Phillip Tomasso

Phillip Tomasso is an American author known for crime, suspense, and mystery fiction. He is the Amazon best-selling writer of You Choose (2018) and Mind Play (1999). Over his career, he has received awards for both his novels and his popular zombie series.

Phillip Tomasso was born and raised in Rochester, New York. In school, he was diagnosed with a reading disability and avoided books. That changed in 1984 when his seventh-grade class read The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. “Hinton was sixteen when she wrote that book,” he recalled. “I decided I wanted to write stories that would inspire reluctant readers to read.”

After that, reading became a central part of his life. Tomasso devoured the works of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, James Patterson, Walter Mosley, and John Grisham. Their influence would shape his future fiction. In 1991, he sold his first story, an 8,000-word western, to a Canadian magazine. He earned forty-five dollars for it and spent the payment on a family dinner at McDonald’s.

Tomasso’s first novel, Mind Play (1999), was a psychological thriller. It launched a career that soon spanned multiple genres, including mystery and suspense, horror, science fiction, fantasy, and young adult fiction. Since 2000, he has published more than twenty-seven novels. His ability to write across multiple genres led to strong interest from both readers and publishers.

In 2018, he began a new direction in his writing career with a focus on crime fiction. That same year, You Choose was released, the first novel in a series featuring Homicide Investigators Vincent Falcone and Farrah Richards. The story, set in Rochester, centres on a serial killer who targets police officers. “He takes the family and tells the officer — You’re going to die. Whether your spouse or your child dies with you, the decision is yours. You choose,” said Tomasso.

He drew inspiration for the novel from his work as a 911 Fire and EMS Dispatcher, a position he has held since 2009. “It’s the best job I’ve ever had,” he said. “The people I work with and the job that we do day in and day out is my inspiration.” His experience in emergency response gives his fiction realistic depth, particularly in scenes involving law enforcement.

Alongside his crime fiction, Tomasso continues to explore horror and mystery. His novella Woman in the Woods (2019) is set in the Adirondack Mountains and spans two time periods.

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