Pen Name:
None
Genre:
Memoir, Mystery
Website:
Amazon Author Page
Barnes & Noble Author Page
Social Media:
Bio
I moved to Santa Fe in the 1970s, part of the counterculture infusion. I wrote features for both Santa Fe Newspapers and then went back to school, finishing a PhD at UNM in 1982. Then I taught journalism and creative writing at the University of Cincinnati for 30 years. After retiring I moved back to New Mexico, where I have been a full-time writer since. I have published a total of 21 books: 4 scholarly books, two memoirs, two nonfiction books about Chaco Canyon, and so-far 13 mysteries in my Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery series. I also teach a mystery writing workshop at the downtown Santa Fe Public Library.
More from James
At the moment I am currently most active in writing my Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery series, all of which are set in northern New Mexico, that ancient haunted landscape layered with Pueblo, Hispanic, and Anglo cultures.
Fiction
Title: Stealing the Hopi Snake Dance: A Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery
Publisher: Sunstone, 2025
Genre: Mystery
Murder and mayhem break out after a down and out Santa Fe photographer secretly videotapes the famous Hopi Snake Dance at First Mesa. An important cultural and religious ceremony, the Hopi Snake Dance is closed to outsiders. When the photographer tries to sell the video for commercial use, former Santa Fe Police Detective and Private Investigator Fernando Lopez tries to prevent the sale and the violence that results.
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Title: The Witchcraft Murders: A Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery
Publisher: Sunstone, 2024
Genre: Mystery
The bodies of two women are found naked and wrapped in white sheets like mummies outside the Cerrillos Hills State Park Visitor Center. When a newspaper reporter investigating the killings turns up dead in Cerrillos, the reporter’s wife asks Private Investigator Fernando Lopez to identify her husband’s killer. Lopez finds himself drawn into a dangerous world of witches, rogue anthropologists, and murder.
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Title: Santa Fe Assassin
Publisher: Sunstone, 2024
Genre: Mystery
Jack Lacy, a decorated Marine sniper now working as a professional assassin, arrives in Santa Fe with a contract to kill a government official. When the hit has to be cancelled, the employer demands that Lacy return the sizable advance he was given. Lacy refuses. In response, Lacy’s employer contracts Silva Archiveda, the head of the Sinaloa Cartel in New Mexico, to force Lacy to return the advance. Private Investigator Fernando Lopez finds himself drawn into the bloody war that develops between Lacy and the Sinaloa Cartel in the streets of Santa Fe.
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Title: Devil on Canyon Road
Publisher: Sunstone, 2023
Genre: Mystery
After the murder of a homeless man in downtown Santa Fe, Private Investigator Fernando Lopez is visited by a local artist who claims to have seen the Devil on Canyon Road. Lopez is dubious, but rumors continue to spread as more Santa Feans see a red-faced beast in the area. When a second homeless man is murdered, Lopez decides to investigate. The case quickly becomes more complicated—and dangerous—when a violent anti-immigrant movement called Take Back Our Streets emerges and the Sinaloa Cartel of Mexico appears in Santa Fe.
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NonFiction
Title: New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon: Photographing the Ancient City
Publisher: Sunstone, 2023
Genre: Nonfiction
This is intended to be a guidebook for amateur photographers wanting to photograph Chaco Canyon and its spectacular ruins. The volume offers tips on where, when, and sometimes how to photograph the ruins of the ancient stone city that dates from about 860 to 1200 AD. Photographers will discover how images of the massive stone structures vary by angle, light, and time of day (and season).
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Title: Hiking New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon
Publisher: Sunstone, 2019
Genre: Guidebook
Hiking New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon offers a guidebook for visitors to the ancient stone city of Chaco Canyon, an ancestral Pueblo homeland that existed from about 860 to 1200 AD. The book provides detailed information about all the Chaco trails, both inside the canyon and on the surrounding mesas, as well as all the ruins and the history of Chaco Canyon. Maps and photos are included.
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Title: Weather Reports from the Autism Front: A Father’s Memoir of His Autistic Son
Publisher: McFarland, 2008
Genre: Memoir
Based on detailed research and a lifetime of personal experience, James Wilson recounts his personal journey as the primary companion of his autistic son, Sam. This realistic, irreverent account provides enlightening truths as well as sardonic humor. Formally seen as a neurological disorder, autism is increasingly being looked upon as simply a form of neurodiversity. Rejecting mainstream attitudes, Wilson explores this modern view of autism through his own experience as well as quotes from other people on the autism spectrum who share their experiences, who speak for themselves and refuse to be spoken for by others.
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