Jim Fusilli Books In Order

Publication Order of Narrows Gate Books

Publication Order of Terry Orr Books

Publication Order of Sam Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Harold Middleton Books

Publication Order of 33⅓ Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Jim Fusilli is an American writer and music critic. He is best known as the author of the mystery series, Road to Nowhere. He made his debut as a fiction author in 2001 with the book Closing Time which was the first book in the series of novels focusing on the character of Terry Orr.

Fusilli attended St. Peter’s College and went on to start a journalism career after graduation. His first job was with the Jersey Journal, but he would later go on to work for the Wall Street Journal’s Leisure & Arts section in the early 1980s. Fusilli would write articles on rock and jazz, contributing for a number of years to the section. In 2008, he was named the Journal’s rock & pop critic and began to write weekly columns for the newspaper and the website.

He is still active in the music industry and can still be found going to shows, listening to new music, and hanging with musicians. He still finds a lot of joy in hearing something new and wonderful, and then sharing it with the world. It was his love of music that lead him to writing Pet Sounds in 2005. The book is his tribute to the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson’s classic album. The book is almost experimental as it combines the rhythm and emotional weight of his fiction with the often-unorthodox observations of his music criticism.

Jim always had a love for the hard-boiled crime writers of the mid-twentieth century. Names like Raymond Chandler, Chester Himes, Vera Caspary, and Cornell Woolrich were a few of the names that he really enjoyed from this era. While there are some who considered this type of fiction to be low-brow, but he always put them at the same level of more literary fiction like Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck. He was drawn to the setting and the descriptive writing, and as a novelist he had an idea to take the template and do something different with character. That was his early approach and it led him to some great early career success with the Terry Orr series. His book, Hard, Hard City, from the Terry Orr series was named by Mystery Ink magazine as its 2004 Novel of the Year.

In addition to his crime writing and his music writing, Fusilli is also the author of Marley Z and the Bloodstained Violin which is aimed at a young adult audience. The book features a smart, sophisticated mystery with a priceless violin being stolen from The Julliard School and a hip New York City kid named Marley Z deciding to figure out who done it. Fusilli has also written and published many short stories in his career.

Jim is married to a woman named Diane who is a global communications executive. The two have a one child who is a graduate of the New School. He is a native of Hoboken, New Jersey which is the bases of the city Narrows Gate which he often uses in his fiction. He currently lives and works in New York City with his family.

Closing Time is the first book in the Terry Orr series. The book picks up two years after Terry Orr lost his wife and son when a lunatic pushed them in front of a subway train. The police have done nothing in the two years and Terry has taken matters into his own hands. He’s been searching for the past two years and somewhere along the way, he became a legit private eye in addition to his other full-time job as single dad. Now, he’s on the job and when he encounters the murder of a cab driver, he’s determined to solve the case. Then he’s drawn into the world of high art when a SoHo gallery is destroyed by a bomb blast. Terry is on the case, but when the two cases collide – Terry may find that he is out of his depth here.

One of the most popular books in this series is called Hard, Hard City. In this story, Terry’s daughter Bella and her friend Daniel Wu ask Terry to take on the case of a gifted but troubled young student who has mysteriously vanished. The student took some documents and cash from the home of an elderly friend that he was staying with. The boy was burdened by way staying there to get away from his white collar criminal father, and his deceitful and devious mother. Someone is out there that desperately wants to recover what was taken from that safe by any means necessary as the contents of the documents could be enough to wreck the budding political career of one of Orr’s friends. The investigation takes him to New Jersey where the boy’s father keeps the police under his thumb, which only serves to make Orr’s search more difficult… and violent.

Fusilli’s Road to Nowhere is the first book about an unnamed drifter known only as the Samaritan, or Sam. For years this man has hung in the background, roaming the side streets and highways across the country. He is cool and handsome, but alone with a knack for silence. One rainy night in Chicago, he breaks his silence. The drifter is a witness to the brutal assault of a young woman and springs into action. By the time he reaches her, the man who was assaulting her is gone. He leaves a trail though that is very easy to follow and leads the drifter to a place that he wishes that he hadn’t followed. He is drawn into a dark world of violence and deception. He could walk away, but he’s not sure he has a choice. When his estranged daughter ends up being threatened by this situation, he knows that he doesn’t. This book is both violent and insightful as Fusilli introduces a memorable character in the Samaritan.