Donald Bain

Donald Bain is the author or ghost/​author of more than 115 books, many of them bestsellers. They encompass both fiction and non-fiction, and include such categories as murder mysteries, westerns, comedies, investigative journalism, food, business, psychology and historical dramatizations. His autobiography, Murder HE Wrote: A Successful Writer's Life, published by Purdue University Press, is available everywhere.(And soon to be an e-book through the publishing company, Hyphenates Books, that he and his wife, Renee, have recently started.

Among his books, the airline comedy, Coffee Tea or Me?, published almost 30 years ago, together with its sequels sold more than 5-million copies worldwide and was the basis of a television movie-of-the-week. In 2003, Penguin Books republished it as a "Penguin Comedy Classic."

Caviar, Caviar, Caviar, a coffee table book, is considered the definitive work on caviar. The Case Against Private Aviation brought about needed rules changes in commercial aviation.

Veronica was the autobiography of Hollywood film legend Veronica Lake.

Charlie and the Shawneetown Dame, a dramatization of a true story from the Prohibition era, and Bain's favorite of all the books he's written, has been in print for more than 20 years. Purdue University Press has published a new edition, available everywhere.

The World's Best Bartenders' Guide, written with Joseph Scott, was published in October 1998. Now out-of-print, a new edition from a different publisher is expected soon.

He currently writes a series of 37 original novels (hard and softcover) based upon the television series, Murder, She Wrote. They're published by Obsidian, a new imprint from Penguin (NAL/​Dutton), and are written “in collaboration" with TV's most famous mystery writer, Jessica Fletcher of "Murder, She Wrote," who exists only as a fictitious character.

Earlier in his career, Bain was a writer/​director for Peckham Productions, where he created films for such clients as Avon, American Airlines, Pan Am, IBM, Union Carbide and USIA, and wrote and produced two daily radio series: "Around the House," and "Jackie Douglas Reports." He also wrote a nationally syndicated health series, "House Call," and wrote and hosted another nationally syndicated series, "The Media Watch."

A public relations executive for McCann-Erickson and American Airlines, Bain also was a consultant to Pan Am for the introduction of the 747, the takeover of National Airlines, and a national campaign to promote air travel. Two of these projects earned Silver Anvil awards from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). In 1985, with his wife, he co-founded Hyphenates, Ltd., which provides editorial services to a wide variety of companies.

Bain is a graduate of Purdue University and received its highest award for his work in educational radio and television. (He was designated a Purdue "Distinguished Alumni" in 2003.) He went on to work professionally in broadcasting in Texas and Indiana, and co-hosted more than 200 shows in New York with Long John Nebel, then king of late-night talk-radio. Bain wrote a biography of Nebel, Long John Nebel, as well as a book about Nebel's wife, the famed model Candy Jones, and her experiences with the CIA and mind control, The Control of Candy Jones (performing rights to 20th Century Fox). The book was reissued in the fall of 2003 by Barricade Books, as The CIA’s Control of Candy Jones.

Bain has worked for over 40 years as a professional jazz musician (vibraphone and drums); has taught at the college level; and has written myriad magazine articles on such diverse subjects as travel, music (he was jazz columnist and critic for Boulevard Magazine) and fly fishing. He is a member of Sigma Delta Chi, the Writer's Guild of America, the Authors Guild, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and the Mystery Writers of America.

In 2006 he was designated "Grand Master" by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers (IAMTW).

Don Bain is married to Renée Paley-Bain, also a writer, and who collaborates with him on the “Murder, She Wrote” series. He has two grown daughters (Laurie, a fine writer and editor; and Pamela, the professor in the family) and four grandsons.