A native of San Diego, John Fanestil is a graduate of Dartmouth College, Oxford University - where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar - and the Claremont School of Theology.

Since 1992 Fanestil has worked as a pastor in United Methodist churches in Southern California. He lives in La Mesa, a small city just east of San Diego, with his wife, Jennifer Leich, and their two children, Ellen and Jacob.

Fanestil's writing has appeared in The Guardian (London), The San Diego Union-Tribune and The Los Angeles Times. Mrs. Hunter's Happy Death is his first book.

Photo: Cinnamon Gray