Rick Ward 1953

Major Works

• The Lawmaker 2009
• Bloodstained Justice 2009
• Blood for Molasses: A Mississippi Massacre (to be published)
  
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  Photo right: Rick Ward by Nancy Jacobs

Rick Ward: A Biography

Rick Ward was born in Tunica County, Mississippi, on August 1, 1953, in a small community called Hollywood near the town of Tunica. Ward earned an Associate degree in law enforcement from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, a B.S. in criminal justice from the University of the State of New York, and a Master’s in education from the University of Hawaii. He is a graduate of the Mississippi State Police Academy, the U.S. Army Military Police School, and the FBI National Academy. Currently Ward lives in Brandon, Mississippi. He is now a retired law enforcement officer and Gaming Commission division director who in his first book The Lawmaker "plays off that image of out-of-control legislators and unscrupulous lobbyists to spin a wickedly entertaining fictional tale of public corruption." The setting includes the Mississippi casino industry and an undercover federal sting operation.

Serving active duty in the Navy until June 1975, he then entered the Law Enforcement Program at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. After serving an internship at Moss Point Police Department, he became a patrolman in Moss Point. In October 1975, as a passenger in a police pursuit that resulted in one death, Ward was hospitalized with serious injuries. A year later, he was shot in the line of duty. For the next thirty-four years he remained in the Navy reserves, while completing fourteen years in law enforcement in Mississippi and twenty years in the Navy Law Enforcement Program. Rick Ward has been a patrol officer, state narcotics officer, sheriff's investigator, Attorney General Public Integrity Division investigator and a State Gaming Commission division director.

The Lawmaker, published in 2009, was reviewed very favorably by Sid Salter, Perspective Editor of Jackson's the Clarion-Ledger. Salter says, "Ward's tale of corrupt lawmakers is compelling." Using real-life events, Ward embellishes them with fictitious scenarios that he believes will be enjoyed by readers who are interested in legal thrillers, crime, and politics told from the perspective of a seasoned, retired senior law enforcement officer. The Lawmaker's protagonist is Oxford attorney and freshman state legislator Wayne Lott, the son of a lawman who is gravely wounded in a mob-style hit while he is investigating the state's gaming industry. In the book, a lobbyist blackmails Wayne Lott.

According to Rick Ward, his next book (not yet published) takes The Lawmaker's young lawyer Wayne Lott to new heights of maturity and real world corruption, multi-national drug dealing, kidnapping and murder. The prime suspect is someone he holds in the highest esteem.

Ward is also working on another project-- the 1866 massacre in Carroll County, Mississippi. He is researching what happened, but his book will be fiction.

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