Steve Hamilton was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1961. He graduated from the University of Michigan where he won the Hopwood Award for fiction. He is the author of the Alex McKnight Mystery series. A Cold Day in Paradise won the Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin's Press Award for Best First Mystery by an Unpublished Writer and the Edgar and Shamus Awards for Best First Novel. The Lock Artist won the 2011 Edgar Award. In 2006, he won the Michigan Author Award for his outstanding body of work. He also works for IBM.