Miles Corwin spent the first five years of his life in downtown Los Angeles' Rossylyn Hotel, which his grandfather owned, next to infamous skidrow. Years later he worked as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times.  Author of three bestselling nonfiction books: The Killing Season (1998); And Still We Rise (2001), the winner of the PEN West award for nonfiction and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year; and Homicide Special (2004). His first novel is Kind of Blue (2010). Professor at University of California, Irvine.
 

"Most homicide detectives joke around a lot. This is a coping mechanism. If they don't have a sense of humor, I discovered, they burn out quickly and don't last long in homicide."

- Miles Corwin