He was born in Elmira, New York, and he received his B.A. from Marietta College and later attended Columbia Law School. Tomlinson began his career as a teacher of English and social studies in upstate New York.
For more than twenty years he held various editorial positions in textbook publishing, including that of Executive Editor at Silver Burdett in Morristown, New Jersey. Prior to that he supervised project staffs or departmental staffs at Harcourt Brace and Holt, Rinehart and Winston. He started in publishing as an acquisitions editor, specializing in education and sports, at Prentice Hall. Since 1974 his short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine; as well as in various anthologies, including Edward D. Hoch's Best Detective Stories of the Year, published by Dutton, Gregory McDonald's Last Laughs, published by Mysterious Press; and Mary Higgins Clark's Murder on the Aisle, publishd by Simon and Schuster. He was the author of a mystery novel, On a Field of Black published by Nellen.
His credited nonfiction includes Murdered in Jersey (Rutgers University Press), Fatal Tryst: Who Killed the Minister and the Choir Singer? (Home Run Press), and The Baseball Research Handbook (Society for American Baseball Research). Articles by Tomlinson have appeared in The Armchair Detective, Baseball Research Journal, and The National Pastime.
As a freelance writer since 1982 he worked on projects for McGraw Hill; Macmillan Publishers; Prentice Hall; Harcourt Brace; Random House; Holt, Rinehart and Winston; D.C. Heath and Company; Silver Burdett; Scholastic Press; Amsco; Globe Fearon; Pearson Scott Foresman; Thomson Gale; Grolier; and H.W. Wilson Company.
He was a member of Mystery Writers of America serving on the Edgar Best Fact Crime Committee in 1993; and the Society for American Baseball Research serving on the Publications Committee from 1990 through 1991.
He died while living in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey in 2006.
