Sanderson to publish fifth murder/thriller novel
March 08, 2021 | by Shelly Vitanza
Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s resident mystery writer will soon have another novel published. Jim Sanderson, professor and chair of English and modern languages, weaves murder and suspense in an eighth novel, 
“Gambled Dreams,” to be published March 9 by Moonshine Cove Publishing.
In “Gambled Dreams,” gamblers, cons and prostitutes inhabit the night-time bar world of the early 1980s Odessa, Texas oil boom. Colton Parker—with a wife, two young boys and a father-in-law—is a bouncer for a gambler and loan shark in this dark hidden world. Danny Fowler cruises this world looking for gay lovers. When he finds two mean ones, he ends up beaten to death and dumped on the road to an oil rig. Danny’s rich mother, Mina, doesn’t want Danny’s night-time life exposed, so she persuades the police not to investigate. But she hires a reluctant Colton Parker to track down Danny Fowler’s killers. Colton teams with Bullet Price, a retired prostitute, climbing up the bar-world social ladder. With help from a young prostitute and a gay tool pusher, Colton tracks down the two oil-field welders who killed Danny. But Mina wants them dead.
“’Gambled Dream’” came from looking around and listening to stories when I lived in Odessa during the 1980s oil boom and bust,” said Sanderson. “The HBO series ‘Deadwood’ reminded me of that time. Then the characters in my short stories in ‘Trashy Behavior’ started nagging me to complete their stories.”
Sanderson has become an oxymoron, a literary genre writer. As a reviewer said, “Sanderson writes ‘grit lit’.”
Writer Mary Hood, author of highly praised short story collection “How Far She Went,” said, “A brilliant, intense carefully crafted narrative with no feeling of strain or effort. This is masterwork. The language and vision match, so the world opens for us as readers without any waver of authenticity. We are in it and trust what we are learning. There is always more to understand than we can, at the moment.”
At the same time Sanderson debuts a new book, Brash Books has republished three novels from Sanderson’s Jerri Johnson/Dolph Martinez series as one e-book, “Messing With Texas.” The first in the series, “Safe Delivery,” which Brash Books also republished, was a finalist for the Violet Crown Award. The novel follows Jerri Johnson, who is a former English teacher, turned bounty hunter working for a bail bondsman, turned private detective. In addition to solving murders, Johnson strives to preserve her femininity and feminism in a male world.
Another in the series, “El Camino del Rio,” is a mystery, that introduces Dolph Martinez, a U.S. border agent, whose investigation of a murder in the desert pits him against governments, the wealthy, a nun who practices voodoo and demons of his past. It was the winner of the Frank Water prize. Following up “El Camino Del Rio,” Sanderson published “La Mordida,” also featuring Martinez, who leads a border patrol task force to battle crime and corruption until he becomes the pawn in a dark conspiracy that threatens his life.
The fourth book in the Johnson/Martinez thriller/mystery series is “Dolph’s Team,” which has been described as “partly border-town mystery and part road trip, reminiscent of “Lonesome Dove.”
Both “” and “” are available on . Look for “Gambled Dreams,” March 9.
“Gambled Dreams,” to be published March 9 by Moonshine Cove Publishing.In “Gambled Dreams,” gamblers, cons and prostitutes inhabit the night-time bar world of the early 1980s Odessa, Texas oil boom. Colton Parker—with a wife, two young boys and a father-in-law—is a bouncer for a gambler and loan shark in this dark hidden world. Danny Fowler cruises this world looking for gay lovers. When he finds two mean ones, he ends up beaten to death and dumped on the road to an oil rig. Danny’s rich mother, Mina, doesn’t want Danny’s night-time life exposed, so she persuades the police not to investigate. But she hires a reluctant Colton Parker to track down Danny Fowler’s killers. Colton teams with Bullet Price, a retired prostitute, climbing up the bar-world social ladder. With help from a young prostitute and a gay tool pusher, Colton tracks down the two oil-field welders who killed Danny. But Mina wants them dead.
“’Gambled Dream’” came from looking around and listening to stories when I lived in Odessa during the 1980s oil boom and bust,” said Sanderson. “The HBO series ‘Deadwood’ reminded me of that time. Then the characters in my short stories in ‘Trashy Behavior’ started nagging me to complete their stories.”
Sanderson has become an oxymoron, a literary genre writer. As a reviewer said, “Sanderson writes ‘grit lit’.”
Writer Mary Hood, author of highly praised short story collection “How Far She Went,” said, “A brilliant, intense carefully crafted narrative with no feeling of strain or effort. This is masterwork. The language and vision match, so the world opens for us as readers without any waver of authenticity. We are in it and trust what we are learning. There is always more to understand than we can, at the moment.”
At the same time Sanderson debuts a new book, Brash Books has republished three novels from Sanderson’s Jerri Johnson/Dolph Martinez series as one e-book, “Messing With Texas.” The first in the series, “Safe Delivery,” which Brash Books also republished, was a finalist for the Violet Crown Award. The novel follows Jerri Johnson, who is a former English teacher, turned bounty hunter working for a bail bondsman, turned private detective. In addition to solving murders, Johnson strives to preserve her femininity and feminism in a male world.
Another in the series, “El Camino del Rio,” is a mystery, that introduces Dolph Martinez, a U.S. border agent, whose investigation of a murder in the desert pits him against governments, the wealthy, a nun who practices voodoo and demons of his past. It was the winner of the Frank Water prize. Following up “El Camino Del Rio,” Sanderson published “La Mordida,” also featuring Martinez, who leads a border patrol task force to battle crime and corruption until he becomes the pawn in a dark conspiracy that threatens his life.
The fourth book in the Johnson/Martinez thriller/mystery series is “Dolph’s Team,” which has been described as “partly border-town mystery and part road trip, reminiscent of “Lonesome Dove.”
Both “” and “” are available on . Look for “Gambled Dreams,” March 9.