Paul Hollis is an American author of fictional terrorism and espionage. His bestselling and multi-award winning novels in The Hollow Man Series follow a U.S. Government analyst in a trilogy of suspense across Europe. The first two books in the trilogy are Amazon #1 bestsellers - The Hollow Man (also World's Best Story 2014 winner) and London Bridge is Falling Down. The third novel in the series, Surviving Prague, was released in March 2022.
The inspiration for my storylines comes from a series of true incidents that occurred during the early 1970’s. The Hollow Man traces some of my lesser known exploits traveling in Europe as a young man. To make a long story short, I met a guy in early 1973 who thought I was wasting my time digging latrines in East Africa for the Peace Corp. He had a better offer for me.
At the time, terrorism was on the rise and I was assigned to learn as much as I could about it. I was to gather intelligence on specific people and plans in Europe that might bring terror to our shores here or otherwise go against U.S. worldwide interests. When I collected the information, I was supposed to turn it over to the professionals for final resolution, people who operated outside of U.S. borders. That’s how it was supposed to work. But when you’re young, wild, and untrained, things don’t always go according to plan. Here’s the environment I was working in:
Most early acts of terror were specific, personal and damage was focused on a distinct, definable enemy. But by the early 1970’s / terrorism was beginning to change its strategy to the familiar, senseless chaos we now recognize. The death of political figures no longer seemed to bother us as much as these new, random attacks against our children we see today. Targets of innocence became preferable to politicians because it was this kind of shock and hurt that hit the hearts of us normal human beings. The fear inside us grew larger with each incident.
