A FREE audio book is available in its entirety. Click on “The Whiler” under the “Books” menu item, or just click this link.
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A FREE e-book (not audio) of the novel “Keeping Them Happy” is also available. Look under the “Books” menu item or just click this link.
Jim Wygant has released 13 books, four of which remain in trade paperback format available from Amazon or independent book sellers. The other books listed below are no longer in print, although Kindle e-book versions of Jim’s books can be downloaded from Amazon. The list below begins with the most recent releases. Two more novels have been released recently in e-book format and are available at a nominal fee from book sellers other than Amazon. Those two books can be read for free on this web site. They are not available on Amazon.
“Wygant may be the greatest crime writer the world of fiction has seen since the days of Ross Macdonald and Raymond Chandler.”
— Frank Speeker, Mocking Dog Blog
Below are four YouTube videos (the longest is only about four minutes) of the author discussing each of his latest novels. Click on any video to play it. To return to this page click the “X” in the upper right corner of your screen while the video is playing.
And for more about Jim’s books, visit his Author Page on Amazon.
And now… two lawyers walked into a bar… From Jim’s play, Random Contingencies, read an excerpt about a two lawyers who switched roles and express their doubts about the criminal justice system. The play later became the basis for the novel Random Contingencies, which is discussed below. Select “Two Lawyers” from the menu above to read the excerpt from the play.
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Circle of Vengeance:
The regard we have for each other, the love, the hate, the trust, the betrayals, when allowed to fester for fifteen years can have devastating consequences when forced into the open. The issue becomes more intense if two of the participants are politicians, another is a drug addict, and yet another is a naive attorney. When the attorney hires private investigator Howard Ash to investigate the apparent accidental death of his much admired friend, politician, and war colleague Warren Camp, Ash is not sure exactly what he is supposed to be looking for or why. As his probing uncovers unresolved questions about the past, about relationships, and about another death fifteen years earlier, Ash watches all of the participants struggle with events they hoped had been forgotten. In an explosive ending, one more person dies and a woman is compelled to admit her role in a pivotal event.
This book is available in trade paperback format from Amazon and independent book sellers. It is also available in Kindle ebook format from Amazon.
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Sweet And Gone:
When private detective Howard Ash takes on a mysterious client he quickly becomes a suspect in a murder case — and then his client disappears, along with any alibi Ash might have had. In a search for answers, Ash discovers that a woman who works in a bar may be able to help him find his client, but she too is gone and may be targeted as another murder victim. Ash is working against the clock as police move closer to arresting him. He must locate both the client and the woman from the bar. Clouding his search is an arson investigation that spills into Ash’s chaotic world after two people die in a set fire. It is the early 1980s, an era before cell phones became endemic, and pay phones and private detectives disappeared.
This book is available in trade paperback format from Amazon and independent book sellers. It is also available in Kindle ebook format from Amazon.
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Pursued:
It’s the mid-1980s, before gentrification and smart phones, and without much regard for women’s rights. Marti, a one-eyed woman with low self-esteem and a heart shaped eye patch, has a history of associating with men who carry trouble with them like an infectious disease. When boyfriend Luther hurts her, she decides to leave her job as a motel clerk and run away with a mysterious stranger who drives a sporty black Camaro. She discovers as she heads north through Oregon in the black Camaro that driver Nick Bass is a sullen bank robber. What she also soon learns is that Luther – a gorilla with poor impulse control – is now in pursuit of them, his purpose unclear. Does he want her back, or does he want to hurt both her and Nick Bass? In a dark episode in a motel room Luther is overcome with toxic anger and kills a woman he picked up in a bar. The police begin pursuing Luther, and the FBI soon identifies Nick Bass as their bank robbery suspect. All trails lead to a seedy area of Portland, where Marti rediscovers her long-suppressed feelings for people she thought she hated.
This book is available in trade paperback format from Amazon and independent book sellers. It is also available in Kindle ebook format from Amazon.
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The Detectives:
After fifteen years of trying to resolve other people’s problems, a police homicide detective finds that he has unwittingly walled himself into a barren chamber of confusion, loneliness, and despair. His wife barely speaks to him; his work ceases to offer him any valid purpose. Told with penetrating characterizations in the style of Elmore Leonard, this novel is set in the Pacific Northwest. It unfolds from the perspective of homicide Detective Russell Strick of the Portland Police Bureau. Strick’s newest case begins for him as little more than a distraction. A rich man of impeccable reputation is found dead in the driveway leading to his Portland mansion. An attaché case containing $100,000 in cash has been left on the ground beside him. Still awaiting discovery in another part of the city, a cheap apartment conceals another issue, a sex scandal.
This book is available in trade paperback format from Amazon and independent book sellers. It is also available in Kindle ebook format from Amazon.
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Below are a few more videos about books that are now out of print but still available as ebooks from Amazon. The first two videos are 4 and 6 minutes each. The last is a 30-minute TV interview from OPB. To return to this page click the “X” in the upper right corner of your screen while the video is playing.
Spy’s Demise:
When the Soviet Union collapses in 1991 during an attempted coup, KGB agent Valery Sevastoposky decides to quit his demoralizing job, his failed marriage, and his country. He slips into the United States, where he associates with a Russian gang in Brighton Beach, New York. His descent into a life of failed relationships, crime, despair, and terror rapidly accelerates when a KGB mole within the CIA realizes that the man who carries his secret is no longer under the control of the KGB.
This book remains available in Kindle ebook format from Amazon and as an audio book.
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Jessica’s Tune:
A young musician uses his computer skills to tap into the files of what he believes to be a small San Francisco finance company. It is actually a money laundering front for a Mexican drug cartel, which is less concerned about the theft of $50,000 than about the possibility that the thief might be a competitor prowling their computer data. Nick Dement, former KGB spy, is called upon to resolve the disappearance of the musician. In the course of his inquiries he becomes romantically entangled with two women. From a solitary, low-profile existence he is rocketed into an unfamiliar realm of competing passions and unrelenting danger. This is a sequel to “The Spy’s Demise” which details the defection of Nick Dement fifteen years earlier, before he went into witness protection and when he was known by other names.
This book remains available in Kindle ebook format from Amazon.
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No Away:
Here’s all that terrible stuff you’ve heard about… Infrastructure collapse, massive unemployment, uprisings by the 99-percenters, bombings… Environmental disasters, levees breaking, coastal flooding, drought, fires… Special enforcement squads, torture, disappearances… The world of Adam Spence has become a nightmare… and he is being pursued by a band of men, the new protectors of “national security,” maybe working for the government, maybe not, who regard him as a grave threat, part of a conspiracy he knows nothing about. In his own mind, he is only a war veteran trying to live out of the back of a stolen pickup truck. He made one serious mistake that has brought down the wrath of forces with seeming unlimited power.
This book remains available in Kindle ebook format from Amazon.
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Confesssions of a Lie Detector:
Confessions of a Lie Detector is a true crime memoir that draws upon decades of working with people accused of crimes. Gordon Barland, Ph.D., retired Chief of the Research Division, Department of Defense Polygraph Institute, called this book a “must read.” Barland said the author, “offers insights into why people lie, later confess, and yet sometimes recant.” He characterized Wygant’s writing as reflecting, “…the heart of a poet and soul of a philosopher.” What happens to us when accused, rightly or wrongly? How do we defend ourselves? Here is the human side of the news, the deeper story that the media never reaches.
This book remains available in Kindle ebook format from Amazon.
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Random Contingencies:
Two prisoners, two lawyers, three women, and a dead murder victim all try to sort out their lives. They ask themselves: How did we get to this moment? What choices did we make or avoid that put us on this path? Nearly everyone in this story slips almost unaware into a new skin as time fades away. Most make adjustments, both deliberate and unconsciously, to changing circumstances. One of them does not. A mix of psychology, philosophy, sarcasm, and sardonic humor, there are elements in this short novel that every reader will recognize from his or her own experiences.
This book is available in Kindle ebook format from Amazon.
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White Buffalo:
White Buffalo is a collection of short stories.
This book is available in Kindle ebook format from Amazon.
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Gossamer Afternoons:
Gossamer Afternoons is a collection of poetry.
This book is available in Kindle ebook format from Amazon.