A native of Seattle, Glen Erik Hamilton was raised aboard a sailboat and grew up around the marinas and commercial docks and islands of the Pacific North West. His first novel, Past Crimes (2015) won a Strand Critics Circle Award as well as the Anthony and Macavity Awards for Best First Novel, and was nominated for the Edgar, Nero, and Barry Awards. It was followed by further Van Shaw novels, Hard Cold Winter (2016) and Every Day Above Ground (2017).