Chip Hughes earned a Ph.D. in English at Indiana University in 1981 and taught courses in American literature, film, writing, and popular fiction at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa.  He left the university in 2008 to write full time.  His non-fiction publications include Beyond The Red Pony: A Reader’s Companion to Steinbeck’s Complete Short Stories (1987)—translated into Japanese in 1990; John Steinbeck: A Study of the Short Fiction (1989); and numerous essays and reviews.

An active member of the Private Eye Writers of America, Chip launched the Surfing Detective mystery series in 2007 with Murder on Moloka‘i. The second book, Wipeout!, followed in 2007.  The third, Kula, in 2011.  Other titles, in various stages of development, include Murder at Volcano House, Barking Sands, and the Maui Masseuse. The series has been optioned for television.

Chip lives in windward O‘ahu with his wife and two retrievers. He still surfs when time allows.