In 1985 Frank Zafiro joined the United States Army, serving until 1991.  While in the Army, Frank worked in Military Intelligence.  In 1993, he joined the Spokane Police Department, where he has worked as a patrol officer, corporal, detective and sergeant. In 1996, while a police officer, he went to college and ultimately earned a BA in history.

A life-long writer, Frank has written many short stories and completed five novels.  His first published novel, Under a Raging Moon, was released in June 2006. In that novel, “Zafiro has created a gritty, realistic world out of his own years of experience in law enforcement.”  In Under a Raging Moon, “a serial gunman plagues River City, a fictional city of about 250,000 people located in Northeast Washington State.  As the gunman becomes increasingly dangerous and violent the police are hampered by internal politics and the hand of fate.  Frank adds tension and humanity to the work as we see the police struggling to capture the gunman while working through their own personal demons and crises.”

In his second published novel, Heroes Often Fail, “Six-year-old Amy Dugger is snatched in broad daylight. River City's finest begin the desperate and arduous search for her kidnapper. Detective John Tower, Detective Ray Browning, Officer Stefan Kopriva, Officer Katie MacLeod--each holds a piece of the puzzle. Whoever can fit it all together will be Amy's--and all of River City's--hero. They must find Amy's kidnapper. Before it's too late.”

Many of Frank Zafiro’s stories and novels take place in River City and focus on members of the police department.  As the short stories and novels follow the threads of different lives and events, the reader experiences the richness and complexity of mid-size, middle class city, it people, crime and protectors.

According to one reader of Heroes Often Fail, “In most police procedurals, the protagonist (hero) may stumble, but in the end he or she prevails. Frank Zafiro's world is a more realistic one. His characters are heroic - they put themselves on the line every day on the streets of River City. But like everyone else who does a job day after day, they don't always succeed in what they try to do, either because of their own mistakes or because success simply isn't possible. Zafiro's characters must try to survive their failures in a job where the line between success and failure may also be the line between life and death.

In Heroes Often Fail, the suspense builds as the police search for an abducted child. Zafiro kept me turning the pages without resorting to obvious plot devices - suspending my disbelief was never an effort. I cared about the characters throughout. And in the end, few things turned out as I had expected.”