Marc Olden was a prolific American author, best known for his mystery and suspense novels. He was born in Baltimore in 1933 and began his writing career while working in New York as a Broadway publicist. Olden's first book, "Angela Davis," published in 1973, was a nonfiction study of the controversial Black Panther. This work demonstrated Olden's willingness to tackle relevant social issues, a theme that would recur throughout his career.
In the same year that "Angela Davis" was published, Olden released "Narc" under the pseudonym Robert Hawke. This marked the beginning of a hard-boiled nine-book series featuring a federal narcotics agent as the protagonist. The following year, Olden introduced another popular character, Robert Sand, in "Black Samurai." Sand was a martial arts expert who became the first non-Japanese student of a samurai master. This novel spawned a successful eight-book series, reflecting Olden's own interest in martial arts, which led him to achieve advanced ranks in karate and aikido. Olden continued to write, drawing on his fascination with Japanese culture and history, for the next three decades, producing a total of forty novels.