Chris Carter – The Hunter And The Hunted

Chris Carter is a crime writer with a long résumé of published works. He is most well-known for his Robert Hunter series of detective novels, which includes An Evil Mind, One By One, The Night Stalker and The Crucifix Killer, all of which have enjoyed big success globally. But dig deeper into his CV, and you will find that Carter’s own journey is even stranger than fiction.

From criminal psychologist to musician, burger bar worker to exotic dancer, to full time writer there doesn’t seem to be much that Carter hasn’t tried his hand at.

The author of the number one bestselling book, The Caller – which came before his latest work, Gallery of the Dead (published by Ullstein Verlag) – was born in Brasilia, Brazil in 1965. Since then, Carter is someone who really has seen, and done, it all.

After finishing university in his early 20s, Carter moved to the United States. The man was then unsure what to do for his career. After much deliberation, he moved onward with his studies, then settled with a job as a criminal psychologist in Michigan, where he stayed at for several years.

Carter then moved to Los Angeles, where he replaced the suits and ties with denim jackets, guitars and rock music! He played guitar and keyboard in glam-rock bands until his 30s and played support for Bjork, Shania Twain, Ricky Martin and Tom Jones. He dabbled in several jobs after that, working at a burger bar, programming computers and even becoming a professional exotic dancer.

Whilst working as a dancer, he put pen to paper and wrote as a hobby, finding the job gave him the opportunity time to write. In 2006, working two jobs and suffering from clinical insomnia – causing him to have many sleepless nights – Carter used the nighttime as his muse and wrote his first novel, The Crucifix Killer, which was published in 2008.

Since then, he has continued to build his reputation with an impressive catalogue of published works including the Robert Hunter series.

Now writing full-time in London, Carter releases one book a year. Released this month by Ullstein Verlag, his latest novel, Gallery of the Dead, tells how Detective Robert Hunter and Carlos Gareta, of the Ultra-Violent Crimes Unit, investigate the most horrific crime scene the characters have ever worked on. In a turn of catastrophic events, they find themselves in partnership with the FBI to track down a serial killer that seems to make every murder he commits an art form. Chris Carter has been complimented by the Daily Mail as being the creator of “a chilling, compulsive portrait of a psychopath, this novel proves that Carter is now in the Jeffery Deaver class”.

Chris Carter is one of those authors that makes writing seem effortless, but his work rings with the complexity of Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs and the visuality of Bret Easton-Ellis’, American Psycho. Carter has seven best-selling novels and is planning on publishing more in the United States and the United Kingdom with publishing house, Ullstein Verlag.

We are fairly sure that Carter’s exploration into different career options has ended now at writing, but going by his past, who knows?