Gerry O'Sullivan was born in Limerick, Ireland, where he indulged his taste for historical fiction, intelligent action thrillers, and adventure books. A graduate of the University of Limerick, he moved to Australia and worked in the international education sector. Gerry was inspired to write Gangsters of Shanghai by his granduncle, a Detective Inspector in the Shanghai Municipal Police during the 1920s. Spellbound by old photographs and family lore, Gerry resolved to write an action adventure thriller with the accuracy of historical fiction. Gerry traveled to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Brandeis University, Boston, where the top-secret files of the Shanghai Municipal Police Special Branch are kept on microfilm (they were smuggled out of Shanghai by the CIA in 1949). Gerry then moved to Singapore to immerse himself in the atmosphere of a fast paced English-speaking Asian city, as Shanghai was in the 1920s and 1930s. To achieve the pulse-quickening features of an action mystery with the demandingly accurate details of historical fiction, Gerry blended his granduncle's stories about his Shanghai police work, years of scholarly research, and his own experiences of the city.
