Local sleuth-crafting bestseller Alan Russell celebrates 20th landmark novel

If you find yourself rubbing elbows with eccentric hotel guests in the lobby of a posh world-class resort, where two dead bodies happened to check out early, and there’s a murderer trying to blend in with the Bob Johnson Society (a convention of several hundred Bob Johnson namesakes), you’re either curled up with a bestselling Alan Russell mystery novel, or you’re actually walking in Alan Russell’s size 13½ shoes investigating bizarre occurrences as manager of a beachfront SoCal property.

A Bay Area native, Russell grew up bicoastally, finishing his high school years at La Jolla High. He moved up the hill to the University of California, San Diego, majoring in English and American Literature with minors in anthropology and history. On the non-academic front, the 6’ 7” Russell was also playing varsity basketball. As a sophomore he decided to forsake wrist flicks for the written word, launching his métier working on the school newspaper, and ultimately ending up as its editor-in-chief.

In Russell’s freshmen year, he started a parallel career in hospitality that would eventually intersect between the covers of his assorted novels. Starting as a night auditor at the upscale Sea Lodge at La Jolla Shores he eventually climbed his way up the hotel ladder to become general manager. There, Russell witnessed, “the craziness that goes on in hotels with guests, staff, and other assorted characters.” That environment blended nicely with his self-proclaimed “warped sense of humor” to produce his award-winning hotel detective novels (The Fat Innkeeper, a stand-out in this book series collection, earned him a Lefty award for best humorous mystery, along with a USA Today Critics’ Choice Award).

During Russell’s lengthy writing career (his first novel published in 1990), he has written books that run the gamut of crime fiction, penning whodunits, comedic capers, police procedurals, thrillers, and psychological suspense. Along the way, his works have earned rave reviews from such newspapers as The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, with Publishers Weekly proclaiming him to be, “One of the best writers in the mystery field today.”

A long-standing caninophile, Russell attributes his career breakthrough to the Burning Man series that introduces LAPD cop Michael Gideon and his canine sidekick, Sirius, to chilling and high-stakes cases. The seventh book in this highly popular series will be coming out in 2026. His second novel in the series, Guardians of the Night, became a number one e-book bestseller with more than a quarter million downloads over the book’s life history. As for becoming a bestseller, Russell quipped, “It was nice to be outselling Stephen King, if only for a week.”

But it’s Russell’s deep-dive into research striving for impeccable authenticity that has become the holy grail throughout his author’s journey. He goes above and beyond the call of duty to provide verisimilitude in all his books. Before writing his heartwarming “Christmas cop” novel, St. Nick about a suspended San Diego police officer who goes undercover as a mall Santa to catch muggers, Russell himself took a gig job as a mall Santa for an entire holiday season to immerse himself in the character’s role.

The book was a top 10 Audible bestseller and has been optioned by several major Hollywood studios. Russell still hopes it will one day be made into a film. The author also went out on calls (“usually in the middle of the night,” he said) with San Diego Police Department’s Homicide Team IV to garner first-hand experience for his police procedural novels.

On Nov. 26, the mystery marathon man will be launching his 20th milestone novel titled The Dead Detective (Bloodhound Books). When a sneaker encasing a decomposed lower extremity washes ashore in Ocean Beach, Detective Wyatt Lake puts his best foot forward to investigate the gruesome case. It gets worse. A second shoe also with a severed foot turns up in the vicinity, leading forensic experts to a sunken shipping container with 12 shackled bodies parked on the sea floor that seems to indicate a human trafficking ring gone wrong.

When the Feds shanghai the investigation, Lake transfers into the cold case division and continues to work it off the books. In the midst of one of his investigations, Lake learns that he has a terminal illness, which doesn’t stop the determined detective from persisting with his cases. In a terrible irony, Lake falls in love with a woman who survived a brutal attack almost a quarter of a century earlier.

Despite all his protagonist’s adversities, Russell says The Dead Detective is a story about hope. “Lake wants to finish his life in the right way by resolving cold cases that hang heavy on him, and even in the midst of his failing health is able to discover the love of his life.”

Russell, an Encinitas denizen and empty nester, lives with his clinical social worker wife Laura (the couple met at UC San Diego) and their beloved rescue dogs among sprawling organic gardens and orchards that he cultivates daily. While Russell has a neon green thumb, he writes in shades of gray, exploring moral complexities and the messiness of justice while reflecting on aspects of his own life.

The seasoned author says there’s nothing better for a writer than to be told they’ve written a really great story (on Goodreads his novels have amassed 25,000 reviews). The scribe humbly admits to being one of the lucky ones.

“The odds are stacked against all writers but even knowing that I felt compelled to persevere,” he said.

While Russell doesn’t have a formula for literary success, he believes writers should pen the story that they feel most compelled to write. “You should write the book that you want to read,” he said.

For more information about The Dead Detective, and where to buy a hard copy (available Nov. 28), go to www.bloodhoundbooks.com. Digital copies will be sold through multiple e-book vendors, and audio books through Dreamscape Publishing narrated by an Audie award winner (Oscar for readers), both available Nov. 26.