wolf haas was born in 1960 in maria alm am steinernen meer, which is part of the austrian province of salzburg. after university he worked as an advertising copywriter. between 1996 and 2003 he wrote seven detective stories, of which six featured detective simon brenner. three were made into films: "komm, süßer tod" (come sweet death), "silentium" and "der knochenmann" (the boneman). he has won several prizes for his works, including placed in the german prize for crime fiction ("deutscher krimi preis") three times, including one first place (1997, 1999, 2000. and the literaturpreis der stadt bremen 2013.