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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
We all get that occasional pull to do something different. Stop a project, a job, or a contract, in midstream and toy with something different–something new. I’m never sure if it’s boredom, or the thrill of the hunt for something new. But that urge for something fresh seemed to hit me this week and it […]
Crooked Lane Books is sponsoring a book giveaway over on Goodreads. You can enter the giveaway for your chance at an early copy of the second book in the Detective Penley series. https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/254896-bury-the-past Enter to win 1 of 3 galley copies of BURY THE PAST, the second Detective Penley mystery by James L’Etoile. Sacramento Police […]
Doomsday? Here we go again… I guess the secretive men in long black robes were bored and needed to conjure up new prophecies about the end of the world. I suppose they figured if they float one often enough, one of them is bound to come true. Or, just true enough. In this year’s installment […]
James L'Etoile 