The author is a retired cartographer and graphic artist from the Government of British Columbia. He left Canada in his Jeep, Silver Bullet, to live for a time in the tropics of Mexico. There and on his return he wrote the book Jonathan Owen, Silver Bullet and Bank Robber. The Mexican people, black volcanoes, jungle landscape, torrid climate and a 25 year old woman who robbed banks in North Africa, inspired him to write. On his return from Mexico the author embarked on the book A Dead Artist Can Make a Good Living. The author fictionalizes the stories of his experiences into those of his character Jonathan Owen.

In A Dead Artist Can Make a Good Living Jonathan Owen commits a crime in the Muskwa Kitchika district of Northern British Columbia and flees to Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar and Morocco. In pursuit of him is Constable Jack Garland from the North West Mounted Police Detachment, Fort Nelson, British Columbia,. With the assistance of Interpol and the police forces of the European Union the Officer pursues Jonathan across the south of Europe not realizing he and the rest of the world are part of an elaborate hoax.

Jonathan Owen is 60, full of life and adventure and knew perhaps he will become bored with his retirement when it happens. So through his work as a civil servant in the Government of British Columbia he masterminds, with the help of his daughter, a scheme that will make them both a fortune. On his retirement and his return from Mexico, Jonathan hatches his project.

Jonathan did not realize how demanding, physically and mentally the project would be. Neither did the author who went to the places his character did.