Congratulations Nelson DeMille! His latest book, The Cuban Affair, just debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list. The Cuban Affair tells the story – as only DeMille can – of a covert mission to Cuba to retrieve $60 million that had been hidden there by a banker just before he fled Castro’s revolution. The book, with an average Amazon review of 4.2 out of 5 -- that’s very high as these things go -- is in the can’t put it down category.

As a long, long time Nelson DeMille fan, it was a great pleasure to interview him for Coverage Opinions a couple of years back. DeMille is not a lawyer, but there was an insurance angle. He wrote a short story called Death Benefits, where a life insurance policy plays a pivotal part. It is one of my favorite interviews. [Speaking of interviews, DeMille was just the subject of the Weekend Interview in The Wall Street Journal.]

During the phone interview DeMille shared with me – to my shock and delight -- that he was an adjuster for Liberty Mutual in the early 1970s, handling first-party homeowners and third-party claims, such as auto. In addition, his work included some insurance fraud investigating. That experience, he explained, gave him a desire to write a novel with insurance fraud as the background. But it never happened -- he couldn’t sell a publisher on the idea.

Well, as the old saying goes, once insurance gets in your blood, it’s there forever. [Actually, I just made that up. So it’s really a new saying, but maybe it’ll stick.] Nelson DeMille, the one-time insurance adjuster, was kind enough to review General Liability Insurance Coverage – Key Issues In Every State. He probably keeps the book on his desk as inspiration for his best-selling thrillers.