James Queally is a journalist, author and general arbiter of fact from fiction. He's spent the past decade writing about crime, policing and chaos: first in Newark, NJ for The Star-Ledger and currently for the Los Angeles Times. He's covered hurricanes, hate crimes, street racing, way too many murders, protests in Ferguson, MO that sparked a national movement and tragic killings on street corners in Jersey that you've never heard of and probably never will. The experience has been as exhilarating (interviewing luchadoras before they smash someone with a top-rope cross body in an East L.A. warehouse), as it's been annoying (dealing with tear gas isn't fun, dealing with people who worship Pamela Geller even less so.) 

With a cop Dad, a nurse Mom, and a comic book addiction that left him convinced Ben Urich was the hero of those Daredevil comics filling up his high school bedroom, James always wanted to chronicle crime, both real and imagined. His short fiction --- home to a wide array of halfway-bad people trying to do halfway-decent things, including a failed screenwriter turned sex-driven small-time thief and a poser hit man who never actually killed anyone --- has appeared in Thuglit, Literary Orphans, Inside Jersey Magazine, All Due Respect, Crime Syndicate Magazine, Shotgun Honey and Out Of The Gutter Online. 

Queally lives in Los Angeles, and there were stops in Staten Island, NY and Newark along the way, but he was born and raised in Brooklyn. When you piss him off, the accent will come out and confirm that.

Books by James Queally

All These Ashes

by James Queally - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Russell Avery, the laid-off reporter turned private investigator, is almost out of clients after he stood up against the Newark police officers whose problems he used to fix for a paycheck, exposing a scandal that left him on the wrong side of one of those thin blue lines. Desperate for work, Russell is as elated as he is skeptical when a detective shows up on his doorstep, asking him to look into one of the Brick City's most haunting mysteries: The Twilight Four killings. As Russell starts untangling the complications of a decades-old murder, he runs into opposition from City Hall and finds himself in the middle of a contentious Mayoral race that could impact Newark for generations to come, all while trying to stay one step ahead of the real Twilight Four killer, who wouldn't mind reducing Russell to ash.

Line of Sight

by James Queally - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Former crime reporter Russell Avery spends his days reluctantly keeping sideways cops out of the crosshairs of the Internal Affairs department. Until Keyonna Jackson, a social justice activist, presents him with a troubling video: a made-for-YouTube cell phone snippet chronicling the same kind of questionable use-of-force that had set New York City, Ferguson and Cleveland on fire in recent years. The same use-of-force that he’s been covering up for Newark PD. Now, the young black man who filmed this video is dead, and the more questions Russell asks, the less his cop buddies like him. For the first time in his life, Russell finds himself on the wrong side of the guys with the badges and guns.