The Last Honest Horse Thief

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Before turning to writing full-time, Michael worked as a private investigator, a newspaper reporter, and taught at the Indiana University School of Journalism. He began working for a private investigator as an intern while in high school and turned this into his day job in the early stages of his writing career. As a journalist, he won numerous awards from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Michael’s first novel, the Edgar-nominated Tonight I Said Goodbye, was accepted for publication when he was 20 years old. He wrote his first two novels before graduating from college and was published in nearly 10 languages before he fulfilled the “writing requirement” classes required for his diploma.

Michael has written for the screen in both feature film and television, writing scripts for Fox, Universal, and Amazon Studios. Those Who Wish Me Dead was released in 2020 as a major motion picture starring Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult, Tyler Perry, Jon Bernthal and Aidan Gillen, directed by Taylor Sheridan. The film version of So Cold the River was released in 2022, directed by Paul Shoulberg and starring Bethany Joy Lenz, Alysia Reiner, and Andrew J. West.

Michael was raised in Bloomington, Indiana, where he graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. In 2008, he was honored as a “distinguished young alumni” by Indiana University, and in 2010 he was named “distinguished alumni’ by the criminal justice department.

Hiking, camping, boating, and fishing are all likely to occupy his free time when he’s not working on a new book. Some of his favorite spots are the Beartooth Mountains of Montana, the flowages of the Northwoods in Wisconsin, St. Petersburg, Florida, and the Maine midcoast.