A trial lawyer by day and a writer by night, Michael Kahn is the award-winning author of eleven Rachel Gold novels (including his latest, BAD TRUST); three stand-alone novels: THE SIRENA QUEST, THE MOURNING SEXTON (under the pen name Michael Baron), and PLAYED; and several short stories, including the collection entitled A HANDFUL OF GOLD.
PLAYED!, was published in July of 2017. As Kirkus Reviews wrote, “the spectacle of these ornaments of the Missouri bar attacking, undermining, and double-crossing each other provides brisk, sprightly entertainment, and the hapless defendant’s baseball background comes into play just when it’s most needed.”
A former elementary school teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, Mike wrote his first novel, GRAVE DESIGNS, on a challenge from his wife Margi, who got tired of listening to the same answer whenever she asked him about a book he was reading. “Not bad,” he would say, “but I could write a better book than that.”
“Then write one,” she finally said, “or please shut up. I don’t want to hear you fifty years from now telling your great-grandkids that you could have written a book.”
So he shut up for awhile–no easy task for an attorney–but eventually he wrote GRAVE DESIGNS (originally published in hardcover under the title THE CANAAN LEGACY).
At the time he wrote his first mystery novel, it was just that. A novel. And then his agent called to tell him that she had an offer from a publisher for the next two books in the series.
“What series?” Mike asked.
“A mystery series,” she said. “Rachel Gold, Benny, Rachel’s mom. You can’t just walk away from those characters. We need to see more of them.”
In addition to his day job, where he represents individuals and companies in the fields of creative arts and media law, Mike spent more than a decade as an adjunct professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, where he taught a class on censorship and free expression.
Mike married his high school sweetheart 49 years ago. They are the parents of five and the grandparents of, so far, eleven. His happiest moment as a writer: having his kids take one of his books to school for show-and-tell.
Our family love your stories. We have read several. I would like to read again the one where the character is in cave(s) underneath St. Louis. Please tell me the name of that book so we can read it again. Flinch Factor is excellent also. Years ago we heard you speak at an Oasis gathering in Clayton and enjoyed your talk. Good Luck and God Bless you and your family. JA