Hans Werner Kettenbach was born near Cologne. He is the author of several highly acclaimed novels. He came to writing late in life, publishing his first book at the age of fifty. Previous jobs he has held include construction worker, court stenographer, football journalist, foreign correspondent in New York and, most recently, newspaper editor. His crime novels have won the Jerry-Cotton Prize and the Deutscher-Krimi Prize, and five of them have been made into successful films, including Black Ice, previously published by Bitter Lemon Press.