Hy Conrad

Hy Conrad is an American mystery author, game designer and TV producer, best known for his work on Monk (2002–2009). Most recently, he served as a writer and co-executive producer of the Netflix series, The Good Cop, with Tony Danza and Josh Groban.

Career

Conrad began his career as a child actor, appearing as one of Fagan’s Boys in the national tour of Oliver! He continued acting in New York City and in regional theaters until 1980, when he wrote the book, music and lyrics for Ta-Dah!, a musical adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing, which had a limited Off-Broadway run.

Conrad began writing mystery fiction, beginning with Murder, Anyone? and Many Roads to Murder, a series of interactive film mysteries that became two of the best-selling original programs on the Laserdisc format in both the United States and Japan. That led to dozens of other solvable mystery games for companies such as Parker Brothers, Milton Bradley and Hasbro, including Clue VCR and Clue VCR 2. Conrad also created and wrote several interactive mystery projects for AOL and Prodigy. He was also creative director of Mysterynet.com, a website devoted to “all things mystery”, for which he wrote hundreds of short mysteries.

As a novelist, Conrad penned four original mysteries based on the TV series Monk, and three books in a series about a travel agent detective, the Amy Travel Mysteries.

Conrad’s TV career began when Monk’s creator, Andy Breckman, needed stories for the first season of the show. Breckman discovered one of Conrad’s works in a bookstore, and soon asked him to work on the series. Conrad worked for the entire run of the Monk, the final two years as co-executive producer. In 2009, he became head writer and executive producer of Little Monk, a web series featuring Adrian Monk as a middle school detective.

Other TV work includes a stint as writer and consulting producer on White Collar, the pilot Mr. and Mr. Nash (co-written with Steve Martin), and The Good Cop for Netflix.

Awards

Conrad earned three Edgar Award nominations for best TV episode for his work on Monk and won the Scribe Award for best novel of 2014.

Works

Television

• Monk (2002–2009)
• Little Monk (2009) (webisodes)
• White Collar (2009-2010)
• The Good Cop (2018)

Mystery Novels

• Toured to Death (2015)
• Dearly Departed (2016)
• Death on the Patagonian Express (2017)

Monk Novels

• Mr. Monk Helps Himself (2013)
• Mr. Monk Gets on Board (2014)
• Mr. Monk Is Open for Business (2014)
• Mr. Monk and the New Lieutenant (2015)

Mini-Mystery Collections

• Almost Perfect Crimes (1995)
• Whodunit - You Decide! (1996)
• Almost Perfect Murders (1997)
• Solve-It-Yourself Mysteries: Detective Club Puzzlers (1997)
• Little Giant Book of Whodunits (1998)
• Whodunit Crime Puzzles (2002)
• Whodunit Crime Mysteries (2003)
• Historical Whodunits (2005)
• Kids' Whodunits: Catch the Clues (2007)
• Crack the Case (2009)
• The Case of the Ghostly Note (2017)

Humor Books

• Things Your Dog Doesn't Want You to Know (2012)

Interactive Games

• Murder, Anyone? (1982)
• Many Roads to Murder (1983)
• Clue VCR (1985)
• Clue VCR 2 (1987)

References