Nicholas Cain is a

private investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

and author of action novels.

Military career

Cain was born and raised in the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. In 1972, despite a relatively high

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...

number of 363, he volunteered for the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

, where he served as a

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

military policeman until 1973. He also served as an MP in

Aurora, Colorado Aurora (, ) is a home rule municipality located in Arapahoe, Adams, and Douglas counties, Colorado, United States. The city's population was 386,261 at the 2020 United States Census with 336,035 residing in Arapahoe County, 47,720 residing in ...

at the

Fitzsimons Army Medical Center Fitzsimons Army Hospital, also known as Fitzsimons General Hospital and renamed Fitzsimons Army Medical Center (FAMC) in 1974, was a U.S. Army facility located on in Aurora, Colorado. The facility opened in 1918 and closed in 1999. The grounds w ...

, then in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

with the 281st MPs at Amphoe Sattahip/Vayama, and in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

with the 110th MPs at

Daejeon Daejeon () is South Korea's fifth-largest metropolis, with a population of 1.5 million as of 2019. Located in the central-west region of South Korea alongside forested hills and the Geum River, the city is known both for its technology an ...

. In 1975, he left with an honorable

military discharge A military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve. Each country's military has different types of discharge. They are generally based on whether the persons completed their training and the ...

and the rank of sergeant. He returned to Colorado where he became a state trooper in north metro Denver and subsequently a city cop in suburban

Thornton, Colorado The City of Thornton is a home rule municipality located in Adams and Weld counties, Colorado, United States. The city population was 141,867, all in Adams County, at the 2020 United States Census, an increase of +19.44% since the 2010 United ...

. During his ten years as a police officer, he worked a variety of assignments, yet none stayed with him as much as his

tour of duty For military personnel, a tour of duty is usually a period of time spent in combat or in a hostile environment. In an army, for instance, soldiers on active duty serve 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the length of their service commitment. ...

in Vietnam.

Books

Cain's experiences in Vietnam inspired him to write a non-fiction manuscript entitled ''Saigon Alley''. After nearly every publisher in New York City rejected the proposed book,

Zebra Books Zebra Books is an imprint of American publisher Kensington Publishing Corp. As the company's flagship imprint until the late 80s, it currently publishes women's fiction, romantic suspense and bestselling historical, paranormal and contemporary ro ...

' Michael Seidman (coincidentally also an ex-MP) offered Cain a four-book contract, but only if he would fictionalize his manuscript and increase the sex and violence. This ultimately became the

cult classic A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

''Saigon Commandos'' series, which, beginning in 1983, ran to 12 books. Book 9 of this series was made into a film, called ''Saigon Commandos'

by

Roger Corman Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...

's Concorde Studios. Cain went on to write the ''War Dogs'' series for Zebra, using the pseudonym Nik Uhernik. He then wrote the first eight books in Ballantine Books' ''Chopper-1'' series, under the pseudonym Jack Hawkins. He also penned three books in the

Able Team Able Team is a series of action-adventure novels first published in 1982 by American Gold Eagle publishers. It is a spin-off of the ''Executioner'' series created by Don Pendleton. There were 51 novels in the ''Able Team'' series, plus 2 ''Supe ...

series, which was a spin-off of the immensely popular

Mack Bolan Mack Bolan, alias '' The Executioner'', is a fictional character who has been serialized in 631 novels with sales of more than 200 million books. Created by Don Pendleton, Bolan made his first appearance on the printed page in ''The Execution ...

Exceutioner novels. He wrote the final installment in the ''Vietnam Ground Zero'' series, (published as ''Zebra Cube'' in the ''Heroes'' trilogy), using the pseudonym Robert Baxter. then created and wrote the six-book series ''Little Saigon'' (only four books of which were published by Lynx Books of New York before Lynx folded).

Private investigator

After writing over 30 books, Cain pulled the plug on his word processor in 1990 and became a

in Los Angeles. He began teaching th
Learning Annex's
Course #523: ''How To Get Anything on Anybody'' in the mid-1990s, and wrote two investigative manuals to go along with it: ''Trick Questions (And Other Trade Secrets of an L.A. County P.I.)'' and ''So You Wanna Be A Private Eye''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cain, Nicholas Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Writers from Colorado American thriller writers 20th-century American novelists United States Army soldiers United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War American police officers American male novelists 20th-century American male writers