To learn about Jim Heskett is to learn about many things. An award-winning author, a world traveler, podcaster, muser on all things writing-related. Also, a scruffy-looking nerf herder.
Read on if you dare!
And yes, that is a wooly mammoth on my forehead.
Jim Heskett writes stories about outsiders who fight crime.
The author was born in the wilds of Oklahoma, raised by a pack of wolves with a station wagon and a membership card to the local public swimming pool. Just like the man in the John Denver song, he moved to Colorado in the summer of his 27th year. He’s never looked back. Aside from a wild year traveling the world, he hasn’t let the Flatirons mountains out of his sight.
Jim fell in love with writing at the age of fourteen inside a copy of Stephen King’s Carrie. Poetry provided his first outlet for teen angst, then later a smattering of mediocre screenplays, and eventually crime thriller fiction a la Elmore Leonard. In between, he worked a few careers that never quite tickled his creative toes.
He hasn’t ever forgotten about Stephen King.
You can find him currently huddled over a laptop in an undisclosed location in Colorado, dreaming up ways to kill beloved characters.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, he believes the huckle is the king of berries and he refuses to entertain any arguments to the contrary.
He writes award-winning crime thrillers (and dystopian thrillers as J.E. Heskett), with a dash of snark tossed in for the hell of it.
Tap your finger here to read free stories.
If you want to say hi, ask a question, or want to tell me how dumb my haircut is, just fill out the form.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hello! Welcome to my fiction! I have multiple series, and you can pick and choose to start with any of them.
Most people consume the Micah Reed crime novels first, then move on to the Layne Parrish spy thrillers.
After that, try the Six Assassins thriller series I wrote with Nick Thacker. If you want to see all my books, click here.
Some of my series need to be read in order, some can be read in any order. If there’s any doubt, just read them in order! I make it simple by including a link at the back of each book directly to the next in the series. Easy peasy.
The simplest answer is NO, except for the final book, AMONG THIEVES. It’s the final book, so you should read it last!
Technically, you can read the rest in any order. AIRBAG SCARS is book “zero” in this crime thriller series, and NAILGUN KILLER is book 1.
In my opinion (and I just work here), I would suggest reading them in the order they were published.
See that link for both the chronological order and publication order.
To see the full series on Amazon, click here.
Like Micah Reed’s series, you can read the Layne Parrish books in any order.
I would, however, recommend reading the Micah Reed thriller SHOCK COLLAR first, because it’s sort of a “prequel” to Layne’s series.
Layne also has a book “zero” in his series, the thriller novella MUSEUM ATTACK.
To see the full Layne Parrish series, click here.
Yes! Unlike Micah Reed and Layne Parrish, Ember Clarke’s tale of the Denver Assassins Club requires you to start with book 1.
All six books tell a single, overarching story, and if you start somewhere besides PRIMARY TARGET, you’ll be confused!
Yes! Absolutely, the Whistleblower Trilogy is four books you need to read in order. I know you’re saying, “four books in a trilogy?” Yes, you heard correct.
The whistleblower trilogy starts with WOUNDED ANIMALS, and then THE LEGEND OF KAREEM and finishes with BOTH ENDS BURNING.
The fourth book, STRIKE THE MATCH, is a prequel set twenty years before the events that befall Tucker Candle in the trilogy. But you need to read it last, or you’ll spoil the whole trilogy!
Not as far as you know.
Just kidding. Yes, I do! Under my (real) name Jim Heskett, I write crime thrillers and spy thrillers.
Under the super-secret pen name “J. Heskett,” I write non-fiction stuff for authors.
Under the also-secret pen name “J.E. Heskett,” I write dystopian and post apocalyptic fiction.
Why do I write this stuff under pen names? Because it’s different enough from my thriller fiction that I don’t want readers to get confused! Not everyone who’s into thriller is also into YA dystopian stuff.
I do indeed!
You probably know about Six Assassins featuring everyone’s favorite contract killer Ember Clarke. I wrote these books with Nick Thacker, author of the Harvey Bennett thriller series.
But we also penned two books together in his Harvey Bennett prequel series.
A while back, I wrote a horror novella with J. Thorn, but I’m not sure you can find it anywhere ;)
I’m working on it!
If you want to be the first to know, make sure you are in my reader group!
Excellent question.
The place where I’m most active is on Facebook. I have a twitter and instagram and other stuff, but I’m rarely there. If you want to interact with me, Facebook is the place to do it! I post writing updates and cover reveals, funny book memes, and other tidbits.
There’s also the blog, which is kinda where you are right now, dig? That’s for news, free short stories, and behind the scenes info.
I also have podcasts, like Story on the Spot, which is the world’s first and only thriller fiction improv game show. It’s a little hard to describe, but you get to watch thriller authors invent stories live, and they compete against each other for points. YOU get to vote on the winner.
There’s also The Thriller Fiction Podcast, where I narrate two books and more, and you can listen entirely for free.
And you can always email me! Say hi. I’m always looking for good thriller recommendations.
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