Gene Ayres has a long and eclectic history as a writer, filmmaker, columnist and film critic in New York, Florida, and Hollywood, writing for Harper’s Magazine, Running Times, Worldwatch Magazine, PBS, various newspapers, commercial television and animation studios, Universal Studios and Warner Brothers. His award winning Tony Lowell Mystery series is now back in publication after a decade beginning with his fifth novel, Cry of the Heron.

Following upon the early success of his mysteries, Ayres spent much of the next decade raising his son as a single parent, researching a forthcoming book about Shakespeare, then accepted a position for three years living and working in China as a "Foreign Expert," teaching English at a major state university in Harbin. His new book on these adventures, Inside the New China will be published by Transaction Publishing of Rutgers University this spring and available wherever books are sold.

He lives and works in Seattle, with his wife and daughter.