P.J. Parrish Books

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While a select few people still consider P.J. Parrish to be the name of a single author, P.J. Parrish is actually a pair of sisters. Kelly Nichols studied at Northern Michigan University. She then spent the next 15 years in the gaming industry before finding a role as an HR Manager in a Casino in Philadelphia.

Kristy Montee got her degree in Education from Eastern Michigan University. She worked as a reporter for some time before finally deciding to inject all her efforts into writing fiction.

The P.J. Parrish persona came about after Kristy Montee began writing fiction. Montee produced four novels in the romance genre before becoming bored with everything in that field. Kelly Nichols, on the other hand, had struggled to get a mystery novel manuscript together. With both sisters struggling to find their footing in the literary arena, Montee finally saw that joining forces with her sister to finish her mystery manuscript would yield greater results.

And she was right; under the P.J. Parrish name, the sisters have written a number of novels set in Michigan and Florida, following the adventures of characters like police detective Louis Kincaid and detective Joe Frye.

P.J. Parrish Awards

The Louis Kincaid series was P.J. Parrish’s first commercially successful creation, garnering an International Thriller Writers Award in the process, this along with a Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America and an Anthony Award.

P.J. Parrish has also been a finalist for the Edgar Award from the Mystery writers of America.

Best P.J. Parrish Books

The fact that P.J. Parrish books are the creation of two sisters rather than a single author creates an interesting dynamic, with readers often striving to determine if they can identify the two voices within the novels, the best of P.J. Parrish’s creations including the following:

Thicker than Water: It has been two decades since Jack Cade was convicted of Kitty Jagger’s murder. Cade could have fought the charges. He could have taken his chances with a trial. However, he would be risking the Florida Electric Chair in the process.

So he chose to plead guilty to manslaughter and for that, he was sentenced to twenty years in prison. Barely a few days out of prison, Cade is quickly arrested by the police, accused of the murder of Spencer Duvall, his defense attorney.

Louis Kincaid jumps into the fold when Jack’s son Ronnie hires him to find evidence to clear his father. It doesn’t take the unlicensed private investigator long to realize that Cade is not only innocent of Duvall’s murder but Kitty Jagger’s as well.

It falls on his shoulders to bring Kitty’s actual killer to light, saving Cade from an uncertain future and breaking the law he once swore to uphold in the process.

Thicker than Water is a good story. You cannot really say more than that. The core of the book is interesting enough, following a man who was previously convicted of raping and killing a young teen, and whose chance at redemption is shattered when he takes the blame for his defense attorney’s murder.

Louis Kincaid is the hero that must come to Cade’s rescue, taking it upon himself to save Cade from another injustice that just might end his life. There is no overwhelming love for this book. There is also very little in the way of hate.

Instead, the book seems to skirt that line in the middle, where it is good enough to kill a few hours of boredom but it is unlikely to blow everyone’s mind. Thicker than Water is a solid book: nothing more, nothing less.

Dark of The Moon: A man returns home to Black Pool, Mississippi and takes a job with the Sheriff’s department. A murder and lynching threaten to tear the town apart, and the man’s efforts to resolve things are not helped by the fact that he has a black mother and a white father.

The man contends with racial prejudice even as he comforts his dying mother.

The one thing for which you must praise P.J. Parrish is the manner in which the South is depicted. The atmosphere and tension of the day are perfectly captured. Louis Kincaid has been hired as a county detective to right some wrongs.

Had his superiors known of his parentage, they wouldn’t have hired him, not for such a position; Kincaid maneuvers the rage and discrimination of his hometown even while working to unravel the 30-year-old case of a missing 15-year-old black boy.

When Does The Next P.J. Parrish book come out?

P.J. Parrish doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is Our Noir and was released on January, 8th 2019. It is the newest book in the P.J. Parrish Short Story Collections.

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