Pleasant Hill, CA, September 22, 2017 ― The lives of two men, once brothers-in-arms who survived years of brutal torture as POWs, took vastly different paths after they returned home. One, now a SFPD homicide inspector, wants nothing more than to keep his demons from those years buried forever. The other has welcomed back his demons and takes revenge by killing selected war protestors who went to North Vietnam during the war. His rationale? They were "domestic” enemies and the oath he took demanded they be held accountable. The lives of these two former POWs are about to intersect again, and the consequences will be explosive.

In The Oath, author Dennis Koller creates a gripping, stay-up-all-night mystery-thriller that expertly intertwines the compelling stories of two former POWs with a modern-day murder investigation.

The book opens with the cold-blooded murder of a famous San Francisco newspaper columnist. Homicide Inspector Tom McGuire is called to investigate a scene that's unlike any he's seen before. The victim was shot in the head — execution style — and her arms were bound behind her, the rope knotted tightly from shoulder to wrist.

Awash in an eerie chill of recognition, McGuire is transported back in time to the infamous Hanoi Hilton where as a POW he endured rope torture many times, his arms tied in exactly the same fashion.

The medical examiner — already on the scene — explains that the victim was shot and killed before she was tied up. The killer, it seems, is leaving a calling card that only a select and unfortunate few would recognize.

As the killer's identity slowly comes into focus, McGuire is forced to face his own demons and reluctantly pursue a brother-in-arms. Will McGuire remain allegiant to the law or to the oath he shares with the killer?

Born and raised in San Francisco, author Dennis Koller was the Executive Director of the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, a World War II Liberty ship berthed at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.

In 2013, Koller figuratively "jumped ship” to write his first mystery-thriller, Kissed By The Snow, about a secret FBI drug taskforce that devises a plan to finally win America's war on drugs. The book placed fourth in the Ink & Insights national writing contest.

He is also the author of The Custer Conspiracy, published in October 2016, which was named a 2017 Distinguished Favorite in the thriller category by Independent Press Award.

The Oath was recently awarded a Silver Medal from the prestigious Military Writers Society of America. It also won the Independent Press Award for Military Fiction as well as taking the First Place in Fiction award from the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association.

Koller is a member of the Naval Order of the United States, the Navy League of the United States, the Military Writers Society of America, the California Writers Club, the Independent Book Publishers Association, the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association and is on the Board of Directors of the nonprofit Bethlehem Shipyard Museum. Koller holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy and a graduate degree in business administration, both from Saint Mary's College of California. He lives with his wife in the San Francisco Bay Area.