About the Author

Bill Zahren loves the physical act of writing and the world-building that goes into being a novelist. His goal is to create plausible, page-turning mysteries that include humor, romance, and faith. Bill’s love of mysteries started as a kid when he devoured the Hardy Boys series by Franklin W. Dixon. His favorite mystery authors include Arthur Conan Doyle, P.D. James, Stuart M. Kaminsky, and Agatha Christie. The character of Tom Kingman was heavily influenced by John Sandford’s Virgil Flowers mysteries. Bill’s appreciation of Jane Austen’s work and love and admiration for strong women helped shape the character of Hillary Reed. Inspiration for Tom and Hillary is also drawn from the 1990s TV series The X-Files.

A fifth-generation Iowan, Bill is a native of Lake Park in Dickinson County and has been writing for a living since 1986. He graduated from Morningside College in Sioux City and worked for nine years as a newspaper reporter for the LeMars Daily Sentinel and Sioux City Journal, winning numerous Iowa Newspaper Association and Associated Press awards. Bill experienced corporate life during four years as a writer for Gateway, Inc., a personal computer maker then based in North Sioux City, South Dakota. 

Bill and his wife, Rhonda, have two adult daughters, Jena and Haley, and now live in West Des Moines, Iowa. Rhonda, a native of Alton, Iowa, is a Registered Nurse in a Des Moines hospital. Since 1999, Bill has worked full-time as a marketing writer when not creating novels about Tom Kingman and Hillary Reed.