Ridgewood Author Pens Latest Thriller

Ridgewood author Kendall Smith has published his latest novel.

“Vault 21-12” is about two estranged half brothers. Their father was murdered and their grandfather, a World War II veteran, took a secret to the grave, but a vault in a Swiss bank that hold all the answers about their family’s past.

“The motivation for this story is simply having great respect for great stories that are well told, no matter what the format,” Smith said. “There’s a lot more to the story besides chaos, battles, and victory for the Allies.”

Smith is a World War II buff. In the book, the descendants of Nazis will stop at nothing to possess the vault’s contents for themselves.

“The Nazis were exceptional thieves, and works like ’The Monuments Men’ touch on what was lost during war,” Smith said. “More importantly, much of what was lost is still missing.”

Another element of the book is estranged relationships, something that has always interested Smith.

“One brother is given one piece of information, the other received another part. Unless they work together, they will never find out what is stashed in the vault,” Smith said. “The grandfather forces the brothers to reconcile their differences and collaborate together to access the vault itself.”

Kendall is the author of another thriller, “Double-Edged Justice,” which he self-published in 2004. “Vault 21-12” is available via Amazon.com.