M. William Phelps is an American crime writer and investigative journalist.
Phelps is the author of 28 fact-based nonfiction (true crime) books and four history books, including co-authoring Failures of the Presidents with Thomas J. Craughwell.
Phelps has written for the Providence Journal, Hartford Courant and New London Day, and consulted on the first season of the Showtime cable television series Dexter.
After his book Murder in the Heartland was released, Phelps went on Good Morning America to talk about the 2004 murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett covered in his book about convicted killer Lisa M. Montgomery.
Beginning in January 2012, he produced and hosted with criminal profiler John Kelly the Investigation Discovery series Dark Minds, which airs on the Investigation Discovery channel. The series features unsolved serial murders. When Phelps' book The Killing Kind was released in June 2014, Publishers Weekly wrote, "Fans of the author's Discovery TV series, "Dark Minds," will be rewarded."
He was featured in Writers Digest with his debut true-crime book Perfect Poison in 2003 and again with the release of his eighth book, I'll be Watching You, in 2009.[9]
The New York Post in a February 2012 review called Phelps' book Never See Them Again, about Texas killer Christine Paolilla, a "riveting new book" that "examines one of the most horrific murders in recent American history." Kirkus Reviews called it a "thorough account of a quadruple murder in a Houston suburb in 2003."
Phelps' book Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of America's First Spy was listed as number 14 on The New York Times bestseller list in e-book nonfiction the week of May 11, 2014. Twilight actor Peter Facinelli in June 2014 acquired movie rights for his Nathan Hale book.
