Kope, Spencer: - SPENCER KOPE, author of the Special Tracking Unit series featuring Magnus "Steps" Craig, is the Crime Analyst for the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office. Currently assigned to the Detectives Division, he provides case support to detectives and deputies, and is particularly good at identifying possible suspects. In his spare time he developed a database-driven analytical process called Forensic Vehicle Analysis (FVA) used to identify the make, model and year range of vehicles from surveillance photos. It's a tool he's used repeatedly to solve crimes. One of his favorite pastimes is getting lost in a bookstore, and he lives in Washington State.