Gene Mustain is an American editor, writer and educator who has worked in Chicago, New York City and Hong Kong and now runs an editorial consulting firm. He has co-authored three true-crime books and two textbooks; his magazine and newspaper articles have appeared in publications around the world.

In September of 2021, one of his books, "Murder Machine", was ranked second on a list of the best five true-crime books in a Wall Street Journal article. Earlier, Kirkus Reviews called "Murder Machine" a "vivid, hair-raising, day-to-day-in-the-life-of narrative: the best mob book in recent memory." Publishers Weekly called the book "a masterpiece of crime reporting."

His career began as a reporter and editor for suburban Chicago newspapers. In 1979, he joined the Chicago Sun-Times, where he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for stories about a conspiracy by lawyers and doctors to defraud insurers with phony personal-injury claims.

From 1986 to 1999, he was a New York Daily News reporter. In 1988, he co-authored "Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti", the New York City mafia boss. He also co-authored two more books set in the New York underworld –"Murder Machine" in 1992 and "Gotti: Rise and Fall" in 1996. The Gotti books became a HBO movie. "Murder Machine" is under development. "Mob Star" and "Murder Machine" are also available on Kindle and Audible.

For The News, Mustain traveled the world and wrote on many topics. He served frequently as the lead writer on major breaking news stories. He became a Special Projects Writer in 1993 to craft narratives about the life and times of New York City.

In 1999, he was an adjunct professor at New York University. From 2000 to 2011, he taught reporting, writing and literary journalism at The University of Hong Kong, where he co-authored and edited two textbooks. He also was editorial advisor to "Muse" magazine, a Hong Kong monthly covering the arts.

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