Author Archives: James L'Etoile
12 Steps to Holiday Re-Gifting
Originally posted on James L'Etoile:
‘Tis the season of giving! It is better to give than receive. I think that’s how that goes. I dug into my historical vaults to find the origins of this nobel sentiment. Scholars debate the first time these words were spoken. I found the true initial utterance of the…
When FBI Serial Killer Profiles Don’t Work
Serial killers are in the news again because of the long-awaited demise of Charles Manson and the November 29th arrest of Howell Emmanuel Donaldson III, the 24-year-old man accused of four murders in the Seminole Heights neighborhood of Tampa, Florida. The Donaldson arrest came after a 51-day manhunt for the South Florida killer. The McDonald’s […]
AT WHAT COST Ebook SALE
To help celebrate the release of BURY THE PAST, the folks at Crooked Lane Books have sponsored an ebook sale for the first book in the series, AT WHAT COST for $1.99 Detective John Penley faces a moral turning point during his search for a serial killer who harvests his victim’s organs. Does the detective […]
BURY THE PAST Release
BURY THE PAST is officially published and out into the wild! It’s only been a year since the first book in the series (AT WHAT COST) landed and I’m feeling a mixture of elation, exhaustion, and caffeinated satisfaction. BURY THE PAST follows the detective team of John Penley and Paula Newberry on a new investigation–one involving […]
Paying Gang Members to Not Pull the Trigger
I’ve talked about Sacramento crime here before and how we seem to be the birthplace of violent crime and most notably, a magnet for serial killers. The Violent crime rate — which includes the number of homicides, rape, robbery, and assault — was 716.3 per 100,000 people in 2016. Nationally, the violent crime rate was […]
Prison Trivia
Those of us who worked in prison, or out on the street managing parole or probation caseloads, know a few things. Things we took for granted as we went about our daily grind. Some things, we try to forget. Others are simply hard to explain. But, having left that world of bars, walls, and wire, […]
Want A Chance At A Free Book?
Bury the Past is coming out in just a couple of weeks. Sweet mother of God that’s coming fast. In the spirit of the holiday season, I’m giving away a couple of copies of the first book in the series, At What Cost. In At What Cost, we meet the detective pair of John Penley […]
Prison to the Page Newsletter
I know secretly, deep down in your lizard brain, you’ve always wanted to belong. You want to be part of something bigger. Something where you are among people just like you. Something like a prison gang. Wut? We’re starting our own little gang here and unlike the versions behind the walls, this one doesn’t require […]
BETRAYED: Powerful Stories of Kick-Ass Crime Survivors
October is Domestic Violence Awareness month, and it isn’t by accident that Authors On the Air released their inaugural publication–a crime fiction anthology focused on the issue of personal violence and crime survivors–in October. All of the authors gifted their stories to the anthology and all proceeds are being donated to a non-profit community organization […]
Bouchercon Toronto
This week, I’ll be in Toronto, Canada with over 1,600 mystery writers and readers for Bouchercon. This annual event is dubbed as the world mystery convention and draws some of the biggest names in the business. Connelly, Crais, Coben, Child–just to name the writers with last names starting with the letter “C.” There are non-stop […]
James L'Etoile 