Dick Adler reviews mysteries and thrillers every other week in his Crime Watch column for the Chicago Tribune. He is the co-author, with the late Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, of Public Justice, Private Mercy: A Governor's Education On Death Row. Anthony Lewis in the New York Times Book Review called it ""a compelling and important book,"" and Jonathan Kirsch in the Los Angeles Times said, ""Some of the most fascinating passages are the dozen or so case histories of the men and women themselves, the stuff of hard-boiled detective fiction come to life.""

Adler has also written Sleeping with Moscow, an account of the Richard Miller FBI espionage case. His mystery novel, The Mozart Code, was published in May, 1999, as an electronic book and was a Frankfurt eBook Award nominee in 2000.