John Dale is an award winning author of ten books.

His best-selling true-crime biography, Huckstepp, was the winner of a Ned Kelly award, as was the first of his three crime novels, Dark Angel. His second crime novel The Dogs are Barking was inspired by the Wood Royal Commission into NSW Police, and his third crime novel Detective Work was based on the unsolved murder of model Revelle Balmain. His other books are a memoir, Wild Life, an investigation into the fatal shooting of his grandfather in 1940s Tasmania; a novella Plenty; and two novels Leaving Suzie Pye and the dystopian The Blasphemy Laws. He edited Sydney Noir in the Akashic Noir crime series and his latest novel, The Faculty, is a satirical exploration of the modern university workplace.