David Corbett is the author of three critically acclaimed novels: The Devil’s Redhead, which was nominated for the Anthony and Barry Awards for Best First Novel of 2002; Done for a Dime, which was named a New York Times Notable Book and was nominated for the Macavity Award for Best Novel of 2003; and 2007’s Blood of Paradise, which has been called “a Quiet American for the new century” and “the best in contemporary fiction, period.”

His short stories have been anthologized in San Francisco Noir (“It Can Happen,” nominated for the Macavity Award for Best Short Story 2006) and Las Vegas Noir (“Pretty Little Parasite”), as well as Meeting Across the River (“Bobby the Prop Buys In”), a collection in which all the selections were inspired by the eponymous Springsteen song.

A former private investigator for the San Francisco firm of Palladino & Sutherland, he worked on such headline civil and criminal litigations as the DeLorean Case, the Peoples Temple Trial, the Lincoln Savings & Loan Scandal, the Michael Jackson Case, and a civil prosecution attacking the influence of organized crime in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

He was also—once upon a time, in a universe far far away—a musician in a bar band, playing the Top Forty circuit in such Midwestern musical Meccas as Beckley, West Virginia; Lima, Ohio; Midland, Michigan; and Fort Wayne, Indiana. The only compliment he can recall receiving was, “Who’s the guy that sings like a chick. He’s really good.”