About the author

Frank Zafiro

<strong>Frank Zafiro</strong> primarily writes&nbsp;<em><strong>gritty crime fiction from both sides of the badge</strong></em>. This includes his River City series (an ensemble cast of police officers) and his SpoCompton series (a rotating cast of criminals).&nbsp;His storytelling creed is that the good guys usually win… but not always, and never without a cost. (Hey, a man’s gotta have a code).<br><br>Frank served in the U.S. Army from 1986-91 in Military Intelligence as a Czechoslovak linguist. In 1993, he became&nbsp;&nbsp;a police officer in Spokane, Washington. During his career, he worked as a patrol officer,&nbsp;corporal, and detective before entering into leadership roles, becoming a sergeant in 2002. He was fortunate enough to command patrol officers, investigators, K-9 officers (and their dogs!), and the&nbsp;SWAT team. He also commanded both the patrol division and the investigative division of the police department at different points in his career.<br><br>Frank retired from law enforcement in 2013 as a captain in order to write full time and to teach. From 2013-17, he taught law enforcement subject matter at Spokane Community College and Whitworth University, and leadership as a national instructor for International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). He also occasionally teaches a series of writing workshops. Frank earned a BA in History from Eastern Washington University in 1998, and an MS in Administration of Justice from the University of Louisville in 2012.<br><br>Frank began writing seriously at about thirteen.&nbsp;In&nbsp;1995, he started a draft of&nbsp;<em>Under A Raging Moon</em>, which would eventually become the first book in the River City series of crime fiction. Since then, Frank has completed numerous&nbsp;novels&nbsp;set in River City, a fictional version of Spokane, Washington.&nbsp;These include the River City series and the Stefan Kopriva mystery series (beginning with&nbsp;<em>Waist Deep)</em><br><br>Some of Frank’s stories are set in the “real” Spokane, such as the&nbsp;<em>SpoCompton</em>&nbsp;series (which features criminals rather than cops), Jack McCrae Mysteries (beginning with&nbsp;<em>At This Point in My Life</em>), and&nbsp;<em>The Last Horseman&nbsp;</em>(a Sandy Banks Thriller). All of these exist in the same universe. Along with&nbsp;Colin Conway,&nbsp;Frank wrote the&nbsp;<em>Charlie-316</em>&nbsp;series of novels, which take place in a different version of Spokane.<br><br>Frank’s work has also ventured to other cities. Examples include the Chicago setting for&nbsp;<em>Blood on Blood</em>, the first&nbsp;book in the Ania trilogy, written with&nbsp;Jim Wilsky, or the Las Vegas setting for&nbsp;<em>Queen of Diamonds</em>&nbsp;(Ania #2). Books with an East Coast flavor include his “A Bricks &amp; Cam Job” series with&nbsp;Eric Beetner&nbsp;beginning with&nbsp;<em>The Backlist,&nbsp;</em>and his novels with&nbsp;Lawrence Kelter, (<em>The Last Collar,&nbsp;No Dibs on Murder</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>Fallen City).&nbsp;</em><br><br>Frank has held the #1 author spot for&nbsp;police procedurals on Amazon multiple times. Frank’s books are available in all formats — paperback, ebook, and audio book. In addition to novels, dozens of Franks’ short stories have been published in magazines and numerous&nbsp;anthologies. He is a four-time finalist for the Derringer Award (for short crime fiction).<br><br>Frank is the creator and editor of the novella anthology series,&nbsp;<em>A Grifter’s Song</em>, to which he also contributes episodes.<br><br>In addition to being a writer, Frank hosted the crime fiction podcast,&nbsp;<em>Wrong Place, Write Crime</em>&nbsp;from 2017-22 (episodes remain available for listeners).<br>He also writes under two different pen names. His mainstream fiction is under his real name,&nbsp;Frank Scalise, and his forthcoming fantasy work under the name&nbsp;Frank Saverio.<br><br>​​​​​​​Frank lives in Redmond, Oregon, with his wife, Kristi. He is an avid hockey fan, reader, lover of good TV and films, a gamer, and a tortured guitarist.