Richard Setlowe

“I start with what I am familiar—the Navy, my journalism in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the Far East—and then plunge into what is unknown and dangerous,” says Richard Setlowe. “Critics label my novels as ‘thrillers,’ but they really integrate several genres—war stories, sci-fi, the supernatural, espionage, murder mysteries, etc.—and always, always, a love story. I’m a die-hard romantic. I go where we‘ve never been before, and the reader shares that journey.”

In its starred review of his fifth and latest novel The Sexual Occupation of Japan, Kirkus Reviews said, “Lucky readers who first discover Setlowe here (The Black Sea, etc.) will delight in knowing that some thrillers can be great fun and for grownups at the same time.”

The Brink was a finalist for the Ernest Hemingway Award for First Novels. Both The Experiment and The Haunting of Suzanna Blackwell were Literary Guild Selections. The Black Sea was a Nominee for the PEN Center USA West Literary Award in Fiction. With its publication author Clive Cusseler wrote, “Richard Setlowe has to be the finest adventure writer in the country today.” The Sexual Occupation of Japan was selected as one of the "Eight of the year's most entertaining works of fiction" by The Boston Phoenix. “Masquerading as a thriller, this is a layered story of how love, hate, mistakes and good deeds can cause ripples across time and history," novelist Lisa See noted in a separate review.

Setlowe’s novels have been translated into a dozen languages.