Andy Straka had hints of his future writing career at the age of four when he appeared at his small-town neighbor's back door carrying a butcher's knife. Thankfully, the neighbor called Andy's mother instead of social services.

Featured by Publishers Weekly among a group of "rising stars" in crime fiction, Andy is a past finalist for the Agatha Award and the Anthony Award and the author of the Shamus Award-winning Frank Pavlicek private eye series, including the #1 bestselling A Witness Above. Andy is a former college basketball player, a licensed falconer, and longtime husband and father. Rumor also has it that he heralds from upstate New York, where he often spent Sunday afternoons, growing up, bowling with his parents and identical twin brother.