J.D. Allen Books In Order

Publication Order of Sin City Investigation Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

J.D. Allen is a bestselling mystery fiction novelist who is best known for the “Sin City Investigations” series of novels that were nominated for the Shamus Award.

He made his fiction writing debut when in 1918 he published “19 Souls,” the first of the “Sin City Investigations” series of novels.

With her debut becoming very successful he would push on and write at least half a dozen works of fiction in the series. For her work, she has been nominated for several awards including the Freddie Award winner by the Mystery Writers of America.
She has also penned several short fiction stories that have been published in the likes of “Carolina Crimes” and “Murder under the Oaks,” the Anthony Award-winning anthology.

J.D. Allen is a past chair of the PI Writers of America, a member of MWA, president of the Sisters in Crime local chapter, and the Bouchercon National Board chair.

Earlier on, she got a creative writing minor and a major in forensic anthropology from Ohio State University.

After achieving a lot of success, J.D. Allen loves to teach classes on the basics of public speaking, crime scene investigation, point of view, voice, and pacing.
She sometimes keeps her readers up to date on new releases and updates through the newsletter on her website.

One thing that many people do not know about J.D. Allen is that she is dyslexic and this has had a very huge impact on her writing journey.

She is moderately dyslexic and also suffers from aphantasia, which means she cannot see any images in her mind and has practically zero photographic memory.
Growing up, Allen never knew that she was dyslexic and for many years she did very poorly in school.

During this time, her parents used to blame her elementary school teacher for not teaching her phonics. However, the problem was that the education system did not cater to kids with learning differences during that time.
As such, most dyslexic children were labeled slow or accused of not applying themselves. She fumbled through high school and managed to graduate.

But college was tougher and the first time out she flunked and was mad at herself. But she would not give up and put herself through several community college courses to finally get admission to a university.
J.D. Allen was determined to graduate from university probably because she would be the first one in her family to ever do so. Eventually, she was able to get admission to Ohio State University.

It was at Ohio State that things would change for J.D. Allen as one of the teaching assistants in her anthropology class read her short handwritten essay and recognized the symptoms of dyslexia.
She first got tested for Dyslexia as a 26-year-old and this proved the turning point in her life. After a lot of work and some help, she finally did not consider herself slow or dumb.

She had always been good in high school drama classes and had at some point fallen in love with stories that she was now interested in telling. Nonetheless, she is not as well-read as many of her contemporaries given that she began reading very late.
But she is lucky that she lives at a time when access to innovative technologies such as spellcheck and Grammarly are easily available. She also pays for line edits since her drafts can be challenging for editors, regents, and publishers to read on the first try.

“19 Souls” by J.D Allen introduces Jim Beam, who loves working as a Las Vegas private investigator, even if he never liked the seedy aspects and hours the job entailed.

When he gets a call from Cynthia Hodge requesting assistance to find her brother, he thinks the case has no legs.

Daniel Hodge is known for his love for drugs and has gone missing with his mother’s life savings and Bean believes nothing will come from it even if he is found.

But even though he does not think something will come of it, he has been paid in full and agrees to help Cynthia. However, what he does not realize is that the woman in front of him is Sophie Ephers who is looking for revenge against Daniel Hodge?
Jim Beam is good at his job and soon locates Daniel living off the beaten path. When he chats with the man, Beam realizes that he made a mistake and may have led a serial killer right to her prey.
He now needs to do all in his power to protect Daniel and himself from Sophie.

Working with the FBI and the LVPD, they work to coax Sophie out of her hiding but things come to a head when she takes someone close to Beam hostage.

J.D. Allen’s novel Skin Game is a work in which the author takes us deep into the underworld of Las Vegas as it deals with human trafficking.

Jim Beam the private investigator is not happy with where he is in life. For the most part, he has been working investigating insurance scammers and cheating husbands and Las Vegas which is not very satisfying.
He has a debt to a leading crime lord in Las Vegas and he drinks too much.

At some point he was on track to become a Fed only to be accused of a crime he did not commit. When the charges were ultimately dropped it was too late as the FBI preferred other recruits.
Even worse the love of his life left him given that he lost all taste for life.

At the opening of the novel, his ex wants him to help her look for her sister who had gone missing. The missing girl had been working as a social worker trying to rescue women trapped in prostitution.
Most people make the assumption that the disappearance has to do with a sex trafficking ring. Unluckily for Beam, the leader of the crime ring is the one he is beholden to.
Add to the fact his resentment for his ex for dumping him, it makes for an interesting dynamic.

In “Body Zoo” by J.D. Allen, Jim Bean the private investigator is contracted to investigate an insurance case at a trailer park in Nevada.
It seemed to be a simple case only for him to find himself entangled in one of the most complex cases imaginable.

There is a a woman named Emilee that had gone missing and has a murky past, the Ward family with some sinister secrets and then there is a torched trailer.
Jim knows that if he has to find Emilee he will have to get closer to the Wards and untangle their intricate web of lies.

But things get dangerous the closer he gets to the truth. When he finds himself in the middle of some gruesome events he comes to the realization that is fighting to save himself in addition to saving Emilee.