Henry Simpson is the author of several popular murder mysteries featuring mobster lawyer Joe Costa (Death on the Strand, Golden Girl, Joe Costa’s Lonely Hearts, Joey Costa’s Law, Joey Costa’s New Game, Open House, Princess Lily, Some Kind of Genius) and Special Agent Ed Lane (A Splendid Little Murder, Island of Sprits, Finding Elysium) as well as short stories in literary magazines and anthologies. His fiction is character-based and usually has a plot involving greed, revenge, abuse of power, revenge, jealousy, flimflammery in arts or religion, the unsettled nature of reality, or achieving the American dream. He is married, lives in Monterey, California, and has two adult children and five grandchildren. Writers whose fiction he admires include Elmore Leonard, Patricia Highsmith, Truman Capote, Raymond Chandler, George V. Higgins, James Crumley, and James Dickey. His early influences were Boy Scouts, an urban high school, jazz musicians, surfers, street racers, juvenile delinquents, and a probation officer. At age eighteen, he joined the Marine Corps Reserve and began college. He studied engineering, did graduate work in English and Psychology, and holds a PhD from UCSB. He spent most of his professional career at small consulting companies as a military research psychologist, and worked independently as a software engineer, security consultant, real estate hack, and free lance writer while writing fiction on the side. He welcomes readers to his Facebook page or contact him at woodcrest400@yahoo.com.