After careers as a journalist, criminal lawyer, and political activist, William Deverell turned to fiction, and his first effort won the Seal First Novel Award. Since then, he has earned multiple prizes for his 20 published novels, including the Dashiell Hammett Prize for literary excellence in crime writing in North America, two Crime Writers of Canada Awards (formerly the Arthur Ellis Award), and two runners-up for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. He lives on Pender Island in British Columbia.