About the author
Michael Balter is the award-winning author of the Marty & Bo crime thriller series, including Chasing Money and The Vatican Deal.
His novels are fast-paced, character-driven stories that place ordinary people in extraordinary danger—where bad decisions have real consequences and survival is never guaranteed.
Drawing on a life shaped by postwar Berlin, military service, Silicon Valley, entrepreneurship, and the art world, Balter brings authenticity, dark humor, and lived experience to modern crime fiction.
What I Write — and Why
I write crime thrillers about ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary danger.
Unlike many thrillers, my heroes are not police officers, CIA operatives, former Green Berets, or professionals trained to deal with violence. Marty Schott and Bo Bishop are business partners and friends—two regular guys trying to keep their struggling startup alive when they are suddenly pulled into situations far beyond anything they’ve prepared for.
They react the way most of us would: with fear, improvisation, stubborn loyalty to each other, and the occasional bad decision. I want readers to recognize them as people they might know—or even see themselves in. When I’m writing, I often imagine how I would react in those circumstances, and I think readers enjoy experiencing danger from that more relatable point of view.
My Writing Journey
My debut novel, Chasing Money, is set in the early 2000s, a time when I was a struggling entrepreneur myself. The story follows Marty and Bo as they’re targeted by a Russian killer demanding ten million dollars and a missing painting tied to a decades-old art mystery. I originally wrote the book as a standalone novel, but a final twist pushed the characters into deeper trouble and opened the door to a series.
When I began plotting the second book, The Vatican Deal, I turned to another chapter of my own life. In 2004, I was a partner in an art company that bid on the historic Chiurazzi Foundry in Italy and successfully negotiated a licensing agreement with the Vatican. My time in Rome and Naples—working with artists, dealers, and powerful institutions—provided the foundation for the story and much of its setting.
Dead Exit, the third book in the Marty & Bo series is scheduled for release in July and continues the story as past decisions catch up with the characters in new and dangerous ways.
If you’d like to learn more about my writing journey, check out my blog, A Thriller Writer’s Journal. There, I share stories about the first words I wrote for my debut novel, the challenges of plotting and narrative, the long road to publication, and how I’ve grown as an author along the way.
Why These Stories Are Personal
Some of my fascination with danger, risk, and moral choice comes directly from my own life.
I was born in Berlin and spent my early years in a city still marked by World War II. The building we lived in bore visible damage from the fighting, and when the Berlin Wall went up, my family left—first for Canada, and then for the United States. We arrived in Detroit in 1967, during the height of the rebellion, with tanks moving through the streets. Instability and uncertainty weren’t abstract ideas; they were part of the world I grew up in.
As a young man, I served in the military during the Vietnam War, working as an air traffic controller in Thailand. It was a job where decisions had to be made quickly and correctly, and where the consequences of mistakes were immediate and real.
After college, I worked at Intel in the early days of Silicon Valley before becoming an entrepreneur. Those experiences—corporate pressure, financial risk, and the constant threat of failure—shaped how I think about ambition and accountability.
When I write about fear, improvisation, and the cost of getting things wrong, I’m not imagining how a trained professional might respond. I’m drawing on situations I’ve lived—or ones I know I could realistically face.
Media, Podcasts & Interviews
Michael regularly appears on podcasts and radio shows to discuss crime fiction, storytelling, and the real-life experiences behind his novels.
The Vatican Deal – on NBC’s House of Mystery
Michael explains the dynamics between his two heroes, Marty and Bo, and the backstory behind The Vatican Deal in this in-depth interview with hosts Al Warren and Michael Hawley on their popular radio show/podcast. Recorded May 14, 2025
The Vatican Deal launches on The Ron Jolly Show
On May 15, 2025, Michael spoke live to host Ron Jolly of WTCM NewsTalk 580 AM Radio about his new book, The Vatican Deal, launching that day, and the events in Italy that inspired it.
Stacking Benjamins
Host Joe Saul-Sehy interviewed Michael about his experience as an entrepreneur and how he wrote his award-winning novel Chasing Money in this funny and informative financial podcast, aired April 15, 2024.
Tualatin Valley Community Television
Watch Michael’s author talk at the Lake Oswego Library, recorded on March 19, 2024 by MACC TVCTV.
NBC’s House of Mystery
Michael had an in-depth interview with Allen Warren and David North-Martino on their popular radio show/podcast on October 25, 2023.
An Interview with Michael
In September 2023, Ron Jolly of WTCM had a 15-minute discussion with Michael on his morning show on NewsTalk 580 AM about his book, Chasing Money, and the events that inspired it.
Storyteller | Entrepreneur | Novelist
Michael Balter – Bio
Michael Balter is an award-winning author whose debut novel, Chasing Money, was selected as the top crime thriller of 2023 by the Best Indie Book Awards. He is a talented and witty storyteller who has captivated audiences large and small with tales from an extraordinary life.
Born in Berlin, he grew up in a bombed-out building with bars on the windows and bullet holes in the walls. When the Berlin Wall went up, his family fled to Ottawa, Canada where he learned to speak English, and was tormented as the little Nazi boy.
His family moved to Detroit at the height of the 1967 riots, with fires burning and tanks in the streets. During the Vietnam War, Michael volunteered for the Air Force and was an air traffic controller at Udorn, Thailand, at that time the busiest air base in the world. For his service, he received his U.S. citizenship.
As a soon-to-be aeronautical engineering graduate, he parlayed his stories about the war into a job offer from Intel Corporation, entering Silicon Valley on the ground floor and building a successful career in sales and marketing.
In 1998, Michael was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and joined a voice recognition startup that was only weeks away from an IPO when they ran out of cash. Over the next 20 years, he became a serial entrepreneur, helping to create and launch new business ventures ranging from a toolbox company to a renaissance art firm.
The pressure to raise money for these start-up ventures was so intense that Michael once joked that even if someone tried to murder him he would ask him to invest first. That was the genesis of the story of Chasing Money, Michael’s debut novel, a fast-paced thriller that pits two business partners against a vicious Russian killer seeking $10 million and a missing painting.
After retiring, Michael began working seriously on his novel in 2019, building on his experience in the art world and as an entrepreneur and honing his craft as a writer. The book was published in August, 2023, and has garnered praise from reviewers, fellow authors and readers alike. His second novel, The Vatican Deal, was published on May 15, 2025. It is inspired by Michael’s real-life experiences working with the Vatican in the early 2000s.
Michael lived in Portland, Oregon for many years and now makes his home in Charlevoix, Michigan. He is hard at work on the third book in the Marty and Bo thriller series.
Contact Michael
Michael welcomes inquiries from thriller fans, podcast hosts, booksellers, eager readers, and other friends.