J. A. Jance

Horror and thriller author J.A. Jance was born in 1944. The author of nearly fifty books, she is best known for her series of books featuring Detective J.P. Beaumont.
Jance was born in South Dakota and raised in Arizona, where many of her books take place. She had an early desire to become a writer, but was discouraged by her creative writing professor. Her first husband was also a writer, and also kept her from her dream of being an author.

She stepped away from writing, instead earning degrees in English, education, and library science, and working as an insurance salesperson. Yet, while working and taking care of her children, Jance would write in the early hours of the morning. In this manner, she wrote a volume of poetry, After the Fire, as well as her first three novels.

In 1985, she published the first of her novels, Until Proven Guilty. This book launched her J.P. Beaumont series, the twenty-two books of which focus on the fictional Seattle police officer. Jance has said that her years married to her alcoholic first husband have informed the character of Beaumont.

Jance’s second series of books, the Joanna Brady series, started in 1993 with Desert Heat. The Brady and Beaumont series overlapped with 2009’s Fire and Ice, a best seller. Her Ali Reynolds series began in 2006 with Edge of Evil. Along with these and non-series novels, the volume of poetry she wrote in the 1980s was published in 2001.