Charles Ardai (born 1969) is an American entrepreneur, businessperson, and writer of award winning crime fiction and mysteries. He is founder and editor of Hard Case Crime, a line of pulp-style paperback crime novels. He is also an early employee of D. E. Shaw & Co. and remains a managing director of the firm. He was the former chairman of Schrödinger, Inc.

Early life

A New York native and the son of two

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Axis powers, its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no unive ...

, Ardai told

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

in a May 2008 interview that the stories his parents told him as a child "were the most grim and frightening that you can imagine" and gave him the impression "there was a darker circle around a very small bit of light," something that enabled him to relate to his own characters' sufferings. While in high school, Ardai enjoyed reading

pulp fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhame ...

and worked as an intern at

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

’s Science Fiction Magazine. After graduating from

Hunter College High School Hunter College High School is a secondary school located in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is administered by Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY). Hunter is publicly funded, and there i ...

in 1987, he attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where he graduated ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

'' in 1991.

Career

Right out of college, Ardai was hired by hedge fund DE Shaw. His first job at the firm was to set up its recruiting department, with a goal of hiring "people who really excel in one field or another." Sometime in the early 1990s, Shaw tasked Ardai and

Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ''né'' Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former preside ...

with coming up with potential online business ideas. While Ardai founded

Juno Juno commonly refers to: *Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods *Juno (film), ''Juno'' (film), 2007 Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, in the film ''Jenny, Juno'' *Ju ...

, an internet company, in 1996 with DE Shaw as an investor; Bezos went on to found

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...

on his own. After Juno was sold in 2001, Ardai and Max Phillips decided to start a publishing company to publish crime fiction in the

pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...

style they grew up enjoying. That proposed company became Hard Case Crime, which published its first books in 2004. Ardai's writing has appeared in mystery magazines such as ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' and ''Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine'', gaming magazines such as ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'' and ''

Electronic Games An electronic game is a game that uses electronics to create an interactive system with which a player can play. Video games are the most common form today, and for this reason the two terms are often used interchangeably. There are other common ...

'', and anthologies such as ''Best Mysteries of the Year'' and ''

The Year's Best Horror Stories The Year’s Best Horror Stories was a series of annual anthologies published by DAW Books in the U.S. from 1972 to 1994 under the successive editorships of Richard Davis from 1972 to 1975 (after a 1971-1973 series published by Sphere Books in the ...

''. Ardai has also edited numerous short story collections such as ''

The Return of the Black Widowers ''The Return of the Black Widowers'' is a collection of short mystery stories by American writer Isaac Asimov, featuring his fictional club of mystery solvers, the Black Widowers. It was first published in hardcover by Carroll & Graf in December 20 ...

'', ''Great Tales of Madness and the Macabre'', and ''Futurecrime''. In 1994, Ardai's short story "Nobody Wins," published in 1993 by Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, received a Shamus nomination for Best P.I. Short Story. His first novel, ''Little Girl Lost'' (2004) was nominated for both the

Edgar Allan Poe Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

by the

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the Edgar Award ...

and the

Shamus Award The Shamus Award is awarded by the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) for the best detective fiction ( P. I. = Private investigator) genre novels and short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one si ...

by the Private Eye Writers of America. His second novel, ''Songs of Innocence'', was called "an instant classic" by ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', selected as one of the best books of the year by ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'', and won the 2008 Shamus Award. Both books were written under the alias Richard Aleas and were optioned for the movies by Universal Pictures. He received the

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

in 2007 for the short story "The Home Front". Ardai's third novel, ''Fifty-to-One'', was published in November 2008. It was the fiftieth book in the ''Hard Case Crime'' series and the first to be published under Ardai's real name. His fourth novel, ''Hunt Through the Cradle of Fear'', is part of a pulp adventure series he created in 2009, describing the globetrotting exploits of a modern-day explorer named Gabriel Hunt. Authorship of all the books in this series were originally credited to Gabriel Hunt himself. In 2010, he began working as a writer and producer on the SyFy television series ''Haven'', inspired by the Hard Case Crime novel ''

The Colorado Kid ''The Colorado Kid'' is a mystery novel by American writer Stephen King, published by the Hard Case Crime imprint in 2005. The book was initially issued in one paperback-only edition by the specialty crime and mystery publishing house. King's ...

'' by

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

. The first episode of ''Haven'' aired on July 9, 2010 and the last aired on December 17, 2015. In 2015, he received the Ellery Queen Award for his work on Hard Case Crime. In 2016, he wrote a novel based on the

Shane Black Shane Black (born December 16, 1961) is an American filmmaker and actor who has written such films as ''Lethal Weapon'', ''The Monster Squad'', ''The Last Boy Scout'', ''Last Action Hero'', and ''The Long Kiss Goodnight''. As an actor, Black is ...

movie ''

The Nice Guys ''The Nice Guys'' is a 2016 American action comedy film directed and co-written (alongside Anthony Bagarozzi) by Shane Black, produced by Joel Silver, and starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling in the title roles with Angourie Rice, Matt Bom ...

''. In addition to his writing and publishing activities, Ardai serves as a managing director of the D. E. Shaw group.

Awards and nominations

* 1994: "Nobody Wins" nominated for

by the Private Eye Writers of America Shamus in the category "Best P.I. Short Story" * 2004: ''Little Girl Lost'' nominated for

by the Mystery Writers of America† * 2004 ''Little Girl Lost'' nominated for

by the Private Eye Writers of America† * 2007:

for the short story "The Home Front" * 2008:

for Best Original P.I. Paperback for ''Songs of Innocence'' † * 2015: Ellery Queen Award (an Edgar Award category "to honor outstanding writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry") for his work on Hard Case Crime. † Written under pseudonym "Richard Aleas."

Personal life

Ardai is married to writer

Naomi Novik Naomi Novik (born April 30, 1973) is an American author of speculative fiction. She is known for the ''Temeraire'' series (2006–2016), an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars involving dragons, and her ''Scholomance'' fantasy series (2020 ...

. They live in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

with their daughter, Evidence Novik Ardai, born in 2010.

External links

*
Hard Case Crime official site

Adventures of Gabriel Hunt official site

*

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ardai, Charles 1969 births American mystery writers American publishers (people) Edgar Award winners Jewish American writers Hunter College High School alumni Living people Shamus Award winners American male novelists Novelists from New York (state) People from Manhattan American technology chief executives American company founders Columbia College (New York) alumni American hedge fund managers 21st-century American Jews