Category crime fiction
BURY THE PAST Earns a Killer Nashville Award Nomination
I’m honored to announce that BURY THE PAST has been nominated for the annual Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award as the best procedural mystery of 2017. The procedural mystery genre is a thriller and suspense story in which a professional protagonist (detective, journalist, attorney, physician) solves a crime, usually gruesome and with graphic detail. Subgenres […]
Private Prisons in Crime Fiction
Build it and they shall come… Private prisons have been a popular recurring theme in crime fiction and television drama. Most of the stories I’ve come across involve some smoky backroom deal between a corrupt judge and a private prison operator. Newly sentenced offenders, often kids, are portrayed as victims who wouldn’t have come to […]
Authors on the Air Podcast and #NotMyCat Strikes Again
I enjoy talking to people about what I write and how I come up with the stories and characters. Pam Stack, of Authors On The Air Global Radio Network, and I had a chance to sit down and chat about BURY THE PAST, my life in prison, and #NotMyCat. As I’m writing this, I hear […]
Do You Suffer From BSF?
BSF is real. BSF isn’t quite a disease, but those who experience the malady experience a manic giddiness accompanied by spurts of panic. It’s life-altering. I have it and there are no Go Fund Me Pages or telethons to find a cure. Because honestly–I don’t want a cure. What is BSF? BSF is Book Signing […]
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 […]
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 […]
Pulled in Different Directions? Just make a damn decision.
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 […]
Goodreads Giveaway for BURY THE PAST
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 […]



