Don Bailey is a retired professor of mathematics, holding degrees from Wake Forest University and Vanderbilt University. He grew up in a small textile village in western North Carolina, where he worked from time to time in the local textile plant and as a short order cook. As an academician he has lived and worked in eastern North Carolina, east central Iowa, and South Texas. While The Linthead Murders is Don's first novel, he has written a mathematics text and a number of technical papers in mathematics. In 2009 he self-published a history of his home town. According to Don's younger son, Don's only hobby is walking. He enjoys hiking (obviously walking) and dancing (stylized walking). Don has had a long-time love affair with the Grand Canyon. He has hiked cross canyon twice, and made more than a dozen hiking trips below the rim.