Rick Shefchik was born and raised in Duluth, Minnesota, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1974 and worked at the Duluth News-Tribune for three years. He then spent 26 years at the St. Paul Pioneer Press as a media critic, features writer, columnist and sportswriter.
He left the Pioneer Press in December 2006 to become a novelist and freelance journalist. "Amen Corner," set at The Masters, was published in 2007 by Poisoned Pen Press, and is the first in a series of sports-related thrillers featuring ex-Minneapolis police detective Sam Skarda. The second, "Green Monster," was published in 2008 by Poisoned Pen and involves the Boston Red Sox. His third Sam Skarda novel, "Frozen Tundra," about the Green Bay Packers, was published by North Star Press in 2010. His fourth novel, the rock 'n' roll thriller "Rather See You Dead," was published in September 2011.
He lives in Stillwater, Minnesota, with his wife, Barbara. They have two children -- Claire, a freelance writer and editor, and David, a computer scientist working with Cognizant. His main hobbies are golf and playing the guitar, at which he's equally adequate, but some distance from accomplished.
