Darcy O'Brien 1939-1998 Darcy O'Brien was an award-winning author of fiction and literary criticism born on July 16, 1939 in Los Angeles, California. O'Brien was best known for his work in the genre of true crime. His first novel, A Way of Life, Like Any Other, won the 1978 Ernest Hemingway award for best first novel. In 1997, O'Brien won the Edgar Allen Poe award for Power to Hurt. His other works include: Two of a Kind: The Story of the Hillside Stranglers, Murder in Little Egypt, Moment by Moment and The Hidden Pope. O'Brien attended Princeton University and University of Cambridge, and received a master's degree and doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. From 1965 to 1978 he was a professor of English at Pomona College. In 1978 he moved to Tulsa, and taught at the University of Tulsa until 1995. On March 2, 1998, O'Brien died of a heart attack in Tulsa. (Bowker Author Biography)