James H. (Jim) Lewis is a former journalist, public media executive, and consultant who is now a story-teller for nonprofit organizations. He has written for the Washington Post, Fundraising Management, and Current. His news reports have aired on public television, the ABC Evening News, and on the Eurovision News Exchange. He is a member of Mystery Writers of America and PennWriters. Jim and his wife, Julie, live in Pittsburgh.
James H Lewis, author and writer for non-profits
After a lifetime as a journalist, public media executive, and consultant to non-profit organizations, I turned to full-time writing five years ago. I based my first novel, Sins of Omission, on my experience as a young journalist in North Florida years ago. I was and am dedicated to the concept of racial justice, and in that book sought not only to tell a story but to bring the black experience to a wider audience.
My second novel, Breaking News, featured the same protagonist, Alan Rudberg, and was a parable on the state of print journalism today. Like Sins of Omission, this novel was prescient, in that it dealt with situations that occurred in actual life after its publication.
My third and fourth novels, Novak’s Mission and Novak’s Quest, are police procedurals, but like all my novels, they have a subtext, in this case the uneven approach to law enforcement in Allegheny County, where over a hundred police agencies dot the county, some as small as one officer. These are the first two of a three-novel series.
I followed this with Belonging, the story of a woman whose life is upended by a DNA discovery.
The Quadrant Conspiracy: The Plot to Kill FDR, is a historical thriller centered on an escaped German prisoner from a Canadian POW camp. While it is rich with history, the story centers on the effect of war on a marriage.
The third book in the Chief Novak series, Novak’s Verdict, brings to a close the themes in the first two book, but can be enjoyed on its own. It finds the Boyleston Police Chief investigating the murder of a real estate agent, the borough’s former mayor. As Karol Novak and his team interview witnesses, one with an obvious motive stands out, but Novak can’t accept the man’s guilt.
I’m currently at work on the first in a new series, The Dead of Winter, featuring Detective Lydia Barnwell, a much-loved character from the Novak series.
You may learn about everything I’m working on by signing up for my mailing list.
Experience in brief
Author of seven novels
Former nonprofit consultant
Copywriter
Former journalist
James H Lewis, novelist 