Terry Mort is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Michigan, where he received an MA in English and began working on his PhD. After grad school, he served as an officer in the US Navy. Deployed to Southeast Asia, he saw a variety of action there. Mort has written four nonfiction histories that were extensively reviewed in the national press and widely praised. He has also written several novels, one of which, The Monet Murders (McBooks Press), introduces the character of Riley Fitzhugh, Hollywood private investigator.