Marysville resident Gerald Crisman has converted his wartime experiences into two autobiographical novels, and his fertile imagination has created a third book about a private detective. Crisman will be at Wit's End Bookstore, in the Safeway shopping center at Grove Street and State Avenue, on Friday, Sept. 24, beginning at 7 p.m.

"Two and a Half Missions, Max" is based on the WWII exploits of Navy pilot Gordon Congdon. The second book, a sequel to the first, "Naïve in the Bush," follows Congdon as he is recalled to service during the Korean War and eventually becomes an Alaskan bush pilot and gold miner.

Crisman's latest book, "So Long, You're Dead," is a detective story that takes the heroes to Jamaica for adventure on the high seas.

A native northwesterner, Crisman was born in Seattle just before the Depression, and joined the Navy the day he turned seventeen. Father of four children who, he claimed, "have never been in jail and own their own homes," Crisman spent 36 years in law enforcement, ending as a federal marshal in Alaska.

Crisman is also credited as a major influence in the development of hovercraft technology and has spent 45 years in research and development of the craft.