most of his life on the left coast. After graduating with his B.S. from San Jose State University he made his way to his true calling. In 1977 Chris became the third generation of his family to sign on as a lawman.

Like most "on the job", he started out pushing a patrol car. Working graveyard suited him just fine, and it was there he joined the ranks of the Night Police. Chris spent time as an evidence technician, long before CSI was a thing. As a detective, his assignments included Vice and Intelligence but it was his posting as an undercover narcotics agent that fit Chris best. He relished the life of hand to hand undercover drug "buys", clandestine lab investigations and the requisite counterfeit persona.

With hundreds of narcotics investigations under his belt, he became a field training officer for up-and-coming undercover detectives. He filled in the career gaps testifying as a court-certified "expert witness" in narcotics and dangerous drug investigations throughout the west.

Chris has chronicled many of his experiences in this book and he still revels in the adventures and friendships that come with being part of the police fraternity.

After Chris' early exit from law enforcement due to injury, things might have gone south for him, but he held on. His successful second career in corporate America, well... it bored him to death.

The saving grace in his new profession was the travel and in truth, it wasn't without its moment's. His business routinely took him to exotic locales, Malaysia, Dubai, Moscow, Australia, San Paulo and Rio, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Tokyo, Uruguay, Taipei and Beijing, to name just a few. As for the continents, he only missed checking off Antartica. Having pages added to his passport became routine.

A rape-homicide investigation in India. A terrifying run for his life in the rioting township of Nyanga, Capetown, South Africa. A ridiculous trip to Argentina to understand Buenos Aires was not burning at all, CNN was literally creating the news they wanted to broadcast.

His business led him to associations with the UK's MI5 and MI6 intelligence services and work with most of America's alphabet agencies. Chris even spent a frigid All Saint's Day in a very eastern European city "drinking well" with a couple of mysterious ex-Stasi operatives. Despite them being "shameless and corrupted."

While it sounds like a hell of a second career, the balance of that life left a lot to be desired for Chris. He maxed out on teleconferences, pivot tables, and budget battles. It was a world that preached HR enlightenment but routinely and repeatedly layed off hundreds of employees for the next "flavor of the month" business initiative. That world was never a fit, not for an ex-Night Policeman.

Although Chris wrote long before becoming a dedicated writer, he jumped in full time after retiring from his "mind-numbing" corporate experience. Lifelong friends and writing partners for nearly a decade, Chris and Paul James Smith craft thrillers inspired by true events. Their diverse backgrounds enrich both their writing and storytelling.

They are Claymore Award winners and Pageturner Award finalists. Together, they write The Night Police novels and currently have three manuscripts in development: Blood Brothers, Twilight at Wolfie's, and Blood in the Water.

Chris and his wife Janet now call Florida home. Chris keeps up with his passions: baseball, fishing, and all things cooking and BBQ, not necessarily in that order.