Robert Ellis was born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Horrified as a boy by the murder of a young woman near his home, Robert’s interest in crime fiction came to fruition as a teenager with the films of Alfred Hitchcock and books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, John Buchan, and Dashiell Hammett. In addition to editing his high school newspaper, and after discovering City Hall, he skipped school to attend several murder trials and began writing short stories. While in college he majored in film and philosophy and studied writing with Walter Tevis, author of The Hustler and The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Robert made an early career in film, television, and advertising. His first film, a documentary on the Great Lakes written and produced for National Geographic, took more than a year to photograph and included breaking ice with the U.S. Coast Guard and working with the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin. The film won best educational documentary at the New York Film Festival. His work in film continued, particularly in advertising where he won a regional Emmy in Philadelphia for CBS News. In 1988, Robert found representation as a writer/director in feature films and moved to Los Angeles where he ghostwrote Nightmare on Elm Street, Part 4 – the most successful film in the series. Maintaining a keen interest in politics ever since the Vietnam War, Robert wrote, produced and directed more than 1,000 television ads for political candidates seeking every type of office, including President of the United States, and won numerous Pollie Awards from the AAPC and the esteemed “My Opponent Is Not A Nice Person Award” from the Democratic Caucus.

These experiences have given Robert access to a wide variety of people from many different walks of life. From blues and jazz greats like Muddy Waters and Chick Corea, to Navy pilots shot out of the sky by the North Vietnamese and sent to prison at the Hanoi Hilton; from documenting the crisis in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, to filming the first sub-critical nuclear test seventy stories below ground in the Nevada desert; from working with homicide detectives and crime lab investigators, to weathering the view from the operating room at the coroner’s office – his stories are set in Los Angeles and come from the real world.

Robert Ellis is the author of four bestselling crime novels: Access to Power, The Dead Room, and the critically acclaimed national bestseller City of Fire and The Lost Witness – selected as top reads by Booklist, Publishers Weekly, National Public Radio, The Chicago Tribune, People Magazine, USA Today and The New York Times. Translated into more than ten languages and available in audio and all digital formats, Robert’s books have garnered praise from authors as diverse as Janet Evanovich and Michael Connelly.