Tom Eslick, a New Englander for most of his life, grew up with a guitar in one hand and a copy of Shakespeare's collected works in the other. He has taught English for more than thirty years on both secondary school and college levels. Tom is also well known regionally as a professional songwriter and singer with several albums to his credit. He recently released a CD of his original compositions.

Tom began his teaching career at Vermont College. During that time, he often sang at local ski areas, including the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont, where he was house musician for six years. He now teaches at Proctor Academy in Andover, New Hampshire, having served also as the English Department Chair for nineteen years.

Increasingly drawn to fiction writing, Tom earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Boston's Emerson College a few years ago. Soon thereafter, his first mystery, the critically acclaimed Tracked in the Whites , was published by Write Way Publishing in 1997. The first printing quickly sold out and the book was released in paperback by Harlequin World Wide Publishing in late 1999.

Tom's forté is delivering fast-paced, action-packed mystery plots made vividly plausible by a strong sense of place, believable characters, and everyday, real-life situations in which things go horribly wrong.

In Snow Kill, published in 2000, Tom draws on his personal experience as a nationally registered EMT and rescue squad volunteer for the story's background. Although place names are altered, the setting is the New Hampshire area in which Tom and his wife Susan live.

Will Buchanan is back in Deadly Kin, published in 2003 by Viking Press. Teacher/student/administrator relationships, as well as knowledge of camping and hiking skills, continue as themes in this third book.

The latest in the White Mountains series -- Mountain Peril -- a riveting mystery set in one of the country's most beautiful and most dangerous destinations is due out in April, 2005.

Penguin will publish Deadly Kin simultaneously with a great new cover look.

Tom is currently writing songs, teaching, performing, and working on a new novel.