About
About Stephen and The Series
Stephen J. Gordon, the author of the Gidon Aronson series, was born and raised in Baltimore. For many years he taught American history and ancient world cultures in a local middle school. His writing credits also include a memoir for Good Housekeeping and television series work for Maryland Public Television.
“I’ve always loved the layers and textures of well-written mysteries. I began writing stories when I was in high school and in college, and then for graduate school went into English and then a writing program. Before my teaching career, I wrote a weekly television series for Maryland Public Television, while working on my own material. I even wrote a spec script, back in the day, for the original Magnum P.I. I went out to L.A, –– and that’s a different story –– but realized that my medium was books, not commercial television writing.”
Impetus For The Series
A number of years ago, my wife and I were driving through Israel around the time of the Second Intifada, and I was upset with all the negative world press that Israel was receiving. I wanted to be a voice to show how great Israel is, so I decided to create a detective-thriller series about an American who moves to Israel to serve in the Israeli army.
The idea is the hero has a love of country. Based on that general concept, I developed the main character’s backstory: Gidon, the protagonist, served in the special forces unit in the IDF, but develops PTSD and has to come back to the States to rebuild his life. That’s the point of entry for the first story. He’s back in the U.S. –– Baltimore, in fact –– and is an emotional wreck. He’s just finding his way back into balance when the first story opens. Overall, and by design, the mysteries always take him back to Israel for the last third of each story.