Biography
William H. Hallahan (b. 1925 d. 2018) was an Edgar-award winning American author whose works spanned genres, but who was best known for his best-selling mystery and occult novels.
Hallahan began writing suspense fiction in an empty office filled with ghosts. The place was Detroit and Hallahan was the advertising creative director on the $30 million Plymouth car account for N. W. Ayer and Son Advertising agency. When Ayer lost the account to another agency, Hallahan found himself "in a deafening silence" amidst an eeire parade of of empty desks and darkened offices thronged with ghosts of Campaigns Past. He put a piece of yellow copy paper in the typewriter and began his career as a suspense storyteller.
Hallahan went on to publish numerous works, and his first novel, The Dead of Winter, was nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Mystery, and his fourth novel, Catch Me: Kill Me, was nominated and won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Novel in 1978. His third novel, The Search for Joseph Tully, was a New York Times Bestseller and hailed as one of the most frightening books of all time.
His series character Charlie Brewer, the fallen but philosophical CIA spy, first appeared in the Edgar award-winning Catch Me: Kill Me, and continued as the protagonist in The Trade, Foxcatcher and Tripletrap.
Hallahan had an equally successful career as a historian, including his acclaimed work Misfire and his two Revolutionary War books: The Day The Revolution Began: 19 April 1775 and The Day The Revolution Ended. Amazon.com selected The Day The Revolution Began: 19 April 1775 to be in the History Editor's Top Ten Picks of 2000.
Hallahan was born in the shadow of Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, spent three years in the Navy, graduated with honors and a master degree from Temple University and worked variously as a college English professor, a copywriter, and an ad agency proprietor in his own agency, Hallahan Incorporated.
All of Hallahan's works received critical acclaim, including:
"A relentless, terrifying thriller." Dean Koontz on The Search for Joseph Tully
"Takes off like a Chinook and whisks you through a labyrinth non-stop until the final sentence." Clive Cussler on Catch Me: Kill Me
"Mr Hallahan will keep you up all night!" New York Times on The Monk
"Best thriller I've read in years." Washington Post on Foxcatcher