From the Booking Desk:

Few writers can merge the worlds of technology and crime as skillfully as Reece Hirsch. While entertaining readers for hours, he also manages to educate the public on the risk inherent when society becomes increasingly dependent on high-tech gadgetry, electronic surveillance, and other forms of mechanization. Without an excess of techno-jargon, Reece makes readers care about the humanity of his characters – likely because he himself is a cool, friendly, and intelligent individual. Reece makes his rounds of the crime fiction conventions, so be sure to pull up a chair and chat the next time you see him.

Name: Reece Hirsch
Location:  San Francisco, CA

This person from my personal life is such an inspiration:

I was the first person in my family to go to college, and I’m sure my mother and father probably would have chosen something different for me than a journalism degree if they were doing the choosing. But they always completely supported me in whatever path I wanted to follow, from buying me a Smith Corona typewriter when I was eight, to sending me to Northwestern University for a journalism degree. I didn’t stay in journalism (which, for me, was always a second choice to writing fiction), but the fact that my folks gave me the freedom and support to do what I wanted in life set me on a path that eventually led me to writing books.

My wife Kathryn is also a constant inspiration because she has tolerated my obsession with writing even when I was struggling for years with my first novel, making all of the first-timer mistakes. We met in high school when she complimented me on a story that I wrote for the literary magazine (a Ray Bradbury knock-off about an addictive soft drink), and she’s had my back ever since.

One of the people I admire most in the crime fiction community is:

I’m very happy to be a part of the crime fiction community, and happier still that I don’t feel the need to put quotes around the word community.  In my other, non-writing life, I’m a privacy attorney, and my lawyer friends are good people. No, really.

But I’ve always felt that my mystery, crime and thriller writer friends are my true tribe. Most lawyers I know didn’t grow up saying, “I want to litigate commercial disputes” or “I want to negotiate merger agreements.” But I know that when I meet another writer that they are almost certainly doing something that they love, and have probably loved that thing for most of their life. And even though it can be painful slogging through a first draft or a synopsis, and even though most writers would like more readers/promotion/reviews, we couldn’t imagine doing anything else. If you can surround yourself with people who are doing things that they love, you live on a planet that has a little extra oxygen in its atmosphere.

One of the people that I admire most in the crime fiction community is my Bay Area buddy Terry Shames. In addition to writing the wonderful Samuel Craddock series, Terry is someone who can always be counted to show up and offer a supportive word for her fellow authors. And she writes kick-ass letters to New York Times.

I’d also like to give a shout-out to Michelle Gagnon, who was the first professional writer to read my manuscript, even before I had a book deal.  That sort of generosity means so much when you’re starting out, and nearly every writer I know has a story like that.

STALKER ALERT! If this fictional character were real, they would likely need to get a restraining order against me:

I’m a fan of everything that Don Winslow has written, but I particularly love “The Dawn Patrol.”  If I could inhabit the sunny, slightly seedy world of Winslow’s Pacific Beach, California, riding the waves with Boone Daniels, Johnny Banzai, High Tide, Sunny Day and Dave the Love God (I don’t surf but back off, this is my fantasy), hanging out in the Sundowner diner, and solving the occasional PI case, then I would never leave. As Mr. Winslow notes, everything is better on a tortilla.

People are always surprised that I am a fan of this individual (singer, actor, or artist):

Because it’s far from the mystery/crime/thriller genre, some people might be surprised that I loved Sally Rooney’s “Normal People.” It’s hard to make that sort of young love/coming-of-age story fresh, but Rooney really pulls it off. Without a lot of stylistic showiness, she gives you an emotional X-ray of her two characters and the arc of their relationship that makes a familiar story feel like it’s being told for the first time.  

My personal catch phrase is (or should be):

From Singin’ in the Rain (and this is purely aspirational for me):  “Dignity, always dignity.”

Find out more about Reece here.