Welcome to my “official” author’s website page. After two decades of work in the criminal justice system, I’ve witnessed the extremes of human behavior, depravity to redemption. The stories I write are influenced by firsthand encounters with gang leaders, drug traffickers, serial murderers, and those who face them every day.
Prisons, jails, and tight-knit criminal operations on the street exist with a unique flavor and culture. I strive to bring a piece of that experience alive in the stories I write for you.
Sign up for the Prison to the Page Newsletter, or browse a few blog posts about crime, serial killers, and writing about that kind of thing. Let me know if there’s something you’d like to see, or if you’d like to reach out, please feel free to email me at crimewriter@comcast.net I always like hearing from you.
Coming to you in 2023! Two new releases–you know, because who needs down time? The first release will be the sequel to the Anthony and Lefty Award nominated DEAD DROP. This series continues in DEVIL WITHIN set for release in July. FACE OF GREED will hit the shelves in November and marks the first installment in a new series featuring Detective Emily Hunter. I hope you check them out.
Fresh off the presses…well fresh off the digital press anyway. BLACK LABEL is now available in audiobook format. HighBridge Audio, a division of Recorded Books bought the audio rights “at auction” and it’s exciting to hear the book come alive in a whole new way.
You can find your copy of the audio book at Libro.fm, Barnes & Noble, Overdrive, Kobo, and wherever audiobooks are sold
The Anthony and Lefty Award nominated DEAD DROP released in July 2022 from Level Best Books. It’s the first book in a new series set in the desert southwest featuring Maricopa County Detective Nathan Parker. DEAD DROP involves border politics, border violence, who’s behind it, and those caught in between. Detective Nathan Parker finds a connection between the deaths of several undocumented migrants and the cold case murder of his partner. Lured over the border in search of answers, Parker finds himself trapped in a strange, unforgiving land dependent upon the very undocumented migrants he once pursued. Border violence benefits the greedy and the power hungry. Detective Parker discovers the forces behind it aren’t who you’d think.
The Silver Falchion winning BLACK LABEL released in July 2021 from Level Best Books. Big Pharma has a secret and it’s costing thousands of lives. Prison gangs and corporate board members make strange bedfellows, but where there’s money to be had, peace exists through an off the books Black Label drug lab. Until a pharmaceutical executive wakes up in a strange apartment and finds herself suspected of the CEO’s murder. Believing she’s insane, or a murderer, Jillian Cooper is on the run from the police and gang enforcers as she tries to unravel the secrets of Black Label.
BURY THE PAST Released by Crooked Lane Books on December 12, 2017, continues the pairing of detectives John Penley and Paula Newberry as they investigate a homicide where the evidence reveals their prime suspect–a man already in prison. He has the ultimate alibi. The case takes an unexpected turn for detective Newberry when a case from her past resurfaces and puts her in the killer’s crosshairs. BURY THE PAST was nominated for the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for Best Procedural Mystery of the year.
AT WHAT COST was released on December 13, 2016, the first of two novels published by Crooked Lane Books. AT WHAT COST features a Sacramento Police detective, John Penley on the hunt for a serial murderer harvesting organs from his kills. This crime spree becomes very personal for the detective when his own son needs a kidney transplant to survive.
Little River: The Other Side of Paradise is a human trafficking thriller set in Jamaica.
When two girls disappear from a Jamaican resort, local officials and police are more concerned about the impact of a scandal on the tourist trade than in searching for them. It happens all too often in the Caribbean, where fun and sun hide the sinister secret of human trafficking. Grant Turner and Andrea Carson are two single parents thrown together in a hellish nightmare when their daughters disappear without a trace. With nothing to lean upon but one another, Grant and Andrea struggle to find anyone with information about the girls. Their sudden arrival on the island puts them in the sights of a sadistic crime boss, Jon-Pierre Baptiste and his criminal trafficking network.
The latest edition also includes a bonus short story originally published in the BETRAYED anthology, “When the Music Stops.”
A portion of the proceeds from the sales of Little River are donated to not-for-profit organizations to fight human trafficking and domestic violence.
SHORT STORIES:
My recent short crime fiction includes “When the Music Stops” in BETRAYED: Powerful stories of kick-ass crime survivors, a collection of sharp, witty, and riveting fiction published by Authors of the Air Network. You can check it out for yourself and contribute to crime survivors.
“A Deal with the Devil,” in STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND: Immigrant Stories, published by All Due Respect and Down & Out Books
“Modly Cash and a Getaway” in Death in the Drowned Lands anthology, published by Bleeding Heart Books
“Birthright” in the Shattering Glass anthology, by Nasty Woman Press
“Billy’s Plan” featured in the Eviction from Hope anthology by 509 Crime Stories
“Convict Code” Tattered Blue Line anthology
I’m a proud member of Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Sisters in Crime, International Crime Writers Association, and the International Screenwriters Association.
Please check back often for exciting upcoming news about new releases, contests, and opportunities to get a first peek at the new work, before it hits the street.
Please feel free to contact me at crimewriter@comcast.net
James L'Etoile
James L'Etoile 