Duchin & Wilson bios

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About the Authors of Blue Moon and Good Morning Heartache

Blue Moon, published by Berkley Prime Crime in October, 2002, launched the Philip Damon mystery series, inspired by the life and times of famed society orchestra leader Peter Duchin, who co-authored the novel with John Morgan Wilson. Good Morning Heartache followed in 2003. Both are now available in paperback.

  Peter Duchin is frequently referred to as “America’s preeminent Society bandleader.” Peter was born on July 28, 1937 to Eddy Duchin, the famous pianist and orchestra leader and the socially prominent Marjorie Oelrichs. She died five days after Peter’s difficult birth, so Peter – suffering from a nearly fatal collapsed lung – went to live with the Duchin’s best friends, the Averell Harrimans. Harriman, later governor of New York, was a leading diplomat and businessman; his wife, Marie, had been schooled with Peter’s mother. After two years in an oxygen tent, Peter completely recovered and went to live with his father, when Eddy Duchin returned from overseas service in World War II. Eddy remarried but tragically contracted leukemia and died in 1951.

   Peter was educated at the Hotchkiss School and Yale University, served two years in the Army, and formed his band in 1962, when he had his debut at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City . He was a huge success, recorded more than 20 albums, appeared in many movies, and performed at Presidential inaugurals, royal palaces, the White House, numerous charity benefits and the world’s most elegant hotels and supper clubs.

Today, Peter Duchin Entertainment supplies music for more than 600 events each year, private and public. Peter serves on the boards of many cultural institutions, including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Municipal Arts Society, and the Center for Arts Education (the Annenberg grant for arts in education). In 1998, he was chosen a “Living Landmark” by the New York City landmark commission.

Peter is an avid outdoorsman and fisherman, often vacationing in the wilds with his wife, Brooke Hayward (author of the best-selling Haywire), his three children and their families. Peter’s autobiography, Ghost of a Chance, written with New Yorker editor, Charles Michener, was also a national bestseller. Peter and his wife live in New York City and Connecticut.

John Morgan Wilson is the Edgar Award-winning author of the Benjamin Justice mystery series, which has also won two Lambda Literary Awards. John was born on September 19, 1945 on an army base in Florida and grew up in a Southern California beach town. He began writing for newspapers at 19 and earned a degree in journalism at San Diego State University . After college, he worked as a police reporter for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and later as an assistant editor with the Los Angeles Times. As a freelance, John has written hundreds of articles for a dozen major newspapers and many magazines, and more than a hundred fact-based TV scripts for various network and cable channels.  He is a board member of the Southern California chapter of Mystery Writers of America and editor of its newsletter, The March of Crime.

His first mystery novel, Simple Justice (1996), introduced the character of Benjamin Justice in a dark, hard-boiled series set in Los Angeles, and won the prestigious Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America for best first mystery novel.  In the intervening years, he has written five more Justice novels, REVISION OF JUSTICE (1997), JUSTICE AT RISK (1999, Lambda Award Winner), THE LIMITS OF JUSTICE (2000, Lambda Award Winner), Blind Eye (2003, Lambda Award Winner), MOTH AND FLAME (December, 2004).

   Blue Moon (October, 2002), co-written with Peter Duchin, introduced a new character, society bandleader Philip Damon, in a lighter, more nostalgic and romantic vein. Good Morning Heartache, the second Philip Damon mystery followed in 2003.

John lives in West Hollywood, California with Pietro Gamino, his companion of many years.