#1 New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag began her writing career at the age of nine with the self-published, self-illustrated third-grade hit Black Pony.  The school project—a tale of two children sharing a pony named Smoky—sparked Hoag’s love for storytelling, and set her on a collision course with destiny, which would be reached in 1988 with Bantam Books’ publication of Hoag’s first novel, The Trouble With J.J.

With fifteen consecutive Times bestsellers to her credit, including Deeper Than the Dead, Secrets to the Grave, and Prior Bad Acts, Hoag has more than 35 million books in print, published in more than twenty languages worldwide.  Her first thriller, Night Sins, was made into a two-part mini-series in 1997, and continues to air frequently on cable networks more than a decade later.

A favorite of readers and critics alike, Hoag began her career writing for Bantam’s Loveswept line of romance novels, penning sixteen titles in five years.  Never wanting to be pigeonholed, the novels ranged from romantic comedy to romantic suspense, with richly drawn characters and sharply written dialogue the hallmarks of Hoag’s style.  These traits carry through to her thrillers, along with fast-paced plots and dead-on police procedure.

Born in Iowa, raised in Minnesota, Tami Hoag left the frigid north for warmer climes in 1998.  “I used to keep a cartoon pinned to the bulletin board in my office,” says Hoag.  “It depicted two polar bears sitting in the snow.  One polar bear said to the other polar bear, ‘I don’t care what they say.  I’m cold.’  I was always that bear: cold from October to June.”

An avid competitive equestrian in the Olympic discipline of dressage, Tami currently lives in Palm Beach County, Florida, where she competes her horses on the prestigious winter show circuit.