Al Lamanda was born and raised in New York City. He served in the United States Marine Corps, and worked as a private investigator and professional bodyguard in New York, Massachusetts, and Florida. He also served as a security and loss prevention consultant for many large corporations. In his free time, Al studied boxing, mixing it up in many amateur fights, and still trains today. For his work, Al has been nominated for the Edgar Award, the Shamus Award, and won the Nero Wolfe Award for Best Mystery of the Year for his novel, With 6 You Get Wally, book five in the John Bekker Mysteries. The series continues with Who Killed Joe Italiano? (2018), For Deader or Worse (2019), and The Case of the Missing Fan Dancer, published by Encircle Publications in March, 2022. In addition to his many mysteries, he also writes Western novels under the name Ethan J. Wolfe, which have been highly received by the Western Historical Society.

His latest stand-alone, the historical fiction novel, City of Darkness, was published by Encircle in January, 2021. He has published two Rollie Finch Mysteries, Once Upon a Time on 9/11 (April, 2021), and Rollie and the Missing Six (August, 2022). Al is always working on his next novel.