R. H. E. Crawford

Early on in life I was convinced that I and my family were gypsies. We never seemed to stay in one place long enough to make roots. I was born in East St. Louis, Illinois; raised in Evansville, Indiana for a few years; then in Alhambra California for a few more years, changing houses frequently. I joined the Air Force for a few years, barely avoiding the great ‘police action’ in Korea, then went to college at ASU, then UCLA, then UWLA, garnering degrees along the way, eventually ending formal education with a JD in 1978.

After serving the cities of Glendale, Santa Barbara, Oxnard and Hermosa Beach as a city planner, I was fortunate enough to pass the bar, and retire to the hills west of Windsor California, where I have actually lived with wife and family for some 30 years. No more gypsying. All of this experience goes into my writing.

My mind has never stopped its gypsy ways. I discovered a story that needed to be told (Fifty/Fifty) and in the process of writing it, discovered it to be a mystery. The delight in writing mysteries, my way at least, is that I do not know how they will end until they do, almost of their own accord.

My gypsy soul led me to my first novel, “Fifty/Fifty”, a suspenseful race with death along old Lincoln Highway, through Colorado, Utah and Nevada. Our annual pilgrimages to Ashland Oregon led to “The Witches Three”, a delightful pastiche set in Shakespeare town, where the busy life of a permanent repertory theater and a small college mix with the necessities of daily living. The third is set in Vienna, the “City of Dreams”, a City we enjoy visiting as often as we can. The “Mystery of Malvern Link” reflects our journeys through the English countryside.