Author: Francis Bandettini

Francis Bandettini is a psychiatrist and thriller writer whose medical background informs his fiction. He cowrote American Jackal with Matt Nilsen, launching the Troy Stoker, M.D. sequence. Published in 2014, its plot follows psychiatrist Troy Stoker after a patient’s discovery draws him into a conflict involving political corruption, concealed influence, and a threat to her family. Stoker turns to physician and former military associate Errol Rivera as the investigation widens beyond clinical practice. Bandettini studied molecular biology, completed osteopathic medical training, and served in the United States Army and South Dakota National Guard. Those experiences support the novel’s combination of psychiatry, medicine, technology, and action. He and Nilsen later continued Stoker’s story in Silent Strike. American Jackal is therefore both a medical thriller and the introduction to a recurring professional partnership, using a psychiatrist protagonist to frame questions about judgment, manipulation, loyalty, and the point at which observation must become intervention.