Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Lee Jackson - An Author Interview in the HBS Author's Spotlight

Today our blog puts the Spotlight on Author Lee Jackson. He is the author of the Cold War Rising novels.



Author Genre: Historical Fiction, Thriller, Contemporary

Website: Lee Jackson
Author's Blog: Lee Jackson - Brings Heat to the Cold War
Twitter: @Stonewall_77
Goodreads: Check Out Goodreads
Google+: Check Out Google+
Facebook: Check Out Facebook


Author Description:
Lee Jackson was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and grew up in Tangier, Morocco. When he was 12 years old, his family returned to the US, and when he was 20, he enlisted in the Army. A year later, the Vietnam war ended. Lee then attended and graduated from West Point, and served on active duty until June, 1982. In 2008, he went back to work for the Department of the Army, and deployed for 19 months each in Iraq and Afghanistan. There, his job was to go into towns and villages and learn anything he could about concerns relating to security, and recommend courses of action to meet military objectives without resorting to lethal methods. He returned to the US in 2013, lives in Texas with his wife, and is a full time writer. Lee Jackson Brings Heat To The Cold War!


SPOTLIGHT Questions and Answers with the Author

Congratulations on your book: Curse The Moon. Rumor has it that you have another book on the horizon called What Were They Thinking? Can you tell us the timeline for its release and give us a little tease?

Thank you for this interview, James. It is very much appreciated. As for the next book, “Rasputin’s Legacy: Cold War Lies and Half-Truths” is a sequel to “Curse The Moon: Cold War Rising,” and is due out in September. That’s an aggressive schedule that might slip a little, but I think will be worth the wait. The completed draft is with the editor now.

You have a good following on twitter. How important have your social media relationships been? How did you build your following in your niche? Did you use forums, newsletters and methods like that?

Social Media is very important to what I do. I’ve learned that no matter how good a book might be, it has to break through the barrier of obscurity. From my perspective, I have to provide the book with every chance for exposure - and the trick is to do it without flat out spamming.

With re-tweeting, maintaining a steady balance of conversational posts and tweets is not easy, but I’ve only had two complaints that I tweet about the book too often, and when you visit my blog, you’ll see that I barely mention it. I understand that “engagement” is most effective. It is also time-consuming, so being careful in how time is applied is imperative. Slipping into being too involved in any social medium to the neglect of other necessary work is easy to do. I try to acknowledge every new follower, and when I engage, we are usually discussing something other than my book. However, I do get questions about my books, and I try to answer all of them.

Do you do book signings, interviews, speaking and personal appearances? If so, when and where is the next place where your readers can see you? Where can they keep up with your personal contacts online?

I fall under the "writer who speaks” category as opposed to the “speaker who writes.” I’ve been invited to three radio shows, and have spoken at four gatherings, including one where I was the keynote speaker. A great friend offered to organize a book signing at a particularly elite country club, but I have not yet done that. Between finishing, publishing, and marketing “Curse The Moon” and writing “Rasputin’s Legacy,” I honestly don’t know how established authors have the time. I have no book signing or appearance currently on the horizon, and would certainly welcome invitations. Readers can see by blog, website, and video at: AuthorLeeJackson.com. My author page on Amazon is at: http://amzn.to/1ira8MM.

I’m on Facebook at: Facebook.com/AuthorLeeJackson, and communicate through Twitter at: @Stonewall_77.

You have a great book trailer. (See link below.) It looks very professional. Do you know how much impact it has had on your book’s success? Tell us about the process that you used to create your trailer?

My video trailer was done by Circle Of Seven Productions, and I am very happy to give them a shout-out. The people there are very professional, and they did an outstanding job with my video. I understand that they do video trailers for the National Geographic books. Their prices were very reasonable, and they took care of details. I provided the book cover and the arc of the story. From there the process was iterative: they provided drafts, and sent to me for approval. That included listening to various voice-over artists reading the script, and selecting one. They were quick and professional in correcting errors, and the main reaction to the trailer is, “I can’t wait to see the whole movie!” In all honesty, I can’t trace sales directly back to the video trailer. In other words, would I have done as well without it? I don’t know the answer, but I can tell you that I am glad I did it, and would do it again.

Between your book writing, blogging, marketing, family and all the other things that can get in your way, how do you manage your time? Do you have a set schedule or do your sort of play it by ear?

That’s a great question, James. Time management is tough. I’ve been a soldier, a businessman - I’ve been deployed twice, and my entire career has been marked by competing demands. However, being an indie author is probably as demanding if not more so than anything I’ve done before.

Original authoring is demanding; then self-editing; then incorporating input from editors and beta readers. Meanwhile, getting the cover art with the blurbs, and doing it well is imperative. Once all of that done, then it goes into publishing, and the myriad details and decisions can be overwhelming. Then comes the marketing, and some of the decisions in that regard should have been done at conception - and ya’ find that out as you press the “Publish” button. I don’t follow a set schedule, but there are some things I do religiously every day, and usually first thing in the morning. That has to do with continuing to grow my social media platform, and looking for new and better ways to market. An even higher priority, obviously, is writing - without the written story, I have nothing to sell. I’m not as religious about doing that every day. I have found that my mind is constantly working on the story, so even if I’m not hacking away at the key-board, the development work is being done.

That said, I’ve also learned that no critical part of the story is really worked out until I put it down in black and white. I am a compulsive writer. I’ve told my wife that knowing what I know now, if I had life to do over and could choose my talent, it would probably not be writing. The demands for hard work done in solitude are enormous, and then the effort to get someone to read what was written can be just as taxing - and getting to that point does not mean that the reader will finish it. For those needing approbation with a shorter lag time, being a musician or a paint artist might work better - ya’ get feedback much quicker. (In order to mitigate solitude, I’ve actually developed the ability to write surrounded by my family and grandchildren doing what they do while I write. I rely on great editing to damp out the obvious flaws that result.)

What has been your experience in giving your books away free? Have you been involved in any other type of giveaways and how did that work out? What was your main goal in doing this? Did you run into any obstacles?

I have not had a lot of experience with book giveaways. I’ve done two, and gave away five books in each one. I know of no review that resulted (and as you know, the reviews I’ve received are sterling). I’ve done no other type of giveaway. I’m not opposed to them and will probably do more, but my experience to date has not been encouraging in terms of providing a reliable way to attract readers. I have not yet done “free-book” days. I’m not against them, but they are not as easy to do within a strategy as people might think. Various advertisers have their own requirements, and so before any are done, thought must be given to how doing “freed days” affect what you can do both before and after the fact. My understanding is that free book are not as effective as they once were, unless used as a loss leader for a series (e.g. when a number of books in a series is actually on the market, the author might make the first one be permanently free as a means of attracting new readers).

How do you manage your plots, characters and timelines to keep your stories going? Do you use any software to keep track of your books?

I literally let the characters tell me the story. I don’t develop a timeline. I figure out what the protagonist’s objective is, and what natural obstacles he/she will encounter in meeting it. There are always competing interests, and the antagonist champions those that directly counter those of the protagonist. They both have or develop allies, and that brings in the other characters. Quite often, a character just presents him/herself, and later I find that they grow into major characters, and/or provide a crucial element to the story. A nice result of writing this way is that I am constantly surprised by turn of events in the story. This method also helps break through “writer’s block.”

If I ever feel stymied, I just go to the last most forward movement in the story, and query the various characters about their reaction to it and what counter steps they might take. The only requirement I make of them is that they must be grounded in reality. The endings to my stories can be unbelievable if taken with no context. Therefore, the characters must request that readers suspend their disbelief only to the extent that doing so can be done without causing annoyance. The reader must be engaged every step of the way. I do not use software to track the timelines (not to say I never will). By querying the characters at each major turning point, I ensure that each of t them is up to the moment in the story. I go back over the story many times looking for continuity errors. My editor finds many more, and beta readers are invaluable in that regard.

You have a great blog. You do a great job marketing your books and providing stories about our fighting service men and women. What is your primary goal?

Thank you for the compliment regarding my blog. As you’ve seen, my novels are thrillers, mysteries, strong conflict. The comment is often made that, having started to read, they cannot be put down. My primary goal insofar as writing is concerned is that I intend for my writing career to become self-sustaining and further, to sustain me and my family. I have been startled over the years at the reaction of people to things I write - it has always been very positive, and was a constant all the way through school and on into my professional life. I always intended to be a novelist. My blogs tend to be about real events, and are typically associated with traditional American values. My novels illustrate the worth of those values. Each novel is intended first to entertain, and then to remind of the tremendous sacrifice of dedicated men and women, and the contribution of our values in building our great nation. In that regard, our fighting men and women have been at the forefront of protecting our rights and liberties, and I take every opportunity to honor them. You’ll see a strong theme in that regard on my Facebook page, and in the stories on my blog. Many gave their all for the rest of us, and we can never forget that.

Going along with the previous question about blogging, have you considered bundling your short anecdotes into short stories and publishing them.

The quick answer regarding bundling together my short stories is: Yes - and I intend to. Several years ago, I took a Harley ride across much of the US (started in Montana, detoured down through Yellowstone, ended in Connecticut with a foray into Canada at Michigan and descending back into the US via Niagara Falls). I posted daily stories and pictures along the way to friends and family via email. As I went, other people requested to be included on my list. When I deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, my job was to be out on patrol with our Soldiers and Marines to interview the local population in their villages, on their streets, and in their homes.

Essentially, we were charged to learn about their concerns regarding security, and to make recommendations on meeting military objectives while avoiding lethal means.

While doing that, I sent emails back to the same list as I had with the motorcycle ride. The list expanded, and my stories eventually were circulated in the Pentagon. I’ve had many people request that I put those real stories into book form, and doing so is on the drawing board. (Example: I once interviewed an Al Qaeda operative in the middle of the street in front of his headquarters.) I still have two other books ahead of that one. There will be a third book out in the Cold War series with the same protagonist (Atcho) - that should be out early next year. Then will come a saga that I wrote some of several years ago, and it won Best In Show at the Golden Triangle Writers’ Conference. I’m not sure if I can do the anecdote compilation ahead of or during the other efforts, but it is one near and dear to my heart, and so it will get done.

What is your method of getting reviews for your novels? Do you seek professional reviews, use social media or do you rely on your reading audience to supply them?

I’ve been very fortunate with reviews. I seek professional reviews, I will send requests to specific individuals - I have not requested reviews via Twitter or on my blog or website. I paid for a Kirkus review - and offer no apologies on that: Kirkus’ reputation is still that they are tough on authors - I came out in decent shape. I was fortunate to get a recent blurb from a top tier author, Joe Galloway who wrote “We Were Soldiers Once…”, a NYT Best Seller and Mel Gibson movie. I approached him directly. I’ve asked other authors, and some have committed when time allows. Readers have been kind enough to take their time to write reviews, and for that I am very grateful. At this point in time, my average is 4.9 stars out of 33. I’ve also used virtual book tours, and that has garnered quite a few reviews. I continue to look for more reviews, and more ways of earning them.



Author's Book List
Curse The Moon - Cold War Rising
The Cold War. A backdrop to betrayal. A playground to power. He is called Atcho. Cuban-born. West Point Graduate. To save his daughter, he must be a sleeper agent to men he'd rather kill!

Atcho's rise opens doors into US National Defense even as a seemingly omniscient KGB officer holds unflinching sway over his actions. His public life clashes with secrets that only he and his tormentor share, isolating him in a world of intrigue among people whom he is determined to protect.


Book Trailer: Curse The Moon

Order the Book From: Amazon
Author Recommended by: HBSystems Publications
Publisher of ebooks, writing industry blogger and the sponsor of the following blogs:
eBook Author’s Corner and
HBS Mystery Reader’s Circle

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

J.A. Jance - Second Watch is featured in the HBS Author's Spotlight Showcase

The Showcase is a special feature of the Author's Spotlight. It is designed to highlight Spotlight author's NEW releases and their soon to be released novels.


The HBS Author's Spotlight SHOWCASES J.A. Jance's Book: Second Watch today.

Second Watch in mass market goes on sale April 29, so now's the time to gear up!








Second Watch

A J. P. Beaumont Novel


Author: J.A. Jance


AVAILABLE
Amazon
Barnes and Noble


With Second Watch, New York Times bestselling author J. A. Jance delivers another thought-provoking novel of suspense starring Seattle investigator J. P. Beaumont.

Getting old is hell! J. P. Beaumont is finally taking some time off to have his knee replacement surgery. But instead of taking his mind off work, the operation plunges him into one of the most perplexing and mind-blowing mysteries he's ever faced.

A series of dreams take him back to his early days on the force at Seattle P.D. and then, even earlier, to his days in Vietnam, reminding him of people and events he hasn't thought about in years.

His past collides with his present in this complex and thrilling story that explores loss and heartbreak, duty and honor, and, most importantly, the staggering cost of war and the debts we owe those who served in the Vietnam War, and those in uniform today.

Back Story

Second Watch includes a segment in which Beau meets up with a former schoolmate of mine, Doug Davis, a West Point graduate who died in Vietnam in 1966. Through the magic of fiction Beau and Doug meet and interact in Vietnam. In the book, Beau eventually also meets up with Bonnie Abney, the girl who was engaged to marry Doug at the time of his death.

Those of you who have read Second Watch already know that the back of the book contains a photo of Doug, that very real fallen hero from Bisbee. That photo, taken in Vietnam two days before Doug's death, came to light solely as a result of my writing Second Watch. As I was finishing the manuscript, a review copy of some of the material was sent to one of Doug's fellow West Point classmates. The piece was then forwarded to another classmate who went down into his basement and found the photo, hiding in a box where it had been left forgotten through all the intervening years. It arrived in Bonnie's life for the first time in an e-mail sent in early January.

There are almost 60,000 names on that wall in Washington. Bonnie and Doug's story of loving and losing is only one of them and yet it is emblematic of them all. Along the way we met up with several of those women, ones who had watched as the loves of their lives went off to the Vietnam War and came back home in flag-draped coffins.


Author Genre: Mystery & Thrillers

Website: J.A. Jance
Author's Blog: J.A. Jance - NYT Bestselling Author
Twitter: @JAJance
E-Mail: jajance@jance.com
Goodreads: Check Out Goodreads
Facebook: Check Out Facebook
Pinterest: Check Out Pinterest


Author Description: J.A. Jance is the top 10 New York Times bestselling author of the Joanna Brady series; the J. P. Beaumont series; four interrelated thrillers featuring the Walker family; and eight books featuring Ali Reynolds.

As a second-grader in Mrs. Spangler’s Greenway School class, I was introduced to Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz series. I read the first one and was hooked and knew, from that moment on, that I wanted to be a writer.

The third child in a large family, I was four years younger than my next older sister and four years older than the next younger sibling. Being both too young and too old left me alone in a crowd and helped turn me into an introspective reader and a top student. When I graduated from Bisbee High School in 1962, I received an academic scholarship that made me the first person in my family to attend a four year college. I graduated in 1966 with a degree in English and Secondary Education. In 1970 I received my M. Ed. In Library Science. I taught high school English at Tucson’s Pueblo High School for two years and was a K-12 librarian at Indian Oasis School District in Sells, Arizona for five years.

My ambitions to become a writer were frustrated in college and later, first because the professor who taught creative writing at the University of Arizona in those days thought girls "ought to be teachers or nurses" rather than writers. After he refused me admission to the program, I did the next best thing: I married a man who was allowed in the program that was closed to me. My first husband imitated Faulkner and Hemingway primarily by drinking too much and writing too little. Despite the fact that he was allowed in the creative writing program, he never had anything published either prior to or after his death from chronic alcoholism at age forty-two. That didn’t keep him from telling me, however, that there would be only one writer in our family, and he was it.

My husband made that statement in 1968 after I had received a favorable letter from an editor in New York who was interested in publishing a children’s story I had written. Because I was a newly wed wife who was interested in staying married, I put my writing ambitions on hold. Other than writing poetry in the dark of night when my husband was asleep (see After the Fire), I did nothing more about writing fiction until eleven years later when I was a single, divorced mother with two children and no child support as well as a full time job selling life insurance. My first three books were written between four a.m. and seven a.m.. At seven, I would wake my children and send them off to school. After that, I would get myself ready to go sell life insurance.

I started writing in the middle of March of 1982. The first book I wrote, a slightly fictionalized version of a series of murders that happened in Tucson in 1970, was never published. For one thing, it was twelve hundred pages long. Since I was never allowed in the creative writing classes, no one had ever told me there were some things I needed to leave out. For another, the editors who turned it down said that the parts that were real were totally unbelievable, and the parts that were fiction were fine. My agent finally sat me down and told me that she thought I was a better writer of fiction than I was of non-fiction. Why, she suggested, didn’t I try my hand at a novel?

The result of that conversation was the first Detective Beaumont book, Until Proven Guilty. Since 1985 when that was published, there have been 21 more Beau books. My work also includes 14 Joanna Brady books set in southeastern Arizona where I grew up, and seven Ali Reynolds books, set in Sedona, AZ. In addition there are four thrillers, starting with Hour of the Hunter and Kiss of the Bees, that reflect what I learned during the years when I was teaching on the Tohono O’Odham reservation west of Tucson, Arizona.

The week before Until Proven Guilty was published, I did a poetry reading of After the Fire at a widowed retreat sponsored by a group called WICS (Widowed Information Consultation Services) of King County. By June of 1985, it was five years after my divorce in 1980 and two years after my former husband’s death. I went to the retreat feeling as though I hadn’t quite had my ticket punched and didn’t deserve to be there. After all, the other people there were all still married when their spouses died. I was divorced. At the retreat I met a man whose wife had died of breast cancer two years to the day and within a matter of minutes of the time my husband died. We struck up a conversation based on that coincidence. Six months later, to the dismay of our five children, we told the kids they weren’t the Brady Bunch, but they'd do, and we got married. We now have four new in-laws as well as six grandchildren.

When my second husband and I first married, he supported all of us–his kids and mine as well as the two of us. It was a long time before my income from writing was anything more than fun money–the Improbable Cause trip to Walt Disney World; the Minor in Possession memorial powder room; the Payment in Kind memorial hot tub. Eventually, however, the worm turned. My husband was able to retire at age 54 and took up golf and oil painting.

One of the wonderful things about being a writer is that everything–even the bad stuff–is usable. The eighteen years I spent while married to an alcoholic have helped shape the experience and character of Detective J. P. Beaumont. My experiences as a single parent have gone into the background for Joanna Brady–including her first tentative steps toward a new life after the devastation of losing her husband in Desert Heat. And then there’s the evil creative writing professor in Hour of the Hunter and Kiss of the Bees, but that’s another story.

Another wonderful part of being a writer is hearing from fans. I learned on the reservation that the ancient, sacred charge of the storyteller is to beguile the time. I’m thrilled when I hear that someone has used my books to get through some particularly difficult illness either as a patient or as they sit on the sidelines while someone they love is terribly ill. It gratifies me to know that by immersing themselves in my stories, people are able to set their own lives aside and live and walk in someone else’s shoes. It tells me I’m doing a good job at the best job in the world.


Author's Book List
After the Fire
I’m sure more than a few of the dyed-in-the wool mystery readers are thinking–a book of poetry? What’s she smoking? Why would I want to read POETRY? With After the Fire, you’ll get a no-holds-barred view of the emotional forge that turned me into who I am. If my pen name wasn’t J.A. Jance, I might have to opt for Phoenix Jance, because the person I am today rose from those ashes. After the Fire is my autobiography, but reading it will give you some insights into the origins of some of my characters, too, as well as an understanding about the themes of some of my books. The cover is lovely. It looks like an all-occasion-greeting card for people in tough circumstances, whose lives are being adversely impacted by drugs and alcohol or by the loss of a spouse to death or divorce. It’s also a book that comes with a real message of hope. It would be WONDERFUL, if that little book of poetry managed to outstrip ALL of the publisher’s expectations! And for those of you who do audio books, I spent yesterday recording the audio version of After the Fire, and that should also be available on September 10. That way you can go to a poetry reading in the privacy of your own iTunes account!


Order the Book From: Amazon
Judgment Call - A Brady Novel of Suspense
The New York Times bestselling master of mystery and suspense, J.A. Jance—whom the Chattanooga Times ranks “among the best, if not the best”—brings back her enormously popular series protagonist, Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady.

With Judgment Call, Jance achieves a new high in crime fiction, as Brady wrestles with her conflicting roles of law officer and mother when her daughter discovers the murdered body of the local high school principal, and the ensuing investigation reveals secrets no parent wants to hear. At once a breathtaking recreation of the rugged landscape of the American Southwest, a moving story of a mother’s concerns for her endangered child, and thrilling masterwork of brutal crime and expert detection, Judgment Call is prime J.A. Jance, a treat for anyone who loves a good cop story wrapped around a superior family drama.


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble
Deadly Stakes: A Novel - Ali Reynolds
A thrilling mystery from New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance starring Ali Reynolds, who finds herself working against the police to clear two innocent names…with deadly stakes.

In Deadly Stakes, police academy-trained former reporter Ali Reynolds is contacted to investigate the grisly murder of a gold-digging divorcee on behalf of a woman accused of the crime. Lynn Martinson is dating the dead woman’s ex-husband, and she and her boyfriend Chip Ralston have been charged.

Ali is simultaneously drawn to the case of A.J. Sanders, a frightened teen with secrets of his own. He’s the first to find the body in the Camp Verde desert when he goes to retrieve a mysterious buried box hidden by his absent father—a box that turns out to be filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in poker chips.

When the body of an ex-con is discovered near the first crime scene, Ali struggles to determine if A.J. and Lynn’s cases are related. Though her friends in the police department grow increasingly irritated by her involvement with the cases, Ali must stop a deadly killer from claiming another victim…before she herself is lost in this game of deadly stakes.


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble
Left for Dead - Ali Reynolds Mysteries
Not even Ali Reynolds is immune to the escalating drug wars just across the border as two ruthless crimes threaten to bring her face-to-face with a cold-blooded killer.

When one of Ali’s former Arizona Police Academy classmates is gunned down and left to die, he is at first assumed to be an innocent victim of the violent drug cartels. But the crime scene investigation reveals there’s much more to the story. Summoned to his hospital bedside, Ali finds it hard to believe he’s mixed up in the drug trade, and she also meets another seriously injured victim—an unidentified young woman, presumed to be an illegal border crosser, who was raped and savagely beaten. Ali is determined to seek justice in both cases. But as she zeroes in on the truth, the real killer is lining her up in the crosshairs. . . .


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble
Birds of Prey
The Starfire Breeze steams its way north toward the Gulf of Alaska, buffeted by crisp sea winds blowing down from the Arctic. Those on board are seeking peace, relaxation, adventure, escape. But there is no escape in this place of unspoiled natural majesty. Because terror strolls the decks even in the brilliant light of day . . . and death is a conspicuous, unwelcome passenger. Former Seattle policeman J.P. Beaumont—a damaged homicide detective who has come here to heal from fresh, stinging wounds—will find that the grim ghosts pursuing him were not left behind . . . as a pleasure cruise gone horribly wrong carries him into lethal, ever-darkening waters.


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble
Paradise Lost - A Brady Novel of Suspense
The desecrated body of a missing Phoenix heiress lies naked, lifeless, and abandoned in the desolate beauty and lonely terror of the high desert night. A hideous crime is inviting death once more into Sheriff Joanna Brady's world. But this time the nightmares of her professional and personal lives are intertwining in ways too awful to contemplate, because one corpse is only the first piece in a twisted and sinister puzzle in which nothing seems to fit. And the next item on a killer's bloody agenda may well be Brady's own beloved daughter.


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble
Exit Wounds - Brady Novels
The intense desert heat has brought horror to a small corner of the Southwest. A body lies lifeless in an airless trailer, surrounded by seventeen others. It is a crime unspeakable in its conception and execution—a nightmare strangely connected to a grisly slaughter in a neighboring state, where the corpses of two women are found tied up, naked, and gruesomely posed on a rancher's land. A day that started out hot has already turned blistering for Joanna Brady, the sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, for terror has moved into her small town to stay. And the nightmare will not end until she uncovers the roots of a monstrous obsession buried somewhere in the most frightening dark shadows of the past.


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble
Edge of Evil - Alison Reynold
With a divorce from her cheating husband of ten years pending and her high-profile broadcasting career abruptly ended by TV executives who wanted a "younger face," Alison Reynolds feels there's nothing keeping her in LA any longer. Summoned back home to Sedona, Arizona, by the death of a childhood friend, she seeks solace in the comforting rhythms of her parents' diner, the Sugarloaf Café, and launches an on-line blog as therapy for others who have been similarly cut loose.

But when threatening posts begin appearing, Ali finds out that running a blog is far more up-close and personal—and far more dangerous—than sitting behind a news desk. Suddenly something dark and deadly is swirling around her life. And now Ali is a target…and marked for death.


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble
Breach of Duty - A J. P. Beaumont Novel
The end of the old woman's long life came suddenly. She died in her home, torched to death by a fiend with an unknown motive. While Seattle is undergoing unwelcome upscale change, it is strictly on the surface, as the Grim Reaper still lives in the shadows of the city. And it falls to Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont and his new partner, Sue Danielson, to get to the bottom of his latest handiwork. But the trail will lead to places and events that will leave two police officers and their cases shattered—and nothing will ever be the same again.


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble
Betrayal of Trust - J. P. Beaumont #19
“Murder, teenage bullying, sleazy adults, and good police work add up to another fine entry by Jance.” —The Oklahoman

Betrayal of Trust is the twentieth mystery by New York Times bestseller J.A. Jance to feature Seattle p.i. J. P. Beaumont—and it is another surefire winner from the author the Chattanooga Times calls, “One of the best—if not the best.” When Beau discovers a snuff film recorded on a smart phone—a horrific crime that has a devastating effect on two troubled teens—his investigation unleashes a firestorm that blazes all the way up through the halls of Washington state government. Betrayal of Trust is certain to win this phenomenal crime fiction master (“In the elite company of Sue Grafton and Patricia Cornwell”—Flint Journal) a wealth of new fans while enthralling the army of devoted readers already addicted to the potent Jance magic.


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble
Payment in Kind - A J.P. Beaumont Novel
A riveting novel of dark secrets and murderous rage featuring Seattle detective J.P. Beaumont from the New York Times bestselling author of Betrayal of Trust

In death, they were entwined like lovers—a man and a woman hideously slaughtered, then stuffed into a closet in the Seattle School District building. But what appears a cut-and-dried crime of passion, complete with an ideal prime suspect, goes deeper than investigating detective J.P. Beaumont could ever have imagined. For an accused betrayed husband is keeping something shocking carefully hidden, a terrifying truth that’s hotter and more sordid than extramarital sex. And some secrets are more lethal than murder.


Order the Book From: Amazon - Barnes and Noble
Fatal Error: A Novel
New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance delivers another pulse-pounding tale of suspense where no one is safe from a . . .FATAL ERROR.

Ali Reynolds begins the summer thinking her most difficult challenge will be surviving a six-week- long course as the lone forty-something female at the Arizona Police Academy—not to mention taking over the 6:00 AM shift at her family’s restaurant while her parents enjoy a long overdue Caribbean cruise. However, when Brenda Riley, a colleague from Ali’s old news broadcasting days in California, shows up in town with an alcohol problem and an unlikely story about a missing fiancé, Ali reluctantly agrees to help.

The man posing as Brenda’s fiancé is revealed to be Richard Lowensdale, a cyber-sociopath who has left a trail of broken hearts in his virtual wake. When he is viciously murdered, the women he once victimized are considered suspects. The police soon focus their investigation on Brenda, who is already known to have broken into Richard’s home and computer before vanishing without a trace. Attempting to clear her friend’s name, Ali is quickly drawn into a web of online intrigue that may lead to a real-world fatal error.


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Minor in Possession - A J.P. Beaumont Novel
A gripping story of buried truths, deceit, and sudden, brutal death featuring Seattle detective J.P. Beaumont fromthe New York Times bestselling author of Betrayal of Trust

Minor in Possession

All manner of sinners and sufferers come to the rehab ranch in Arizona when they hit rock bottom. For Seattle detective J.P. Beaumont, there is a deeper level of Hell here: being forced to room with teenage drug dealer Joey Rothman. An all-around punk, Joey deserves neither pity nor tears—until he is murdered by a bullet fired from Beaumont’s gun. Someone has set Beau up brilliantly for a long and terrifying fall, dragging the alcoholic ex-cop into a conspiracy of blood and lies that could cost him his freedom . . . And his life.


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Improbable Cause - A J.P. Beaumont Novel
A spellbinding tale of twisted depravity and blood vengeance featuring Seattle detective J.P. Beaumont from the New York Times bestselling author of Betrayal of Trust

Improbable Cause

Perhaps it was fitting justice: a dentist who enjoyed inflicting pain was murdered in his own chair. The question is not who wanted Dr. Frederick Nielsen dead, but rather who of the many finally reached the breaking point. The sordid details of this case, with its shocking revelations of violence, cruelty, and horrific sexual abuse, would be tough for any investigator to stomach. But for Seattle Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont, the most damning piece of the murderous puzzle will shake him to his very core—because what will be revealed to him is nothing less than the true meaning of unrepentant evil.


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Dismissed with Prejudice - J. P. Beaumont Novel
A gripping tale of hatred, lies, and deadly traditionfeaturing Seattle detective J.P. Beaumont from the New York Times bestselling author of Betrayal of Trust

Dismissed with Prejudice

The blood at the scene belies any suggestion of an “honorable death.” Yet, to the eyes of the Seattle police, a successful Japanese software magnate died exactly as he wished—and by his own hand, according to the ancient rite of seppuku. Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont can’t dismiss what he sees as an elaborate suicide, however, not when something about it makes his flesh crawl. Because small errors in the ritual suggest something darker: a killer who will go to extraordinary lengths to escape detection—a fiend with a less traditional passion . . . For cold-blooded murder.


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A More Perfect Union - J. P. Beaumont Novels
A shattering tale of corruption and homicide featuring Seattle detective J.P. Beaumont from the New York Times bestselling author of Betrayal of Trust

More Perfect Union

A shocking photo screamed from the front pages of the tabloids—the last moments of a life captured for all the world to see. The look of sheer terror eternally frozen on the face of the doomed woman indicated that her fatal fall from an upper story of an unfinished Seattle skyscraper was no desperate suicide—and that look will forever haunt Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont. But his hunt for answers and justice is leading to more death, and to dark and terrible secrets scrupulously guarded by men of steel behind the locked doors of a powerful union that extracts its dues payments in blood.


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Justice Denied - J. P. Beaumont Novel
The murder of an ex-drug dealer ex-con—gunned down on his mother's doorstep—seems just another turf war fatality. Why then has Seattle homicide investigator J.P. Beaumont been instructed to keep this assignment hush-hush? Meanwhile, Beau's lover and fellow cop, Mel Soames, is involved in her own confidential investigation. Registered sex offenders from all over Washington State are dying at an alarming rate—and not all due to natural causes. A metropolis the size of Seattle holds its fair share of brutal crime, corruption, and dirty little secrets. But when the separate trails they're following begin to shockingly intertwine, Beau and Mel realize that they have stumbled onto something bigger and more frightening than they anticipated—a deadly conspiracy that's leading them to lofty places they should not enter . . . and may not be allowed to leave alive.


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Read The Story Behind Second Watch from J.A. Jance: Second Watch Back Story


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