Andy Straka, American author

Andy Straka is a Shamus Award-winning American crime novelist. Born and raised in upstate New York and a graduate of Williams College, he worked in publishing and medical sales for nearly fifteen years before turning to writing in the late 1990s. His debut private-eye novel, A Witness Above, garnered Shamus, Anthony, and Agatha Award nominations for Best First Novel in 2002. A Killing Sky received an Anthony Award nomination in 2003, and Straka's third book, Cold Quarry, won a 2004 Shamus Award. His series of six Frank Pavlicek novels features a former New York City police detective who also spends much of his time flying various hawks to help inspire him to solve criminal cases. The fourth novel in the Pavlicek series, Kitty Hitter, was called a "great read" by Library Journal. Kitty Hitter was re-released with a new title, The Night Falconer, as an e-book and paperback. A fifth book featuring Pavlicek is the novella Flightfall. Another full-length novel, The K Street Hunting Society, was released as book 6 in the Pavlicek series in 2014.