Jeffrey Westhoff has served as a film critic, feature writer, reporter, and copy editor in his career as a journalist. Jeffrey wrote his first novel, The Boy Who Knew Too Much, while working as a freelance writer.
Jeffrey grew up in Erie, Pa., where he spent his Saturday mornings at the library and his Saturday nights at the movies. That love of reading and film prepared his future as a movie critic. Seeing Star Wars on its opening day in 1977 made him a movie lover, but it was a viewing of The Spy Who Loved Me that sealed Jeffrey’s fate as a James Bond fan. His first published movie review appeared in the Erie Times-News while he was senior in high school.
Also during his senior year of high school, Jeffrey made a campus visit to Marquette University and immediately fell in love with Milwaukee — even though he arrived on a gloomy February day. He enrolled at Marquette the following fall. The first time he visited Milwaukee’s famous spy bar, the Safe House, Jeffrey knew the password without knowing it was the password. His favorite Milwaukee hangout was the Oriental Theatre.
After spending a year and a half in Wabash, Ind., Jeffrey took a job at the Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake, Ill. He has lived in the Chicago area ever since. He was a film critic for more than 25 years. During that time he met or interviewed five of the six actors to play James Bond (all except Sean Connery). Pierce Brosnan once wished him a happy birthday. He has contributed to RogerEbert.com and also wrote book reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers, the Chicago Writers Association and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
Jeffrey lives in Chicago’s northwest suburbs with his cat. He has finished his second novel, a middle-grade fantasy/spy novel that casts Alice in Wonderland as a secret agent, which he is currently pitching to agents.
Visit Jeffrey’s Goodreads Author page.