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Jonathan Hayes is a senior medical examiner by day and an author of forensic thrillers by night. Born in England, Hayes lived in Jamaica and the West Indies as a child, raised in Boston yet attended Downside School and Abbey boarding school in England.
After boarding school, Hayes attended St. Thomas Hospital Medical School in London where he studied pathology. Back in Boston, Hayes worked in the same building as the medical examiners office, where his conversations piqued his interest in forensic pathology.
He ventured to Miami in the height of late 80s cocaine wars where he received his forensic training at the Dade County Medical Examiners Office. Hayes witnessed brutally murdered corpses, extracted bodies from the Everglades and even pieced together a body from inside a cement mixer.
Hayes then moved to New York City to work at the Chief of Medical Examiners office. While in Manhattan, Hayes transformed into a restauranteur, venturing to exquisite restaurants like Bouleys in Tribeca.
Hayes then wrote for Paper Magazine, covering the rave scene in New York in the late 90s. He later wrote for Food and Wine magazine before Martha Stewart hired Hayes for her magazine. He also wrote for the New York Times, Gentlemans Quarterly and New York magazine, before the disaster at the World Trade Center.
He helped identify the bodies from the World Trade Center, an emotionally draining eight months for Hayes. He used his critiques for Martha Stewart Living as an escape from that emotional period.
Hayes then met his agent through friend William Yosses, now the White Hosue executive pastry chef, who told him he should write fiction books. He wrote his first forensic thriller, Precious Blood, in 2008. He released his second thriller, A Hard Death in April 2011. Hayes is now working on his third forensic novel.
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