Born January 19,1964, HL Arledge worked 5 years as a freelance journalist and editorial cartoonist for 7 newspapers in South Louisiana. He served as editor for 3 years with the state's oldest weekly before launching a software consulting firm. The company was called Sherlock Software.

Today, HL Arledge is the Development Manager of an international software company based in central California, but it is the experience he acquired as a hard-nosed journalist that fuels his greatest passion—writing suspense fiction.