Santogrossi, Stephen

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Santogrossi, Stephen

PERSONAL:

Married to a psychologist; children: one daughter.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Pomona, CA.

CAREER:

Writer and business manager. Has also worked as an electronics technician, an insurance claims adjuster, and a disk jockey in Palm Springs, CA.

AWARDS, HONORS:

St. Martin's Press/Malice Domestic Contest winner for best first traditional mystery, for A Stranger Lies There.

WRITINGS:

A Stranger Lies There (novel), St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Stephen Santogrossi is the author of A Stranger Lies There, the winner of the St. Martin's Press/Malice Domestic Contest for best first traditional mystery. The novel centers on Tim Ryder, an unassuming carpenter who awakens one morning to find a corpse on the front lawn of his Palm Springs, California, home. A former student radical in the 1970s, Ryder wonders if the murder is connected to his role in a bungled bank robbery intended to fund the campaign of an antiwar presidential candidate; Ryder provided testimony against his group's ringleader, Glenn Turret, who just finished serving a thirty-year term in prison. The police investigating the case, however, consider Ryder a chief suspect, and they even cast suspicion on his wife, Deirdre, a former drug addict who works as a substance abuse counselor. When Ryder suffers an unexpected loss and discovers a clue the police have missed, he determines to solve the crime himself. According to a critic in Publishers Weekly, Santogrossi's "well-drawn characters, unexpected resolution and sharp casual insights make for an energizing read." Harriet Klausner, writing on the I Love a Mystery Web site, similarly noted: "The characters are fully developed, especially the reluctant hero Tim," and a contributor in Kirkus Reviews described A Stranger Lies There, as "a beautifully understated portrait of a hero who's a lot better at grieving than detecting."