Mystery & Thriller Author | J Kent Holloway

Official Website of BestSelling Mystery & Thriller Author

COMING SOON!

Book 3 of The Grim Days Mystery Series

Clean Getaway (An Ajax Clean Forensic Thriller)

About

WHERE DEATH AND FOLKLORE COLLIDE!

The Grim Reaper and I have been pals for a little over 25 years. Well, ‘pals’ might not be the best term for it. Business associates would be more like it. See, I’ve had a working relationship with Death for over a quarter of a century while employed as a forensic death investigator. During that time, I’ve seen almost every way possible for a person to die. I’ve seen ol’ Grim’s cruelty in all its forms, and despite it all, I’ve never lost my senes of wonder (or humor) over this thing we call Life.

And as I’ve gotten to know Grimmy pretty well over the years, I’ve also made the acquaintance of some of his associates. Religion, being one. Whether the more traditional (I’m an ordained Baptist minister, myself) or the more esoteric like Voodoo, Santeria, or Palo Mayombe. I’ve gotten to know them all. I’ve two-stepped with various Death Cults and dosey doed with almost every folk custom or belief there is regarding Death and beyond.

So it’ll probably come as no surprise to anyone that I eventually became an author. Well, technically, I consider myself a storyteller. I’ll leave the authoring to those more accomplished than I. To me, it’s all about spinning a good yarn. Of bringing tingles down your spine. Of making you chuckle here and there. And I do that by weaving tales involving all the folktales I can muster and twisting and shaping them into stories everyone will enjoy. And with no cussing, sex, or overly graphic violence (more cartoonish violence than anything) in my books, I can promise you they’re good for the whole family as well. So, if you like humorous tales of the Grim Reaper or spine-tingling haint stories from the hills of Kentucky or even just classic creature features, you might want to give my books a try. I think you might just like them.

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.

One Foot in the Grave (Book 3 of The Grim Days Mysteries)

Coming Halloween 2023. More information to come.

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.

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.

Curse of the Devil's Teeth

Dirge of the Witch Haints

Feast of the Sin Eater

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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