About the author
A trial lawyer by day and a writer by night, Michael Kahn is the award-winning author of ten Rachel Gold novels (including his latest, The Dead Hand); the stand-alone novel The Sirena Quest, another stand-alone novel The Mourning Sexton (under the pen name Michael Baron); and several short stories.
Kirkus Reviews had this to say about his latest novel, Played!: "the spectacle of these ornaments of the Missouri bar attacking, undermining, and double-crossing each other provides brisk, sprightly entertainment, and the hapless defendant's baseball background comes into play just when it's most needed."
A former elementary school teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, Mike wrote his first novel, Grave Designs, on a challenge from his wife Margi, who got tired of listening to the same answer whenever she asked him about a book he was reading. "Not bad," he would say, "but I could write a better book than that."
"Then write one," she finally said, "or please shut up. I don't want to hear you fifty years from now telling your great-grandkids that you could have written a book."
So he shut up—no easy task for a trial attorney—but eventually he wrote Grave Designs. Back then, that mystery novel was just that. A novel. And then his agent called to tell him that she had an offer from a publisher for the next two books in the series.
"What series?" Mike asked.
"A mystery series," she said. "Rachel Gold, Benny, Rachel's mom. You can't just walk away from those characters. We need to see more of them."
In addition to his day job, where he represents individuals and companies in the fields of creative arts and media law, Mike is an adjunct professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, where he teaches a class on censorship and free expression.