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Joseph Schneider

Biography

Joseph Schneider

Joseph Schneider was born and raised in Los Angeles. He exhibited a passion for the arts from a young age, studying piano and competitive ballroom dance. When he was 16, he entered the Midsummer in Oxford drama program and decided to pursue acting. After graduating Oakwood High, he was admitted to the theater program at UCLA.

During his senior year, he fell in love with close-up magic and mentalism. After several months of immersive self-study, Joseph became a working illusionist. Following a successful audition, he was granted membership to the world-famous magicians’ clubhouse, The Magic Castle. In 2007, he attended Sideshow School at the historic Coney Island Midway, studying escapology, fire-eating, and other secret arts of the American carnival.

When magic gigs were scarce, Joseph supplemented his income by teaching dance. In 2009 Joseph was named an associate of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD). His life changed when a production company reached out to him as a consultant for a show about con artists working the French Riviera. Impressed with his ideas, they asked him to develop episode outlines. This job led to others, and Joseph realized his varied pursuits and unusual knowledge base could be unified in a writing career. He was soon awarded a graduate fellowship at Saint Mary’s College, where he completed an MFA in creative nonfiction. His debut novel, ONE DAY YOU'LL BURN, was published in 2020. 

Joseph’s professional affiliations include the Mystery Writers of America and the Crime Writers’ Association. Most recently, he was inducted as a member of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards, a livery company of London.

Joseph Schneider

Books by Joseph Schneider

The Darkest Game
by Joseph Schneider - Fiction, Mystery

A museum curator is found shot point-blank, his home torn apart. It's the sort of random crime destined to fester in an evidence locker. But it's a case tailor-made for academic turned detective Tully Jarsdel --- he can't leave any question unanswered. In pursuit of an untouchable killer, Jarsdel soon uncovers a web of fraud and corruption that leads him to sunny Catalina Island, Hollywood's bygone playground. There, nothing is as it should be: the past is ever-present, and Jarsdel unwittingly finds himself embroiled in a widespread conspiracy. While reckoning with a dark legacy, he'll exhume long-buried secrets of LA's troubled past and deadly consequences.

What Waits for You
by Joseph Schneider - Fiction, Mystery

An elderly couple's home is transformed into a scene straight out of a horror film, their mutilated bodies the only clue left behind by the killer --- and they are only the unlucky first in a series of impossible murders. Soon dubbed the Eastside Creeper, the murderer camps out undetected in his victims' homes until he's ready to strike. After killing, he vanishes like smoke. Considered an expert in the grotesque, Detective Tully Jarsdel lands this seemingly unsolvable case. An academic-turned-cop, Jarsdel is intrigued by the Eastside Creeper. As the murders become more gruesome and the clues more inscrutable, widespread panic sets in. Jarsdel's unconventional methods may be the only thing left between a killer and a city about to descend into chaos.

One Day You'll Burn
by Joseph Schneider - Fiction, Mystery

A body so badly burned that it could be mistaken for a movie prop...except for the smell. That's not something the LAPD finds lying on the street every day. And when Detective Tully Jarsdel is called to the scene, it's clear to him that something about the placement of the corpse is intentional, even ritualistic. Jarsdel's former career in academia finally seems to be coming in handy. But nothing Jarsdel learned in school can prepare him for the deep evil behind this case, which appears to be as hopeless as it is violent. As Jarsdel and his partner, Morales, attempt to uncover the motive behind the horrendous crime, they find themselves dragged into the underbelly of a city notorious for chewing up and spitting out anyone dumb enough to turn their back on survival.