Peter Loewer is a writer, graphic artist, photographer, and botanical illustrator who has written more than 30 books on natural history, gardening, great gardeners, and science for children. He graduated from the Albright Art School of the University of Buffalo with a degree in graphics and a minor in art history, and upon graduation was awarded the Max Beckmann Fellowship to the Brooklyn Museum Art. Among his groundbreaking works are the first book on ornamental grasses, Growing and Decorating with Ornamental Grasses (1973); the first book on nocturnal flowers for bloom and fragrance, The Evening Garden (1994); and Thoreau's Garden and Jefferson's Garden. His eponymous book, The Wild Gardener, was named one of the best 75 garden books of the 20th century by the American Horticultural Society. For many years he hosted a monthly call-in garden show on public radio in Asheville, NC, where he lives with his wife, illustrator Jean Jenkins (who also designed the cover of this book). Peter has taught at the North Carolina Arboretum, UNC Asheville's OLLI Center, Montreat Elderhostel, Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, and at Penland School in Spruce Pine. He also practices printmaking and works on pen and colored-pencil renderings of native plants and their pollinating insects. Peter worked for a time as a small-town newspaper editor, out of which experience came the inspiration for The Last of the Swindlers, his first murder mystery.