Timothy M. Burke grew up in rural upstate New York. The youngest of twelve children, he is a graduate of Syracuse University and Northeastern University School of Law. He successfully prosecuted more than twenty-five murder cases and more than fifty major felonies while assigned to the Homicide Unit of the Suffolk County District Attorney's office, including heading an investigation into the criminal actions of mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, recently apprehended and removed from number two on the FBI's Most Wanted List. Burke's prosecution of Massachusetts serial killer Leonard "The Quahog" Paradiso is detailed in Burke's first book, The Paradiso Files, "a stellar exploration of the soul of a mass murderer," according to Kirkus Reviews. The Bird's Song, Burke's second non-fiction tome, traces the interwoven heartaches of three women as they travail through the Massachusetts legal system in the late 1980's. Currently in private practice, Burke maintains an active law career in suburban Boston.