Keith Thomson played semi-pro baseball in France and drew editorial cartoons for New York Newsday before becoming a writer. His novels include the New York Times Best-Selling Once a Spy and 7 Grams of Lead. His nonfiction chronicle of Sir Walter Raleigh’s search for El Dorado, Paradise of the Damned, will be published by Little, Brown on May 21, 2024. He and his family live in Alabama and recently got a new chair.