[1] Hastings is a divorced man who came to the law enforcement profession comparatively late in life.
After graduating from college, he was briefly a professional football player in the Detroit Lions.
One of the entries in the series, Twospot, was a collaboration between Wilcox and Bill Pronzini.
It teamed Hastings with Pronzini's popular series character, a middle-aged San Francisco private investigator referred to by fans as the Nameless Detective.
The Hastings series was widely praised in publications like The Armchair Detective for their convincing characters, strong plots, and vivid portrayal of San Francisco.