Author Bio

Sheldon M. Brown is a 41-year-old who has spent a considerable amount of years in the underworld of the Cayman Islands. He is the eldest son of Edith Virginia Goring and Charles Brown and grandson of the late Charles Joseph Henry Goring who migrated to the Cayman Islands in in the early 1900s from his native Barbados.

Prior to his current incarceration, Sheldon was working as a music promoter in the Cayman islands. Now reformed, Mr. Brown has completed a paralegal certification and has received a diploma in hotel and restaurant management. He intends to pursue a course in criminal justice and aspires to work with at risk youth upon his release.

Sheldon has been married to his wife, Najah, for 7 years of the 12 years they have been together and is the proud father of 2 teenage sons. He has competed four novels and when he is not writing, he is an avid painter and prolific reader.

Sheldon made the conscious decision to walk away from crime for the obvious reason; it simply does not pay, and is an extremely high-risk gamble. Brown has read and researched the history of the Italian and American Mafia, dating back to the 1800s, the Japanese Yakuza, Chinese Triads, the Mexican and Colombian Cartels, and the more recent, Afro and Latin American and Caribbean gangs. Mr. Brown’s research has revealed that less than, or about one percent of those who live that lifestyle die a natural death or are able to retire with any great wealth. Most are dead by the age of 35 or given lengthy, often indefinite prison sentences by age 40. Only a handful are fortunate enough to live to the age of 60, and if they do it’s often a life of misery, betrayal from friends and associates, and continuous stints of imprisonment. 

Learning from history and his own personal experiences with betrayal, assassination attempts, and several trips to prison, including the St. Catherine District Prison in Jamaica, Sheldon realized that he had to take another route. His own experience with crime had nothing to do with poverty or being influenced by others. He readily admits that he made errors as a young man, and because of those follies, he was unable to secure employment even though he tried on numerous occasions and was willing to work. Driven by ambition and a will to succeed, he turned to crime full-time, not only to be able to exist, but to build a future for himself. Though he believes he had no other option, Sheldon won’t hesitate to tell you that he regrets making that unwise decision, which kept him trapped in crime for at least two decades. He also believes that a failure in our institutions and the unforgiving nature of the Caymanian society has contributed to the destruction of many young men, who have the potential to be good productive citizens, but because they have no support system, self motivation, and any real desire to change, their options are limited. 

He is concerned, that not everyone who has lived a life of crime has a rationale, or the strength and determination to walk away from that negative lifestyle, which was the motivation for his first novel, Caribbean Cartels. In it, he tries to reach out to the wayward, civil society and the government, which has the responsibility to create the necessary institutions to assist young people in receiving a proper education, and a chance to succeed. He shows the pros and the cons of the gangster lifestyle, and where it ultimately ends. Caribbean Cartels attempts to get mainstream society to understand the social ills, and how they could change the disease of recidivism, by assisting, forgiving, and helping to direct ex-convicts to be reintegrated into the community, or saving delinquents before they end up in prison. 

All of his books are intended to not only entertain, but to make society and the wider world a safer and better place for all to live and coexist. His second book, Unholy Accord, was written with the intention of enlightening others to the dangers of radical Islam, and how easily unsuspecting countries could become targets for extremist Islamic terrorists. The author believes that the Cayman Islands are a potential target for such an attack. In this very exciting novel, he illustrated why Cayman could be the victim of such an attack. He hopes to enlighten the relevant authorities about the ways in which terrorists could smuggle Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in and out of the Cayman Islands. The third book, Mayflower is a scathing novel about the unorthodox nature of many governments which are a part of the Overseas Territories, and how, greedy, power-hungry and corrupt administrators, if left to govern unchecked, could result in unintended consequences that will ultimately affect the citizens of those countries, who often allow their administrators to do what they want without proper checks and balances. The author, who reads a lot, and is very up to date about international politics, believes that citizens should take their heads from out of the sand and demand greater accountability of their leaders, lest what happens in Mayflower could be a very real possibility. Sheldon has completed four novels and is presently working on his fifth. He intends to make a career as an author, and promises his readers that his fourth book which will be released in 2013 will be just as exciting, enlightening and entertaining as his three previous novels. He also intends to do an autobiography in the near future, and hopes that it will discourage anyone who is contemplating a life of crime, or may be trapped in it.