Dot Dead is Keith Raffel's first mystery. It's not surprising that he sets the book in California's Silicon Valley, nor that he knows its culture so well. He has spent 20 years working there for high-tech companies, big and small. In 1997 he founded his own company, UpShot Corporation. UpShot won numerous awards from press and analysts including recognition from Enterprise Outlook as an "Investors' Choice" and from Upside Magazine as a "Hot Company." In the fall of 2003, UpShot was purchased by Siebel Systems, which, in the way of Silicon Valley, was itself swallowed by Oracle two years later. Encouraged by the success of Dot Dead, Keith has left Oracle and is currently writing full-time.

Growing up in Palo Alto, Keith watched local orchards and dairies being replaced by tilt-up buildings filled with software engineers. He still lives in Palo Alto, around the corner from his parents' house of forty years, along with his wife, Teri, and their four children. Much of Dot Dead was written at the crack of dawn or while squeezed into coach seats on flights to and from the East Coast.



Check out Keith's blog by clicking on the "Dot Dead Diary" button below.