Bøker av James C. Wilson

When the infamous Foreman of Three Hills Ranch reappears in Santa Fe looking to take revenge for his conviction for sex trafficking at the notorious ranch, Private Inspector Fernando Lopez finds himself a hunted man. Lopez alerts Santa Fe County Deputy Sheriff Jodie Williams, who accompanied him in the raid on Three Hills Ranch. Unfortunately, the notice comes too late. The Foreman kidnaps Williams' wife and leaves a note: "Meet Holy Ghost." Lopez is perplexed about the meaning of the note until he realizes that it refers to a community in the Pecos Wilderness by the name of Holy Ghost, named after the ghost of a murdered priest that supposedly roams the wilderness. On a quest to rescue Williams' wife, Lopez and Williams head to the wild Pecos Wilderness, where a man dressed in bear fur, the Holy Ghost, and the Foreman await them. Includes Readers Guide.

After a Hollywood actress is murdered at a Taos hotel, private investigator Fernando Lopez receives a call for help from Taos County Sheriff Hank Mathews, an old friend. In Taos Lopez learns the murdered woman, Anne Lewis, had been part of a movie crew filming a tacky 'walking dead' movie. Yesterday she'd returned to the hotel after filming at the Taos Historical Cemetery and gone for a swim in the hotel pool. Her body was found that morning with evidence indicating she had been forcibly drowned. Working with Sheriff Mathews, Lopez discovers that Lewis had a lot of enemies. Suspects include a jealous co-worker and Ted Fisher, the executive producer of the movie, who was being sued by Lewis and two other women for sexual assault. Fisher's bodyguard threatens and later attacks Lopez in an effort to end the investigation and protect Fisher. Yet another suspect is Cowboy Jack Ryan, a young lothario who comes to the hotel bar every night looking for hookups with the various actresses. In fact, Cowboy Jack had slept with Lewis the night before the day she was murdered. Cowboy Jack complicates the investigation, because he's part of an ongoing feud between two ranching families outside Taos, the Ryans and the Luceros. When Cowboy Jack shoots and kills the oldest Lucero son and then flees, he becomes the chief suspect in two murders. Lopez and Sheriff Mathews chase Cowboy Jack and his younger brother across northern New Mexico, finally cornering them at Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu. In the ensuing melee the murderer of Anne Lewis is finally revealed. Includes Readers Guide

The disappearance of a Santa Fe historian at the historic Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos sends private investigator Fernando Lopez on a dangerous journey through a haunted world of ghosts, transients, paranormals, and psychopaths.

The murder of a homeless man and reports of a red-faced prowler seen on Canyon Road trigger rumors of the Devil loose in Santa Fe.

James C. Wilson's memoir begins in Pula, Yugoslavia, circa 1972, where he is accused of threatening Marshal Tito, the President of Yugoslavia. It flashes back to the States and his anti-war activities at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and elsewhere. He then travels to Paris and Strasbourg where he spends time in exile with a French companion who speaks no English and dislikes Americans, and who finally leaves him for a group of pilgrims on their way to India. Returning to the States, he finds refuge in the counterculture community of Santa Fe, New Mexico, which becomes his spiritual home.

In Hiking New Mexico's Chaco Canyon, James C. Wilson wrote a guidebook for hiking and camping in Chaco Canyon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northwestern New Mexico that the Zuñi, Hopi, Acoma and other Pueblos consider their ancestral homeland. New Mexico's Chaco Canyon: Photographing the Ancient City is intended to be a guidebook for amateur photographers wanting to photograph the canyon and its spectacular ruins. The volume offers tips on where, when, and sometimes how to photograph the ruins of the ancient stone city that dates from about 860 to 1200 A.D. Wilson takes you on a tour of the Great Houses in the canyon, including Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl (with 650 and 500 rooms respectively). Photographers will discover how images of the massive stone structures vary by angle, light, and time of day. Photographers can experiment with different lenses and camera settings, including manual and automatic, as they explore the smaller Great Houses and Casa Rinconada, the largest excavated Great Kiva in the canyon. Wilson then points out the trails of Chaco's three mesas (North, West, and South Mesa) that connect with Chaco's ancient road system. The various overlooks on the mesa trails provide spectacular views of the ruins and the red sandstone cliffs of the canyon. The colors of the wider landscape--subtle shades of pink, yellow, and gray--make for a landscape photographer's dream.

When Santa Fe historian Kate Isaacs disappears while staying and doing research at the historic Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, Isaacs' wife hires private investigator Fernando Lopez to find the missing woman. At the Luhan House, now a bed and breakfast inn, Lopez learns that Isaacs walked out of her room during the night wearing only a nightgown and slippers. Employees and a local paranormal organization blame ghosts. They tell Lopez the sprawling hundred-year-old house is haunted by the ghosts of the famous people who stayed there, including Georgia O'Keeffe, Willa Cather, and Dennis Hopper, as well as Mabel and her Native American husband Tony. The mystery deepens when a former lover of Isaacs turns up dead at a party Isaacs attended the night she disappeared. Isaacs is a suspect in the murder until it becomes clear that she has been kidnapped. Lopez teams up with Taos County Sheriff Hank Mathews after kidnappers contact Isaacs' wife and demand a ransom for her return. Their investigation leads them to a derelict A-frame in the mountains where they find Isaacs' body and the bodies of two other people. Solving the murders takes them into a dangerous underworld of transients, paranormals and psychopaths. Includes Readers Guide

After the murder of a homeless man in downtown Santa Fe, Private Investigator Fernando Lopez is visited by a local artist who claims to have seen the Devil on Canyon Road. Lopez is dubious, but rumors continue to spread as more Santa Feans see a red-faced beast in the area. When a second homeless man is murdered, Lopez decides to investigate. The case quickly becomes more complicated--and dangerous--when a violent anti-immigrant movement called Take Back Our Streets wants to use the murders as a pretext to ban immigrants and homeless people from the streets of the city. Lopez discovers troubling information about the leaders of the movement, information that links them to the murders. Meanwhile, sightings of a red-faced beast continue on Canyon Road. Lopez decides to stalk the so-called beast and pursues it to an old Forest Service building on Upper Canyon Road. The building is being rented by Ricardo Aragon, a Mexican painter who, Lopez discovers, is on the run from the Sinaloa Cartel of Mexico. Unwittingly, Lopez finds himself up against the Sinaloa Cartel, the Take Back Our Streets movement, and the Devil on Canyon Road. Includes Readers Guide

A prominent city councilmember, Tito Garcia, is assassinated at the beginning of the Santa Fe Fiesta. Known as a peacemaker, he had negotiated an agreement to ban a controversial Fiesta procession known as the Entrada. The procession celebrated the Reconquest of Santa Fe twelve years after the 1680 Pueblo Rebellion drove the Spanish out of Santa Fe. Both Spanish and Native American groups blame each other for Garcia's murder and vow revenge. The situation explodes in violence when one Hispanic group attempts to march in downtown Santa Fe in violation of the agreement. Fernando Lopez is forced to rethink the case when he discovers Garcia's involvement with Three-Hills Ranch, a compound suspected of sex-trafficking young women from border towns like Nogales and Juarez. The journey to find answers takes Lopez on a journey into the underbelly of wealthy Santa Fe society where deep cultural and ethnic conflicts have festered for over four hundred years. Smokescreen, the second in the Fernando Lopez Santa Fe Mystery Series, concludes in a fiery confrontation at Three-Hills Ranch, where the truth is finally revealed and justice served. Includes Reading Guide.

Santa Fe artist Jimmy Mackey wakes up in his studio on Canyon Road with a massive hangover. His morning gets worse when a police cruiser pulls into his parking lot next to a strange car and even worse when police find a dead woman in the trunk of the car. The dead woman turns out to be the estranged wife of the Santa Fe mayor. The ultra-sensitive case winds up in the hands of retiring police detective Fernando Lopez, the only detective with enough experience to conduct the politically fraught investigation. Lopez interviews Mackey and the artists who were drinking at Jimmy's studio the night of the murder, all deeply suspicious with flimsy alibis. He also interviews the mayor in a tense scene at City Hall. When Mackey flees Santa Fe, Lopez chases him across northern New Mexico--from haunted Ghost Ranch to the counterculture city of Taos, where he finds Mackey hiding at the home of one of his ex-wives. Before Mackey can be arrested he is shot and killed by two assassins. Suddenly the Police Chief and the Mayor want Lopez to close the case, since the main suspect is now dead. When Lopez refuses, the two assassins come after him. Lopez senses a cover-up. The case takes a surprising turn at the end, which forces Lopez to rethink his idea of justice. Includes Readers Guide

Recounts the author's personal journey as the primary companion of his twenty-six-year-old autistic son, Sam. This memoir offers an account of an autistic young man and his misadventures while transitioning to adulthood.