Hurwitz, now 31 years old, has fond memories of his days growing up in Saratoga, attending Argonaut Elementary School, Redwood Middle School and Bellarmine College Preparatory. He was a pole vaulter at Bellarmine and often thinks back on his days training with Bob Slover at Los Gatos High School. All along, Hurwitz knew he wanted to become a writer.

"I'd wanted to write books, literally since kindergarten," he remembers. He says he still has copies of mystery stories he wrote as a kid for classes in school, some for assignments and some on his own for fun.

After graduating from Bellarmine, Hurwitz went to Harvard University, where he continued pole vaulting and double-majored in English and psychology. He says he chose those two specific majors on purpose, knowing that he wanted to write psychological thrillers, which he is known for today. He started his first novel at age 19. After graduating from Harvard, Hurwitz went on to get his master's degree at Oxford University, in Shakespearean tragedy, even though the degree was not necessarily relevant to his future plans.

"I needed time to finish my novel, and I loved an academic environment, so I rewrote my entire first novel while at Oxford," he explained.

The novel, The Tower, takes place at a fictitious prison in the Bay Area. It tells the story of a giant escape and a psychological profiler who is tracking down a serial killer.

Hurwitz had previously done a summer internship in Hollywood with producer Cary Woods, who worked on such movies as Swingers and Scream and who produced M. Night Shyamalan's first movie. He kept the contact, and when The Tower was finished, Hurwitz sent it to a partner of Woods', who found him an attorney, and then set him up with an agent, who helped him get the book published by Simon & Schuster. Hurwitz followed up The Tower with his second novel, Minutes to Burn, which landed him a deal with publishing powerhouse Harper Collins.

After Minutes to Burn came his third novel, The Kill Clause. This novel introduced his character Tim Rackley, a U.S. marshal and former Special Forces operative. It tells the gruesome story of how Rackley's 7-year-old daughter is kidnapped and murdered. When the killer walks free, Rackley becomes involved in a vigilante effort to find her killer. The book made the bestseller list, and audiences so warmed up to the character of Rackley that he decided to continue to center his stories around him in at least three more novels to come, including his fourth novel, The Program, due to be released this week.

The success of The Kill Clause led to a movie deal for Hurwitz, and no ordinary deal at that—it was picked up by Paramount Studios and legendary producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who was the head of Warner Bros. Studios when it put out such blockbusters as The Matrix and The Perfect Storm. In an even sweeter deal, Hurwitz was given the opportunity to write the studio adaptation of the novel, which few authors get to do. He recently finished the job and turned the script over.

"Everything seems to be going well; we just have to see," said Hurwitz. "The studio is pleased with it, though."

For now, his focus is more centered on the release of his fourth novel, The Program, which hits bookstores on Aug. 31.

For The Program, Hurwitz decided to delve into the inner workings of mind cults, with special attention to their recruitment practices. However, he decided merely reading about them at a library simply wouldn't cut it for him, so he got the details firsthand, by going undercover, actually submitting himself for cult testing and attending cult meetings.

"People tried to recruit me into their cults," he said. This gave him the opportunity to see just what mind cults do to suck people in. He said they often do things like put tons of sugar into drinks to get subjects totally wired, change room temperatures, hold guided meditations and basically exert tremendous amounts of social pressure on potential members.

"They take control of your body, your food, your sugar level, and then totally exhaust you—they alter you and take control of your entire environment," he explained. "They completely break down your individuality." Hurwitz said he also landed himself copies of videotapes of some of the recruiting sessions of the famous Heaven's Gate cult, whose members were reported to believe that the arrival of a particular comet was their passage to another dimension and committed suicide years ago.

The Program tells the story of a powerful Hollywood producer whose stepdaughter is drawn in by a mind cult and disappears. After hearing the story of how main character Tim Rackley dealt with his daughter's murder and her killer, the producer convinces Rackley to help find his daughter and bring down the cult.

These days, Hurwitz says, he is hard at work promoting the new novel.

"Now, I'm really focusing on The Program. I'm doing a book tour, and I'm going to be on the road for a few months," he said in a recent interview, adding that he is happy to be coming through the Bay Area on Sept. 10.

For more information on Gregg Hurwitz, see his website at www.gregghurwitz.com. Hurwitz will hold a booksigning at Barnes & Noble on Stevens Creek Boulevard in San Jose on Sept. 10 at 7:30 p.m.