Brad Parks received the Shamus (Best Private Eye) and Nero (Best American Mystery) for his debut novel, Faces of the Gone, the first book to take both awards. For subsequent books in his Carter Ross series he won a Lefty and a further Shamus (Best Hardcover Novel). Before starting his career as a novelist, Parks spent a dozen years as a reporter for the The Washington Post and The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger.