Call it a graduate level seminar. Subject: John Corey. Professor: Nelson DeMille.

Indeed, on Sunday afternoon, the second floor History Room in the Westerly Public Library, with its high ceilings, gilt-framed oil portraits and hanging pendant lamps, could easily have passed for an Ivy League lecture hall.

There were also 100-plus folding chairs -- all occupied by folks clutching shiny hardcover books and staring with eager focus on the lectern at DeMille, the mega-bestselling thriller writer. Dressed in a blue blazer and khaki slacks, the 71-year-old author charmingly spoke and answered questions for about an hour, mostly about his most popular protagonist, the hilarious and politically incorrect John Corey, an ex-New York City cop/anti-terrorist task force agent. He followed by signing copies of his books in the library lobby.

The occasion was another stop on DeMille's latest publicity tour, this one behind the seventh Corey novel, "Radiant Angel," which came out two weeks ago and hit the New York Times charts at number one. In the book, Corey, in a new and perhaps less prestigious job in diplomatic surveillance, suspects a Russian bureaucrat and former spy might be planning a terrorist attack. It's not a spoiler to suggest that Corey is rarely wrong in such things.

In his remarks, DeMille talked about the original creation of Corey in the novel "Plum Island," and how the character was never supposed to be part of a series.

"I had plenty of friends and colleagues doing series, and that was fine, but I wasn't interested," DeMille says. "Then I saw the sales reports and I was suddenly a lot more interested."

For the next four Corey books, DeMille focused on the hot-button topic of our time, Middle Eastern terrorism.

"I decided to go in a different direction with 'Radiant Angel,'" he said. "It's important to keep Corey growing and changing. I don't want to get bored and I don't want the readers to get bored."

The audience certainly seemed to subscribe to that observation. A later aside by DeMille – that his current manuscript-in-progress is not a Corey novel – caused some good-natured gasps of protest.

But he spent plenty of time discussing Corey and the twin themes that inspired "Radiant Angel," the re-emergence of Russia as a global power and potential enemy, and the state of American anti-terrorism security. At the heart of "Radiant Angel" is the vulnerability to attack by U.S. deep water ports in places like New York City or New Orleans. Over the years, DeMille has developed sources in places like the FBI, the New York City Police Department, and in Homeland Security, and he said he's asked a variety of those sources what their worst security fears are.

"It's harbor security," DeMille said, "more than Time Square or airports. Planes originate from known destinations and are tracked from take-off to landing. Ships can come from anywhere and go anywhere."

Questions covered topics like why he writes in longhand, research methods and whether, after he's dead, DeMille would want another author carrying on the Corey series.

"Well, right now I'm alive," he said to laughter. "But my children and my widow would probably say, 'Yeah, let's keep this thing moving.'"