Robert Ferrigno was born in South Florida, a tropical backwater rife with mosquitoes and flying cockroaches. After earning college degrees in philosophy, film-making, and creative writing, he returned to his first love, poker. He spent the next five years gambling full-time and living in a high-crime area populated by starving artists, alcoholics, thieves, and drug dealers, becoming friends with many people who would later populate his novels. Over the next several years he flew jets with the Blue Angels, drove Ferraris, and went for desert survival training with gun nuts. He ultimately gave up his day job to become a novelist, and his first book, The Horse Latitudes, was called “the fiction debut of the season” by Time. He lives in Washington with his family.