Les Roberts began his career as a contemporary American mystery novelist after twenty-four years in Hollywood, having written and/or produced more than 2500 half-hours of network and syndicated television. He was the first producer and head writer of The Hollywood Squares, and has written for The Lucy Show, The Andy Griffith Show, The Jackie Gleason Show and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., among others.

In 1987 he won the very first "Best First Private Eye Novel Contest" for An Infinite Number of Monkeys. Roberts also won the Cleveland Arts Prize for Literature and has been voted "Cleveland's Favorite Author" by Cleveland.com. He is past president of the Private Eye Writers of America and the regular mystery book critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He has been a professional actor, singer, businessman, teacher and jazz musician.

Roberts is primarily seen as a regional writer. Though his Saxon series is set in Los Angeles, he is best known for his Milan Jacovich series (it's pronounced My-lan Yock-o-vitch) set in his adopted hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Jacovich, unlike many single, dashing private eyes of fiction, is a battered, Stroh's-drinking, polka-dancing Slovenian with a Serbian ex-wife and two sons that he sees every other Sunday. Jacovich's working-guy attitude has endeared him to many Cleveland readers.