Holding a B.S. degree in Theatre and Journalism from Boston University where he won the Rodgers & Hammerstein Award, and an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama, Amnon Kabatchnik was a member of the Director's Unit with the Actor's Studio in New York. Later, he was appointed Professor of Theatre at SUNY Binghamton, Stanford University, Ohio State University, Florida State University, and Elmira College. Off Broadway, Kabatchnik directed, among other plays, the American premiere of Anton Chekhov's A Country Scandal (Platonov); Evenings with Chekhov; Vincent, a drama about Van Gogh; revivals of Maxwell Anderson's Winterset and John Willard's The Cat and the Canary. At the Phoenix Theatre, he served as assistant to Tyrone Guthrie on Friedrich Schiller's Mary Stuart and Karl Capek's The Makropolous Secret, and to Tony Richardson on Eugéne Ionesco's The Chairs and The Lesson. Kabatchnik's work in New York earned him the Lola D'Annunzio Honorary Citation for Outstanding Contribution to the Off-Broadway Theatre.

Kabatchnik directed numerous dramas, comedies, thrillers and musicals for national road companies, resident theatres, and summer stock. Crime-tinged plays he staged include Arsenic and Old Lace, Angel Street, The Mousetrap, Ten Little Indians, Dracula, Sleuth, Wait until Dark, Dial M for Murder, and A Shot in the Dark. He also directed productions in Israel and Canada.

Kabatchnik wrote a weekly column of book reviews for the Tallahassee Democrat, the Corning Leader, the Star-Gazette of Elmira, N.Y., and the Chemung Valley Reporter. He also contributed articles and reviews to The Armchair Detective, Mystery News, Clues and other journals in the field of suspense.

Blood on the Stage and Sherlock Holmes on the Stage are the culmination of Kabatchnik's life-long work in the theatre and his passion for collecting play scripts, non-fiction works, critical books, novels, and short story compilations in the field of crime and suspense.