MITCHELL, Kirk (John)

(1950-)

   US writer and former police officer who began writing sf with an ALTERNATE-WORLD trilogy - Procurator (1984), New Barbarians (1986) and Cry Republic (1989) - based on the premise that Rome did not fall and that the world of 2000CE reflects a mixture of Roman modes and richly conceived technologies. KM's best single novel is probably Never the Twain (1987), a TIME-TRAVEL tale in which a descendant of the US writer Bret Harte(1836-1902) goes back to Civil War Nevada with a copy of Mark TWAIN's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884 UK) and attempts to persuade Harte to put his name to the tale, and so make his eventual heir rich. The ensuing complications are superficially comic, but an intriguingly human and detailed portrayal of the main characters, and of 19th-century Nevada, slowly emerges.

   JC

   Other works: Anno Domini (1985); Lethal Wagon * (1987) as by Joel Norst, a film tie; Black Dragon (1988).

   See also: TIME PARADOXES.