J. Michael McGee

I grew up across the street from a house where a young girl was murdered. That mystery, still unsolved to this day, perhaps led me to work in the criminal justice system, first as a court investigator and later as a prison counselor.

In between those jobs, I worked as a college speech instructor, a freelance writer, a newspaper reporter and a high school teacher. I took time-out to travel over seas, hike the Grand Canyon several times and return to school to earn three master degrees.

The young girl’s death decades ago also prompted me to become a “paperback writer” of mysteries.

As an investigator for 15 years, I heard first-hand stories from men who committed crimes. Later, as a mental health therapist at a prison, I developed a keen ear for hard and realistic dialogue.

My first three novels are to be published by Black Opal Books. The Slip Swing, the second book in the Pat Riordan trilogy, is due out in the fall of 2019.  The others will follow.

Now working on my fourth novel, I also hang out a counseling shingle in my hometown of Columbia, Missouri treating persons who struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder.