Olen Steinhauer was born on June 21, 1970, in Baltimore, Maryland, and was raised in Virginia. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College in Boston. After college, Olen spent a year in Romania on a Fulbright Grant. This experience helped provide the inspiration for his first five books. His works include The Bridge of Sighs, and the Milo Weaver Series. He received the Hammett Prize for best literary crime novel for The Nearest Exit (2010). In 2014 his title The Cairo Affair made The New York Times Best Seller List. His title, All the Old Knives, made the Mystery Webinar list in 2014.