Newell Searle grew up on a southern Minnesota farm, and his writing includes a variety of pieces on Minnesota's history, culture and natural environment. Copy Desk Murders was his first novel in a mystery series set in southern Minnesota during the 1980s farm crisis, a period when he worked in agricultural organizations. After a vocational school education, he received a B.A. from Macalester College. His first book, Saving Quetico-Superior, was an award-winning narrative of wilderness protection. He continued writing while working as a public affairs professional in corporate, government and nonprofit organizations. Now he writes wherever he is, at his home in Minnetonka, volunteering in Mexico or at a forest cabin north of Lake Superior.