CHARLES PHILIPP MARTIN

Charles Philipp Martin grew up in New York City's Greenwich Village. His father was an opera conductor and both his parents well-known opera translators and librettists. After attending Columbia University and Manhattan School of Music, Martin took off for a six-year paid vacation in the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

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While in Hong Kong he hung up his bow and turned to writing, spending four years as a Sunday Magazine columnist for the South China Morning Post, and writing for magazines all over Southeast Asia. His weekly jazz radio show 3 O'Clock Jump was heard every Saturday on Hong Kong’s Radio 3 for some two decades.

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His suspense novel Neon Panic, published in 2011, introduced Hong Kong police inspector Herman Lok. Rented Grave appeared in 2024, and East Hell, the latest in his Inspector Lok series, appeared in September of 2026. Martin now lives in Seattle with his wife Catherine.