Skip to main content

Ray Palen

Biography

Ray Palen


Ray Palen is an award-winning actor, drama teacher, and former executive producer/director for 15+ years of a highly successful regional theatre group that is still based on Long Island. Additionally, he is a published playwright with several short plays being registered with the Writers Guild of America. One of his short plays that featured his fictional hero, Sherlock Holmes, won first prize in a Holmes short play contest.

Ray's go-to pastime, however, has been reading. He has been an avid reader and writer throughout his life --- reading at least three books per week for as long as he can remember (a love of reading and lifelong insomnia being the dual cause of this). His book collection numbers in the thousands, and he prides himself on his rare and signed first editions. Ray has been reviewing books, movies and theatre for decades with several online and print publications.

In 2015, Ray relocated from the New York City area, where he lived his entire life, to Central Florida for a job opportunity with Walt Disney World. He also satisfied his burning itch to act again when he starred as the psychopath Harry Roat Jr. in a production of Terrence Knott's "Wait Until Dark," which was performed at Walt Disney World's Contemporary Resort. Recently, Ray has been acting at a popular theatre in Central Florida where he had starring roles in both "And Then There Were None" by Dame Agatha Christie and "Dial 'M' for Murder" by Terrence Knott. Ironically, he was cast in both plays as the villain --- which he plays off as both preferring more complex, villainous roles and relishing the opportunity to show off his native British accent! Currently he works as a Customer Operations Supervisor for the sports-tech entertainment company FanDuel.

His greatest personal production to date is his beautiful daughter, Anna, who is now seven and loves growing up in the shadow of Cinderella Castle. She already has a fond appreciation for books and reading! Ray resides just 20 minutes outside of Walt Disney World in Clermont, FL, with his wife Debbie, his little Princess Anna, and three cats (Mickey, Rory and Lorelei). There is a very good possibility that he is probably reading a novel right now. Cheers!

Ray Palen

Reviews by Ray Palen

by Clay McLeod Chapman - Fiction, Horror, Supernatural Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

At 66 years old, Winston Kemper has always been a nonentity. No one notices him. His simple existence barely registers for those who come into contact with him. Winston is a collector of voices, and his magnum opus --- The Butterfly Girls --- is a sprawling epic of untapped imagination. It has no single canvas, no particular frame. It is everywhere: scribbled on the walls, the floor and countless notebooks. Winston is creating a fantasia that exists in words, images and blood. As part of his “art,” he has been murdering forgotten women. Poor souls who slip through the cracks of society, who no one is looking for. Winston takes their lives, their voices. But now he can hear them. They whisper to him. They talk of revenge. Winston might not believe in ghosts, but he is about to learn they are very real. And they are very, very angry.

by Dawn Kurtagich - Fiction, Horror, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

After the tragic death of their parents, the seven Ward sisters are sent to live with their grandmother on the remote forest island of Beltane, a place suspended between time and shadow. What begins as an attempt to mend their fractured lives soon twists into a waking nightmare, where grief bleeds into childhood fantasy and ancient rites awaken a dark and eerie devotion to Daudir, the Forgotten God of the Wood. When another cruel tragedy strikes, the sisters are left to fend for themselves. The fragile world they’ve carved splinters beneath the weight of isolation, and the forest around them grows restless. Years later, a cryptic letter summons the surviving sisters home. Drawn back into the wild embrace of their dangerous faith, they confront a truth more terrible than memory, and the dreadful secret that waits in the depths of the all-seeing trees.

by David Baldacci - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Walter Nash is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him. With long, rigorous training under his belt, the gentle and sensitive Nash has transformed into a physically imposing man with lethal skills. And now he has only one goal left in life: taking down Victoria Steers. In order to succeed, Nash is going to need to cross enemy lines and work the job from the inside. But he must rely on every ounce of his hard-earned skills to prove himself an ally to Steers if he’s ever going to get close enough to decimate her criminal empire. Still, Nash finds himself oddly drawn to Steers in ways that he never could’ve imagined. And what he ultimately discovers will turn all he believed upside down, forcing him to do something truly unfathomable.

by Wendy Corsi Staub - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Detective Sergeant Midge Kennedy and her lifelong pals, Talia and Kelly, have reunited on the 25th anniversary of the disappearance of their friend, Caroline. But as the season draws to a close in Mulberry Bay, Midge is plunged into a missing person case with unsettling ties to the past. Ordinarily, she wouldn’t suspect foul play when a 16-year-old girl is just a few hours late getting home. But her investigation yields a shocking glimpse of a familiar face, and mounting coincidences link Sarah Greene’s vanishing to Caroline’s. The clues lead to Haven Cliff, an abandoned Gilded Age estate that’s been the stuff of cursed legend for generations. It’s also Kelly’s new home. Midge suspects that the wooded grounds hold the key to Sarah’s fate and Caroline’s. But will Haven Cliff --- and Midge herself --- give up long-buried secrets?

by Keigo Higashino - Fiction, Mystery

Homicide Detective Godai of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is assigned to investigate the death of a lawyer, Kensuke Shiraishi, whose body was found on a Central Tokyo riverbank. His investigations lead him to one Tatsuro Kuraki, who claims to have had limited contact with Shiraishi. But, surprising the investigators, Kuraki confesses not only to the lawyer's murder, but to another one from 30 years ago --- for which another man was arrested and died in custody before trial. This brings unexpected resolution to two cases, but there is one problem: to Detective Godai, the confession rings false. As Godai investigates further, he discovers that the relation between the murder of 30 years ago and the recent one is complex, raising multifaceted questions of guilt and innocence.

by Matt Query and Harrison Query - Fiction, Horror, Supernatural Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Clark Rickert was once the most prolific big game poacher throughout the Rocky Mountain west, but when he lost his wife and son, he turned away from hunting. Now a game warden working for the very law enforcement officers who once pursued him so aggressively, Clark is overwhelmingly successful at his job. So when there’s a string of disappearances in rural Montana, Clark is selected to join a task force on an operation targeting a mysterious, violent cult in the area. As he works to uncover the truth, Clark begins to be plagued by visions and starts to realize that there is a deeper purpose to his assignment. The cult might be up to something far more terrifying than anyone could have guessed.

by Erica Wright - Fiction, Mystery

Rational and cynical Aly Orlean’s life in her psychic hometown of Wyndale, Florida, couldn’t be more hectic. It’s all about running her business, raising a teenage sister, sending out holiday greetings --- and her new task: finding a killer. For her Museum of Unusual Occurrence not only houses odd curiosities but now has a brand-new display: the body of Rose Dempsey, a local 20-year-old, set up in one of the exhibits as if she has been ritually sacrificed. With the police clueless, Aly is worried that this is a vicious warning for her and her solitary way of life. Fearing for her sister Merope’s well-being, she’s determined to find out why the killer murdered Rose and how her body was placed in Aly’s museum. But might the killer be someone hiding in plain sight?

by Leila Siddiqui - Fiction, Gothic, Horror

Summer 1816: London is a hostile place for the newly disembarked Mehrunissa Begum, who’s come to deliver her brother’s letter of inheritance before returning to her comfortable life in Lucknow, India. But she can’t find her brother anywhere and has no money for the return trip. With nowhere else to go, Mehr finds refuge in a boardinghouse for Indian maids. She is soon hired at the English estate of Mary and Percy Shelley. Mary asks Mehr to accompany the Shelleys and her stepsister, Claire --- as well as the eccentric Lord Byron and his physician, John Polidori --- to Lake Geneva for the summer. Almost immediately, she notices strange, ghostly events at the villa. As Mary begins work on what will become her earth-shattering literary phenomenon, Mehr finds herself trapped in the villa as the rest of its inhabitants descend into madness.

by T. Kingfisher - Fiction, Gothic, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Horror, Supernatural Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Sonia Wilson is a talented scientific illustrator, but she is only able to follow her dream because of her father’s reputation as a renowned scientist. Such is the lot in life for a woman in science in 1899. And after his death, she is left without work, prospects or hope. So when the reclusive Dr. Halder offers her a position illustrating his vast collection of insects, Sonia jumps at the chance to move to his North Carolina manor house. Once there, though, she encounters dark happenings in the Carolina woods, and even darker questions come to light. What happened to her predecessor? Why are animals acting so strangely, and what is behind the peculiar local whispers about “blood thieves”? With the aid of the housekeeper and a local healer, Sonia discovers that Halder’s entomological studies have taken him down a twisted road.

by Steve Cavanagh - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Social media influencer Elly Parker had the perfect life --- that is until she discovered her husband had been having an affair with her best friend. But as hurt, betrayed and unmoored as Elly is, she has made it her mission to help others in need. When Elly meets a man on the steps to the subway platform, crutches in one hand and a yellow suitcase by his feet, she can’t help but feel sorry for him. This small act of kindness sets off a chain of events more terrifying than anything she ever could imagine. To survive, Elly will need to convince the world that what happened to her was real. She needs a lawyer who can bend the rules to find the truth. Eddie Flynn and his team must find the stranger with the yellow suitcase. But little do they know this cunning killer is a master manipulator and is always one step ahead.