AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

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rior to my decision to become a novelist I was an assistant professor of English and Humanities at the University of Northern Colorado.  During that time I published a dozen or so scholarly essays, twice earning the commendations from the Dean of Arts and Sciences for my scholarship.  In my last year of teaching, I won the university's Pan Hellenic Award for outstanding teaching—one of three given that year.   

Since moving to Switzerland with my Swiss-born wife Martha in 1993, I have worked exclusively as a writer of fiction.  My first novel, Silent She Sleeps (Heinemann / Mandarin and Random House 1997) was published as Selbstjustiz in Germany (1998).  The following year came Im Glashaus, a novel I was able to sell in a German language edition but have not yet brought to an English language publisher. In 2002 Southern Illinois University Press (Carbondale, Illinois) brought out Silent She Sleeps under the title of The Whisper of Leaves. This edition included new material and a great many updates to the original. It won the bronze medal in the mystery category—third place nationally—in ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards. In 2006, I signed an exclusive contract with Myrmidon Books and brought out The Painted Messiah the following year. The Blood Lance was published in September of 2008. Myrmidon Books published Cold Rain in 2010. This novel was longlisted for the Crime Writer’s Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award in the summer of 2011. The Steel Dagger award celebrates the best thriller published in the UK during the previous year.

I hold a Ph.D. in English (1988) and a master's degree in Humanities (1984).  I am a bridge player and an enthusiast of mountain hiking.

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