Jack Olsen Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Jack Olsen is an award-winning author of more than thirty novels that have been published in eleven languages and in fifteen countries.

Over a reporting career that has spanned decades, he would write for the likes of New York Times Review, Vanity Fair, Fortune, People, Sports Illustrated, Paris Match, Life, Playboy, and Readers Digest and has also been a bureau chief for Time.
In addition to writing in magazines, he has also been an author of short fiction which have been published in more than a dozen anthologies. He made his fiction writing debut with the publishing of “Alphabet Jackson” in 1974.

However, this was not his first rodeo given that as early as 1960, he had penned his first non-fiction work “The Mad World of Bridge.” Several of his works including the long-form fiction novel “Have You Seen My Son?” have been adapted for the screen.
His journalism has earned the author the Scripps-Howard Award, the National Headliners Award, the Washington State Governor’s Award, Chicago Newspaper Guild’s Page One Award, and a commendation from Columbia University.

Since 1968, Olsen has been listed as a Who’s Who in America in addition to being described as an American treasure by “The Philadelphia Inquirer.”

Mr. Olsen first got a taste of crime fiction where he attended a criminology course while he was in college. The most important moment was when the class took a field trip to prison when he was just nineteen.
He expected to see some ragged-looking and tough criminals but was surprised that most of the people inside were very ordinary.

Upon graduation, he got a job working for “San Diego Daily Journal” and it was here that his work showed the customary conscience he has become widely known for.
Writing for “Sports Illustrated” he penned several hard-hitting pieces about the discrimination that black athletes faced in college and professional sports.
He was for the longest time haunted by injustice and could never compromise his values for anything or anybody.

His greatest passion was to make the world better than what it was and this is evident in works such as “Give a Boy a Gun and Son.”

Olsen would later parlay his passion for injustice particularly among minority communities to write crime and mystery novels.

After publishing more than 30 works, Olsen has received much critical acclaim.

“Newsday” and “The Detroit Free Press” called him the master of true crime while the “New York Daily News” and the “Washington Post” called him the dean of true crime authors.
However, he always bristled at these descriptions, as he preferred to be knowns as a hard-nosed journalist only interested in the truth.

Many universities have made his studies of crime required reading and are considered a genuine contribution to journalism and criminology.

He has won the Mystery Writers of America Special Edgar Award for his novel “Son,” which is a study of rape, and the Best Fact Crime Edgar Award for the novel Doc.
Jack Olsen died in 2002 and is survived by his son Harper, Su his wife, Emily Sarah Bischoff his daughter and Florence his mother.

Jack Olsen’s “Have You Seen My Son?” is an intensely moving and gripping novel of a mother’s obsessed hunt for her child who had been snatched in some very disturbing circumstances.
One day in April, Mike Pritcher visited the home of Lael his estranged wife, and left with Ace as they intended to have a father-son outing that was to last for the entire night.

But it turns out that the child has actually been snatched and Lael never realized it for quite some time. She does not understand the police who insist that they cannot help her since it is for the most part a domestic matter.
According to her lawyer, she could snatch the kid right back and that is what she decides to do. Lael heads out searching for her son across Canada, the Pacific Northwest, and ultimately Mexico.

It is a quest of sudden reversals and near misses, unshakeable love, and searing loneliness. Lael dives deep into the recesses of her being, to find the strength and resourcefulness she never knew she had in her.
The work combines powerful suspense and intimate drama to make for an emotion-wrenching story that almost every man and woman with a child would identify with.

“Missing Persons” by Jack Olsen is a thrilling horror and contemporary suspense novel. The work combines the gritty realism of works such as “The Blue Knight” and the tension and shock of “A Stranger is Watching.”

At the beginning of the novel, Severn Gamble’s wife had gone missing after she walked into the Justice Building to get some typing work done. No one inside the building has any information and it seems that Margot has disappeared into thin air.
Her husband begins to search for her alongside Tally Wickham and Johnny Boon. The latter is a cynical case hardened police officer whose wife just left him while Wickham is a smartass, pretty and young officer who cannot look eye to eye with Boon.
Separately and together, the three of them go on an intriguing search for Severn’s wife. Their quest soon turns into an obsession which gets even more interesting when other people go missing and no one knows what could be happening.
Full of vivid characterization, never faltering, and building to a terrifying climax, it is a great work of suspense that will have you on the edge of your seat from the first page to the last.

“Massy’s Game” is a work that tells the story of pro basketball’s biggest man.

Massy is an 8 foot 2 basketballer who moves like no one does, defying all convention as he shoots, runs, and rebounds better than anyone in the league.
He had become a legend in the game well before he had even competed for one year in the basketball elite league.

No one ever toots for Goliath and he always finds himself universally despised, punched and elbowed by opposing players and cursed by irate fans.

But he will not let anything keep him down as he comes from a broken home and has to take care of his little sister who also has big ambitions. With the season almost coming to a close the tension and fury mount and he reaches record levels.
He pounds slam-dunks, beats backboards, blocks shots, and pulls rebounds as no one has ever done. He becomes a one-man wrecking crew, oblivious to all the hate from the officials, the opposing teams, and the fans.

Massy obliterates the opposition and sends the nation into hysteria, ultimately resulting in an explosive apocalyptic ending.

It makes for a fast-breaking and original sports novel that is a perfect commentary about society.