Robert J. Mrazek

Robert Jan Mrazek is a former member of the House of Representatives of the United States. He served as a Democratic Party member, representing Long Island’s 3rd Congressional District for the majority of the 1980s. Mrazek was born in Newport, Rhode Island, but spent his formative years in Huntington, New York. He attended Cornell University, graduating in 1967, and subsequently joined the United States Navy.

Mrazek’s political career began in 1983 when he was elected to the 98th United States Congress, defeating the one-term Republican incumbent John LeBoutillier. During his time in Congress, Mrazek was instrumental in co-authoring the law that preserved the Manassas battlefield from commercial development. He also authored the Tongass Timber Reform Act, the Amerasian Homecoming Act, and the National Film Preservation Act of 1988. The latter act established the federal registry in the Library of Congress to safeguard films of cultural significance.

Since his retirement from Congress in 1993, Mrazek has pursued a successful career in literature. He has written ten books, including seven novels and two critically acclaimed non-fiction works. His novels, which include Stonewall's Gold, Unholy Fire, The Deadly Embrace, Valhalla, The Bone Hunters, Dead Man's Bridge, and And the Sparrow Fell, have received significant acclaim. Stonewall's Gold won the Michael Shaara Prize for Civil War fiction in 2000, and The Deadly Embrace was awarded the W.Y. Boyd Prize for Excellence in Military Fiction by the American Library Association in 2007.

Mrazek’s non-fiction works have also been well-received. A Dawn Like Thunder was named Best Book (American History) by the Washington Post, and To Kingdom Come tells the story of a disastrous mission by the US 8th Air Force over Germany in 1943. In addition to his written work, Mrazek wrote and co-directed the feature film The Congressman, which was released in 2016.
Jake Cantrell Mystery Books
# Title Year
1 Dead Man's Bridge 2017
2 The Dark Circle 2022
Lexy Vaughan & Steven Macaulay Books
# Title Year
1 Valhalla 2014
2 The Bone Hunters 2015
Standalone Novels
# Title Year
1 Stonewall's Gold 1998
2 Unholy Fire 2003
3 The Deadly Embrace 2006
4 And the Sparrow Fell 2017
Non-Fiction Books
# Title Year
1 A Dawn Like Thunder 2008
2 To Kingdom Come 2011
3 The Indomitable Florence Finch 2020