Former journalist, folksinger and attorney Jeffery Deaver's novels have appeared on a number of best seller lists around the world, including The New York Times, The Times of London and The Los Angeles Times. The author of twenty-one novels, he's been nominated for six Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, a Steel Dagger and a Short Story Dagger from the British Crime Writers Association, an Anthony Award, and a Gumshoe Award, is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader's Award for Best Short Story of the Year, and is a winner of the British Thumping Good Read Award. His book A Maiden's Grave was made into an HBO movie staring James Garner and Marlee Matlin, and his novel The Bone Collector was a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. His most recent books are The Twelfth Card, Garden of Beasts, and Twisted: Collected Stories. And, yes, the rumors are true, he did appear as a corrupt reporter on his favorite soap opera, As The World Turns.

The song Jeff wrote for the short story "The Fan" is a down-home, heartland country-western song, about love and longing. He wrote the lyrics first then plucked out the melody on his old Martin D-35. Although he didn't perform in the country-western genre when he was a professional musician, he "likes the passion, raw emotion and cleverness of the best CW music," and thought it would make a good motif for a dark, twisted crime story, set in the Nashville world.