Steve Oliver was born in Spokane, Washington and reared in Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington. His family has been in this area since 1878, mainly involved in the local timber industry.

During the 1960s Oliver finished high school, attended a local state university, and served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam.

Oliver's first novel, Moody Gets The Blues, was published by his own press in 1996.  The novel received praise for its offbeat portrayal of an ex-mental patient cab driver who had decided to be a private detective.

St. Martin's Press picked up the series, publishing the paperback edition of Moody Gets the Blues in the summer of 1998 and the hardback edition of the second novel, Moody Forever. The third book, Moody In Winter, was published in the fall of 2003.