By Derek Thompson

The Selma Times-Journal

Author Ray Ellis came back to his hometown to promote the third book of his murder mystery series Friday at the Selma-Dallas County Public Library.

“Nothing fits like being home,” Ellis said. “I believe there is some great heart here in the south. People love deeply and family means a lot. Those are qualities that I think are worth talking about and you want the world to see.”

His latest book, “Insidious,” is about a police officer that finds himself the subject of a criminal investigation for the first time. With the law enforcement world turned against him, the character has to figure out if his faith in God will be enough to pull him through.

“All these powers that he’s been used to manipulating and using, he’s now having to fight against,” Ellis said. “It’s also about judging, how to understand ourselves and deal with the issues of betrayal and lack of trust.”

The Selma native said he tries to use his experiences as a veteran law enforcement officer, former Marine and ordained Christian pastor to bring his Christian, sci-fi and mystery novels to life.

“I bring the reader in behind my eye and let them experience what it truly feels like,” Ellis said.

“We as police officers see things that many people go through their entire lives never seeing once. Without being gory, I try to get the reader to see what it feels like. I try to get them behind the eyes of my character. There’s a process of learning and growing. It’s a life process, and that’s what I try to capture in my books.”

Ellis currently lives in Idaho and is working on a fourth book to the series that deals with the concept of loss from a police officer’s perspective.

“A lot of the time as a police officer you spend so much time suppressing your feelings and dealing with peoples’ lives,” Ellis said. “Very often you get to see people on their worst days, but you also see them at their absolute best. You see people being heroes and you see people loving in spite of what it cost them.”