D.A. Roll writes espionage thrillers shaped by more than thirty-five years of service in the intelligence and military professions. A retired CIA Operations Officer and Army officer, he served across Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia, and other regions where geopolitics, conflict, and human ambition intersect. Drawing on firsthand experience, his writing explores the hidden world of intelligence operations, the cost of service, and the difficult choices made in the shadows. He is the recipient of the CIA Career Intelligence Medal and the Bronze Star.

Modern espionage rooted in psychological suspense. Think Sicario if it had been written by le Carré, with a healthy dose of Vonnegut-esque humor.

My fiction draws on decades of experience in intelligence and military service, bringing authenticity, nuance, and humanity to the clandestine world. These are stories about loyalty and betrayal, duty and consequence, and the often-blurred line between right and wrong. Gritty, raw, and occasionally terrifying, they explore life in the shadows—the missions people undertake, the secrets they keep, and the ghosts they carry long after the operation is over. Through it all runs the absurd gallows humor that helps people survive in extraordinary circumstances.

Growing up, reading was both an inspiration and an escape—an opportunity to explore a world far beyond our farm and small town in rural Pennsylvania. Authors like Tom Clancy, David Morrell, John le Carré, and Robert Ludlum became guides of a sort. In many ways, they inspired not only the stories I wanted to tell, but the life I hoped to lead.

Life, however, has a way of taking unexpected turns. The path I chose eventually took me around the world in service to my country. I found myself living experiences that were often stranger, more complex, and more morally ambiguous than the fiction I had grown up reading. Along the way, I collected stories, lessons, and more than a few ghosts. During those years, writing fiction remained a distant aspiration, one that had to wait until other obligations were fulfilled.

Today, I have the privilege of returning to the passion that started it all. The experiences, people, triumphs, failures, and hard-earned lessons of those years inevitably find their way into my work.

Now, the first act is over. The next chapters are being written.

Former CIA Officer Breaks Down Source Operations in Afghanistan | Delbert Roll

WRITER - RETIRED CIA - FORMER SOLDIER