Phil Bayly Books In Order

Publication Order of Murder on Skis Mystery Books

Phil Bayly
Phil Bayly is an American author. He has been a journalist for more than four decades. He anchored the #1 rated morning news at WNYT-TV in Albany, New York for fifteen years. Phil also was a reporter at WTAJ-TV in Pennsylvania and KJCT-TV in Grand Junction, Colorado. He was also a news journalist on radio in Colorado at KLOV in Loveland and KHOW in Denver, as well as other stops.

He has been a skier his whole life, with much of that time being enjoyed as a ski racer. Sometimes, he was fast. But many times, he was not fast enough.

Every winter, he always tries to visit a ski area that he has never skied before. One winter, he skied Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs. It’s the “other” ski hill in Steamboat. It was founded by a Norwegian Carl Howelsen (Karl Hovelsen) in 1915.

He was born and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. He was educated at Colorado State University and Denver University.

Phil finds that the hours are the best part of being an author. For the final fifteen years of his career in television journalism, he crawled out of bed at midnight and showed up to work to anchor the morning news which started at 5 AM (since he liked writing his own material, he showed up by 1 AM). This made sleep deprivation a lifestyle. He is much better off in that regard.

He always knew that at some point, he would write books. “Murder on Skis” sat on a shelf for twenty years. There was not enough time to be a good journalist and try to be a good novelist. He finally just had to make a clean cut, walking away from his show and a bunch of friends at the end of 2017.

There is never a day that he doesn’t want to write. As a journalist for more than four decades, he loved writing a story after completing all of his research. Although in journalism, the story’s never done. Things are always changing. Whatever was, might be no longer. The pandemic was terrible, however it was great for his writing. He finished his second novel and two more after that.

So all that prevents him from writing today is going to be the other phase of being a struggling artist with a small yet supportive publisher: informing his readers that he exists. Readers seem to like his novels, when they’re able to find them. Which he finds rewarding.

Phil believes that he becomes a better author with every novel that he writes. It is like anything else. You had better do it a lot if you plan on being any good at it. And his characters reveal more of themselves to him, the more they get to know him.

“Back Dirt” draws readers into the mysteries of archaeology and the historic warfare which is a part of the Adirondacks story. These are each subjects that he covered during his time as a TV reporter, on multiple occasions. For every 90-second story that he put on the news, there was often days of research which had preceded it.

So many of the story ideas that are now going into his novels all started with notes that he scribbled down into his Reporter’s Notebook through the years.

The “Murder on Skis” series was a finalist for “Best Mystery Series” by Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards in 2023.

“Murder on Skis” is the first novel in the “Murder on Skis” series and was released in 2019. In Montana, a ski resort owner gets murdered.

Some other deaths, which were believed to be accidental, get a fresh look from JC Snow (a television reporter) and police. There could very well be a serial killer in the resort community.

Grizzly Mountain is a ski resort filled with snow country characters, from ski bums to ski racers to overdressed billionaires. There’s an unfortunate few that might be caught in the claws of Grizzly Mountain.

Readers found this to be so much more than just a story about skiing, as it is a must read for all fans of a good murder mystery. Phil is a fantastic writer and storyteller, and it is so amazing when a story will stay with you for days after finishing it.

“Loving Lucy” is the second novel in the “Murder on Skis” series and was released in 2020. There’s a manhunt for one New York state senator that has been accused of murder. Cemeteries in Colorado are getting mysteriously stripped of their sacred treasures.

Both criminal investigations lead to this Colorado ski resort. JC Snow, TV reporter, finds himself on this collision course with the police probes.

He draws on his own experience covering real crimes to craft this chilling mystery.

“Back Dirt” is the third novel in the “Murder on Skis” series and was released in 2021. One cold case killing brings Colorado cops to Upstate New York. One archaeologist has just been murdered in the Adirondacks. What’s the price of doing business at the Battle Ax Ski Resort?

JC Snow follows this bloody trail. He cannot catch a break in his love life, but maybe he can catch a criminal. Somebody at the winter hot spot is a cold blooded killer.

“Witch Window” is the fourth novel in the “Murder on Skis” series and was released in 2022. A body has been found by two bicycle riders on this hot summer day. The corpse has been dressed to go skiing in Vermont. JC Snow, TV reporter and police, attempt to track this killer down. However things in the land of maple syrup get pretty sticky.

“The Man Who Had 9 Lives” is the fifth novel in the “Murder on Skis” series and was released in 2023. The novel opens when this skier gets pulled out of the snow after an avalanche. He tells his rescuers that this would not have been the first time that he died.

His close call at a Colorado Ski Resort sets off a landslide of murder and mystery in “The Man Who Had 9 Lives”!

An American Fiction Award nominee.