About Rob Kantner
Born in Ohio in 1952,
Rob Kantner has lived in Michigan since 1972. He served a Vietnam-era hitch as a journalist in the U. S. Naval Reserve, and was honorably discharged in 1977. In 1978 he graduated from Eastern Michigan University.
Rob spent early adult years in middle-management marketing and advertising posts, later times in general management for small manufacturing/service firms. From 1995 to 2021 he ran his own business management consulting firm.
In 1982 Rob's first published fiction appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Subsequently he published nine Ben Perkins novels and several dozen short stories. The tenth Perkins novel, Final Fling, first appeared in 2008 and was republished in 2025.
Rob won the Shamus award for private eye fiction four times. "Something Simple," a Ben Perkins short story, was anthologized in The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories (Ed Gorman, ed.) in 2000. His short story "How Wendy Tudhope Was Saved From Sure and Certain Death," published in 2003 in Alfred Hitchcock, appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2004 (Houghton Mifflin). "Down Home Blues," another Perkins short story, was published in The Best Amerian Mystery Stories 2009 (Jeffrey Deaver, Ed.).
Rob is the father of Meaghan, John, and Robert, step-dad of Jon and Adrienne, and has six grandchildren. He lives with his ride-or-die Deanna Heath in west-central Michigan.
Latest publications
Private detective Ben Perkins has handled many a peculiar case for many a shady client, but Gail Ringgold is right up there. Her newborn son vanished in a Detroit hospital, the cops don't have a clue, and now, a whole year later, she wants Ben, a first-time father himself, to find her kid.
To get the answers, end a bloody and horrific business, and expose the shadowy figures behind it, Ben needs the help of some friends, all his toughness and smarts, and to put his own life on the line. (Ben Perkins Series No. 8)
For private detective Ben Perkins, an invitation to his 25-year high school reunion revives more than just memories of hard partying in Detroit. For Ben, memory lane leads always to the mysterious death of his gentle classmate Sara on the eve of their graduation.
Now Ben goes back to school. To learn the tragic truth about the past, and to teach a lesson in hard knocks to a killer who did his homework and may just turn Perkins in for extra credit. (Ben Perkins Series No. 6) )
Husband of the year? Not Rip Brownlee. But not even Bonabell, his long-suffering wife, thinks he deserved to end up dead, gutted like a fish. So she calls in Detroit private detective Ben Perkins, fresh off a year on break from the rough stuff - he hasn't even bothered to replace his .45 automatic.
Working his way through Rip's murky world of shady deals, skanky girls, and secret sins, Ben learns that Rip's murder was anything but random. From long ago and far away, Rip's killer draws closer by the day. And soon, Ben Perkins will wish he had his old .45 back. . . . (Ben Perkins Series No. 10)
This anthology of 18 Ben Perkins stories of crime and detection is now available for the first time in a Kindle edition.
This brand new anthology collects 13 non-Perkins crime stories published in various places between 1983 and 2006. Available in hardcover and Kindle editions.
