In his life as a mystery writer, he created the Ben Abbott detective series (HardScape, StoneDust, FrostLine, McMansion, and Mausoleum), and was twice nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America, for his first novel Many Happy Returns, and his short story “An Eye for a Tooth” in the Adams Round Table Anthology Justice in Manhattan.
Scott was born in Manhattan and grew up on Long Island in a family of professional writers. His father, A. Leslie Scott, wrote some 250 Western novels—under a variety of pen names, a penchant for which seems to run in the family—and reams of poetry; his mother, Lily K. Scott, wrote novels and romances as well as short stories for slicks and pulps. His sister, Alison Scott Skelton, is also a novelist, as was her late husband, C.L. Skelton.
Before becoming a full-time writer, Scott worked at a variety of jobs: he drove boats and trucks, built Fire Island beach houses, tended bar in a Hell’s Kitchen saloon, and edited an electronic engineering journal. He holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in American history, and has traveled extensively in Russia, China, and Scotland, while researching his novels.
His main pen name is Paul Garrison under which he has written five sea stories, though he was also written mysteries as J.S.Blazer and Alexander Cole. These days they all live in Connecticut with his wife, the filmmaker Amber Edwards.