About the author

Morgan Slade

Morgan Slade in his study, surrounded by bookshelves

Before turning his hand to fiction, Morgan Slade spent nearly thirty years in consulting and auditing, focusing on the integrity of financial reporting. Over his career, he published several successful books directly tied to his professional field. While some might think the world of numbers and balance sheets is a far cry from suspenseful thrillers, digging through mountains of paperwork day in and day out proved to be excellent training. This very experience taught him to spot the tiniest details and trace hidden connections, laying the perfect foundation for crafting hyper-realistic spy thrillers.

The true catalyst that drove Slade to pick up a novelist's pen was Russia's unjust and senseless invasion of Ukraine — a brutal campaign aimed at erasing Ukrainian statehood. Watching the conflict unfold, he focused on the sinister role of Russian private military companies (such as the fictional PMC "Amadeus") and the complex webs of their shadow funding. He conceived the Twelve Words series after realizing how often real-world warfare is driven not just by active combat on the frontlines, but by covert financial flows running deep in the background. The series is his attempt to make this intricate financial machinery of war both comprehensible and chillingly clear to the reader.

The project's structure is striking in its mathematical precision: twelve books, one master blueprint, and a single, unyielding ending. Slade refuses to chase fleeting trends or alter the plot on the fly — the core storyline remains uncompromising, unfolding on the page exactly as it was first laid out in his original working notebook.

Despite his acclaim, Slade remains loyal to his old-school habits. He writes strictly in the quiet, early morning hours, archives his exhaustive research and operational diagrams in physical cardboard folders on his study shelves, and, most importantly, makes it a point of honor to personally answer every reader email, preserving a genuine connection with the community for whom he builds his universe.