About Mark

Mark was born in Hendersonville, NC, near Asheville. He went straight from the hospital to the funeral home where his father was the funeral director and the family lived upstairs. The unusual setting sparked his popular Buryin' Barry mysteries and launched his mystery writing career.

Mark is the author of twenty-four novels: seven set in the fictional NC mountain town of Gainesboro, nine set in Asheville, five in Washington D.C., one science thriller in the year 2030, and two mysteries written for Middle Graders and set in the Charlotte region.

His novels have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist, and he is an Edgar Award nominated author. The CHICAGO TRIBUNE wrote, “As important and as impressive as the author's narrative skills are the subtle ways he captures the geography – both physical and human – of a unique part of the American South.”

Mark is a veteran of the broadcast and film production business. In Washington D.C., he directed numerous news and public affairs programs and received an EMMY Award for his documentary film work.

His years in Washington inspired his DC thrillers, THE 13TH TARGET, involving a terrorist plot against The Federal Reserve, THE SINGULARITY RACE, a winner-take-all quest for Artificial Intelligence, and SECRET LIVES, DANGEROUS WOMEN, and DESPERATE SPIES featuring feisty and fearless ex-FBI agent Ethel Fiona Crestwater.

Mark and his wife Linda have two daughters, three grandkids and live in Alexandria, VA.