Birmingham attorney MIKE STEWART is the author of A Perfect Life, Sins of the Brother, Dog Island, and A Clean Kill. A native of Vredenburgh, a small South Alabama sawmill town located in Monroe County, he grew up exploring the woods, rivers, creeks, and seashores of the Deep South that now play a central role in his fiction. As a successful corporate attorney, Stewart has more than ten years' experience representing clients before the state and federal courts of Alabama. Five years ago, he left his position as General Counsel of a large healthcare company to devote full time to writing. He is at work on his next novel of suspense, which Dell will publish in 2007.