When Gotham Mystery teacher Greg Fallis talks detectives and criminals with his students, he’s not just blowing smoke. Fallis was a real life private investigator, even one that Sam Spade might tip his fedora to. On one of his first cases, he helped free an innocent man on trial by finding the true killer. He also worked as a prison counselor, lending an ear to those on the wrong side of the law. “The culture is fascinating,” Fallis says, “I’m intrigued by the borders between good and bad people, straight people and bent.” 

Fallis shares his experience with crime writers in such nonfiction books as Just the Facts, Ma’am: A Writer’s Guide to Investigator’s and Investigation Techniques, Be Your Own Detective, and A Murder: From the Chalk Outline to Death Row. He’s also pretty good at spinning his own experience into fiction; he’s written a detective novel Lightning in the Blood, and published numerous short stories in the legendary Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, one of his stories being included in the Best American Mystery Stories 1999.

If you’ve got a thug to subdue, a cheating partner to follow, or a plot to hammer out, Greg’s your guy.