ABOUT ME



I was born in Flint, Michigan. Loving parents still together, forty-plus and counting. My brother Matt is a respected video game columnist and owner of the website Tap Repeatedly.

I attended the University of Michigan, two majors, both promptly ignored. Collected single terms at grad schools in several states. Ten years in advertising and marketing gave me the perfect experience to write about thieves and killers.

To research my books, I've shadowed homicide detectives, toured the morgue, gone shooting with Special Forces soldiers, ridden with gang cops, and learned to pick a deadbolt. My first novel, THE BLADE ITSELF, was featured on CBS Sunday Morning and NPR, and chosen both a New York Times Editor's Pick and one of Esquire Magazine's "Top 5 Reads of 2007." Ben Affleck's production company has bought film rights for Miramax. The Chicago Tribune called my second novel, AT THE CITY'S EDGE, "nothing short of brilliant." My third, GOOD PEOPLE, came out to wide critical acclaim, with movie rights selling to Tobey Maguire.

My wife g.g. and I live in Chicago.

I love traveling, especially if there's a chance of hurting myself. I'm a wicked good cook. I never miss the Golden Gloves. I like bourbon neat, food so spicy the guy sitting next to me catches fire, and the occasional cigar. I've watched Firefly more times than I'm comfortable admitting.

I can't talk about my life without talking about stories. The people that created them are the people that created me. So, Kid Rock-style, in no order and with nothing but love, shout-outs to David Mitchell, Elmore Leonard, David Foster Wallace, Dennis Lehane, Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Cunningham, Tom Stoppard, James Ellroy, Tim O'Brien, Joss Whedon, Philip Roth, George Pelecanos, Aaron Sorkin, T. Jefferson Parker, Jeannette Wintersen, Kent Anderson, Richard K. Morgan, Chuck Palahniuk, Arthur Phillips, Tom Perrotta, Ian McEwan, Cormac McCarthy, George Saunders, Pete Dexter, William Golding, Thomas Pynchon, Jim Harrison, Richard Price, George R.R. Martin, Laura Lippman, Michael Chabon, Jerzy Kosinski, James Crumley, William Gibson...