Mystery & Thriller Author | J Kent Holloway

Currently Writing

Book 3 of The Grim Days Mystery Series

The Vampire's Valet: A Mystery

About

So, what exactly is 'Pulp Mystery'?

Anyone who's been following me as a writer for any amount of time knows I've been working at finding my little niche of the publishing world for a while now. I started out as an adventure writer, then moved onto thrillers. I avoided mysteries because for the last 30 years, I've worked professionally as a forensic death investigator for a medical examiner's Office...and let's face it, the last thing I wanted to do when I got off work was spend more time dealing with my job (even in a fiction world).

That changed a few years ago when my literary hero and mentor, Warren Murphy, co-creator of Remo Williams and The Destroyer series, encouraged me to try my hand at crime fiction and mysteries. He was my hero, after all. So, how could I say no? And so, I did. And discovered I loved it. Still, I had no interest in writing mysteries set in a realistic, gritty, depressing world. As both a reader and a writer, I found myself drawn to the lighthearted, humorous whodunnits of cozy and traditional mysteries. And so, I set out to join the ranks of cozy mystery authors. Unfortunately, I have no interest in baking or knitting or gardening or any of the other hobbies that the amateur sleuths of cozies are known for. What's more, I'm a male author, writing male protagonists. It's not a recipe that is necessarily conventional among the cozy mystery world. And so, I never quite found my place among fellow cozy mystery authors. And definitely not among agents or publishers, who found most of my concepts to be too far out there. Too on the fringe. Too different to fit in any marketable category.

I pondered that issue for a while. Then, it hit me. My stories all have one thing in common. The strange. The unusual. A touch of horror. A touch of sci-fi. Add to that, I have a love of retro and it all became clear. I wrote pulp mysteries. What's pulp? Think The Shadow! Think Doc Savage, Tarzan, Conan! Think Solomon Kane or The Phantom or Flash Gordon. Imagine mysteries set in retro flying saucers. Whodunnits with a Cthulhu backdrop. Some might call it 'Weird Detective' fiction, and I suppose there's a bit of Carnacki the Ghostfinder detective in what I'm talking about. But it's more than that. It's mysteries beyond your wildest imagination! It's Outer Limits and Weird tales. It's the Thin Man meets the Mummy! That's what I write. That's what's in store for you if you buy any of my books...especially those I haven't written yet!

Mysteries

Death Warmed Over (Book 1 of The Grim Days Mysteries)

DEATH TAKES A (WORKING) HOLIDAY!

Becca Cole is a big fish in a small pond. The former big-city homicide detective is now the Chief of Police in Summer Haven, a sleepy Florida beach town where nothing ever happens. But all that changes when she is summoned to the scene of a grisly murder. A naked young woman lies dead on the beach, a knife sticking out of her back, and the supposed killer stands over the body. It looks like an open-and-shut case, but not all is as it seems.

The victim, who was tangled up in Santeria and drug-trafficking, didn't die from a stab wound. In fact, an autopsy can't determine what killed her. The chief suspect turns out to be Silas Mot, an enigma in his own right. In fact, as Becca digs deeper into Silas's identity, she discovers the startling truth. He's the Grim Reaper. The personification of Death. The guy who decides who dies and when. It seems he's in town in order to determine why unsanctioned deaths have been occurring in and around Summer Haven, and he can't leave until he's cracked the case.

Becca and Silas will have to team up to discover who killed the young woman if they are to put a stop to the unscheduled departures, but for Silas, confined to a body of flesh and blood for the first time in his existence, the distractions of the world of the living may be the Death of him!

Dead in the Water (Book 2 of The Grim Days Mysteries)

The sleepy beach town of Summer Haven is waking up to a new nightmare--reality TV!

Lance Avery, host of 'Mysterious Expedition'--a popular adventure documentary show--is in town to investigate a sunken shipwreck rumored to be the flagship of the infamous pirate Baron Tombstone, allegedly the last known possessor of a mystical artifact known as the Hand of Cain.

Summer Haven Police Chief Becca Cole knows all about the Hand of Cain. For the last year, she's been investigating mysterious deaths tied to the artifact, with a little help from the unlikeliest of partners--the Grim Reaper...Death himself, incarnate in the flesh of one Silas Mot, who has temporarily relocated to Summer Haven to discover why people are dying before their time.

When an inexplicable tragedy strikes the TV production, rumors abound that the death can only be attributed to "supernatural causes", but Becca is determined to find an all-too human killer.

Meanwhile, Silas is facing a different sort of crisis. With each bizarre death, he's losing his powers, inexplicably transforming into a mere mortal. If Becca and Silas can't solve this latest mystery, it will mean the end of his job as harvester of souls, to say nothing of his very existence.

Murder on Voodoo Island

[Originally published as Killypso Island]

The Cold War is heating up in paradise…

'Captain Joe' Thacker didn't come to the tiny Caribbean island of St. Noel looking for trouble. Just the opposite, the former flying ace turned sometimes-smuggler wants nothing more than to while away his days, smoking hand-rolled Havana cigars and sipping rum as the melodic beat of calypso drums drift through the sultry air.

But trouble has a way of finding Captain Joe.

It begins when the local inspector decides, seemingly on a whim, to hassle him over a shipment of booze meant for Jacques 'the Candyman' Lagrange—a popular local figure who runs the island's only candy store and happens to be both a gangster and a voodoo priest. He's also the elder brother to the island's despotic governor. The long-simmering rivalry between the Lagrange brothers is starting to boil over, making life on the island miserable and posing a serious threat to Captain Joe's livelihood. To make matters worse, three suspicious figures who just might be Russian spies show up and start nosing around.

Then Joe is accused of murdering the island’s beloved fortune teller, and the wife of the Candyman!

With some help from an eclectic bunch of island dwellers, Joe goes on the run and on the hunt for the real murderer. But St. Noel is a tiny island, and the with police, a horde of angry voodoo practitioners, and a trio of insidious KGB agents hot on his heels, Joe's biggest challenge will be staying alive long enough to clear his name.

Curse of the Devil's Teeth

Dirge of the Witch Haints

Feast of the Sin Eater

Clean Exit (An Ajax Clean Forensic Thriller)

Anton Jax - Ajax Clean, to those who know - is a professional cleaner. As in cleaner for the mob. Bloodstains on your shirt? No problem. Fingerprints and DNA evidence all over the crime scene, enough to put you away forever? For the right price, Clean will make it all go away.

But now someone wants to make Ajax Clean go away.

His instincts told him the job was too good to be true. He should have trusted them. Two dead bodies, trace evidence pointing to him everywhere, and those sirens he hears in the distance?

Yeah, coming for him.

On the run, Clean will have to take help where he can get it; from a half-crazed voodoo hitman, a retired homicide detective, and the beautiful young medical examiner Clean is desperately trying to protect. All he has to do now is survive long enough to clear his name, get some payback, and maybe, if he's lucky, make a clean exit.

Rise of the Knightshades: The Djinn

[Originally published as The Djinn.]

A Holy Land...A Holy War...A Holy Terror Against Evil

In the final years of the first Kingdom of Jerusalem, in a vault, hidden deep beneath the Temple Mount, Baron Gregory De L'Ombre has made an astonishing discovery. Imprisoned within the vault are twelve monstrous abominations, created by one of King Solomon's wives as an ultimate act of revenge. The secrets of the vault will ensure Gregory's absolute power and forever enslave the Outremer—the Holy Land. No man dares stand against him.

But the Djinn is no mere man.

A creature of smoke and shadow...a living legend...only the Djinn grasps the full scope of the baron's plans. Only he—along with his army of Knightshades—can save the Holy Land from a fate more terrible than anyone imagines.

MIDDLE GRADE Mystery

The Mystery of the Undying Man (Book 1 of The Grand Avenue Detectives)

A Haunted House…
Missing Children…
A Dead Man Walking…
The Grand Avenue Detectives are on the case.

Every small town has its secrets… Places you never go, except on a dare… People who, when you see them coming, you cross the street and go the other way…

When a young girl in Burnside, Kentucky goes missing during an afternoon thunderstorm and the ‘zombie’ of the richest man in town is seen shambling the streets, inventor and 12-year-old sleuth ‘Lucky’ Lee Aker enlists his friends, Shane Morrow and ‘8-Bit’ Grant to solve the case. Naturally the trail leads them to the town’s most haunted place—Southwood Manor.

But this mysterious house, its enigmatic occupant, and others in town with sinister purpose do not easily give up their secrets.

NonFiction

I Died Swallowing a Goldfish and Other Life Lessons from the Morgue

Dead men tell no tales, but they sure make some excellent teachers.

Have you ever had someone give you the platitude that death is just a 'natural part of life'? Christians know better. Truth is, death was never intended to be part of the human experience. Sin brought death into the world. It is a result of our disobedience to God and His ideal plan for humanity.

Death is not natural. It's not pretty. It's never dignified. It's part of a curse. And no one knows that truth better than a forensic death investigator, who looks Death in the eyes on a near daily basis.

This book is a fascinating collection of real life and unusual death investigations as it can only be told by someone who's experienced it every day for the last twenty-five years. Though the subject matter might sound macabre, the message inside is one of great hope for living a more abundant life and developing a closer relationship with the One who had defeated Death. The Creator of Life.

MY BOOKS

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