Kirk Russell is the author of numerous thrillers and crime novels, including Shell Games, Redback, One Through the Heart, and Signature Wounds, his first book in the Paul Grale series. His book Dead Game was named one of the top ten crime novels of 2005 by the American Library Association. Russell’s novels have garnered many starred reviews. Among them, Library Journal referred to his Counterfeit Road as “an addictive police procedural on speed.” Russell lives in Berkeley, California.