Robert Lowell Moore Jr., AKA Robin Moore, who was born on Halloween Night (October 31) 1925 in Boston, Massachusetts, always wanted to be a writer. True to his Halloween birthdate, Robin's choice of topics have frequently leaned toward the supernatural and macabre.
Robin was raised in Concord, Massachusetts and attended Middlesex School and Belmont Hill School. After graduating from Belmont Hill, he joined the armed forces and flew a tour of combat missions over Germany during the closing days of World War II. He graduated from Harvard College in 1949 and went to New York to produce television shows. In 1952 he returned to Boston to work for the Sheraton Hotel Company co-founded by his father, Robert Lowell Moore senior. But, what Robin really wanted to do was write.
His first novel, Pitchman was about the burgeoning TV business. He continued to work for Sheraton and as a result of trying to establish Sheraton hotels in the Caribbean in the late 50s he ran across Fidel Castro which led to his chronicling the Cuban communist dictator's guerrilla campaign in a non-fiction book The Devil To Pay. A third novel about Robin's family business, Hotel Tomayne, brought about the end of his career in hotel management and was the start of his full-time writing career.
In 1963 his Harvard classmate, Robert Kennedy, President John F. Kennedy's brother, made it possible for Robin to join the US Army Special Forces as a civilian. Robin went through almost a year of training and then went to Vietnam with the Special Forces and wrote his definitive novel of the Vietnam War, The Green Berets which was published in May of 1965.
The French Connection followed this first success when Robin joined the New York police department in one of their most spectacular drug busts. Robin continued to write and his next big hit was The Happy Hooker with Xaviera Hollander, the story of the most controversial madam in New York City.
Robin then went on to write many more novels about international intrigue and adventure. He often traveled internationally to gather background material for his books.
Robin returned to Southeast Asia to write The Country Team about American diplomacy and Green Beret operations in Asia. The Khaki Mafia was next, chronicling the adventures of a beautiful, blond Australian girl's adventures as an entertainer and talent booker to US Army posts throughout Vietnam.
A stint as a treasure hunter in the Caribbean led to The Treasure Hunter. In the 70s Robin spent a year in Iran and the middle east researching his next novel, Dubai, an epic of gold smuggling, oil exploration, and political subversion in the Arab world. Two novels of gambling followed. The first was the story of a great con game, The Big Paddle and the other was the heartbreaking tale of a compulsive gambler, Compulsion. Robin returned to his hotel background in The Fifth Estate.
One of his more recent novels, The White Tribe, was the result of three years spent in Africa observing American and European mercenaries fighting communist terrorism. After Africa Robin traveled to Russia where he did extensive research leading to The Moscow Connection, the story of the sale of Russian nuclear weapons to rouge nations. His latest book, The Sparrowhook Curse, a paranormal tale of love and family revenge, was the result of many years summering at his parents island home on Cuttyhunk Island.
Robin continues to write and is currently working with Raymond Flynn, former US Ambassador to the Vatican and former Mayor of Boston, on a novel about Vatican intrigue, The Accidental Pope.
