Neely Tucker draws heavily on his two decades reporting on crime and armed conflict from around the globe to create Sully Carter and his complicated moral compass in "The Ways of The Dead." Pre-publication (June 2014), the book has already been sold in France, the U.K. and Poland,and has received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist. Tucker was born in Lexington, Miss., one of the poorest places in America, in 1963. He worked for newspapers in Miami and Detroit before taking postings in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Filing stories from more than 60 countries, he frequently covered war and violent conflict.When he returned to D.C. in 2000 to work for The Washington Post, he covered criminal courts and the fates of former prison inmates. Elmore Leonard, a friend in Detroit, used him as the basis and namesake for a foreign correspondent in "Cuba Libre."Tucker, now 50, is a staff writer for the Post's Sunday Magazine. His memoir, "Love in the Driest Season," was named one of the Top 25 Books of 2004 by Publishers Weekly. It has been published in the U.K., Germany, Australia and Brazil. It has twice been optioned for film development in Los Angeles.He lives just outside D.C. with his wife, Carol,their three children and one very large Rottweiler. Who is, of course, named Sully.