Jamie Harrison

The River View

A Jules Clement Novel

Former sheriff Jules Clement returns in this new installment of the celebrated mystery series, set once again in the wild, strange, windy town of Blue Deer, Montana, where your neighbors or the tourists can be just as deadly as the weather

Jules Clement is back in Blue Deer, working as an archaeologist and private investigator. He’s a mostly happy man: he’s a new father, and he and his wife Caroline are building their dream house on an idyllic patch of river bottomland. But everything that can go wrong will, in terms of money, love, and murder. The horrible neighbors enlist Jules to spy on each other. The county hires him to find out if a road runs over some misplaced bodies in a long-abandoned potter’s field. A former priest with a side hustle in extortion ends up very dead. A crew of Russians in fast cars is running amok through the Montana landscape. All this as an old nemesis returns, pulling Jules back to confront what he’s been avoiding his entire life: the death of his father.

Published alongside newly reissued editions of the entire series, The River View is further proof that “you haven’t been west in any meaningful sense until you’ve been to Blue Deer” (The New York Times).

Going Local

A Jules Clement Novel

“You haven’t been west in any meaningful sense until you’ve been to Blue Deer, Montana . . . Rekindles our delight in Ms. Harrison’s offbeat sensibility and tart regional voice.” —The New York Times Book Review

“What seems characteristic of the best crime writing is surpassingly true of Jamie Harrison: she is creating entertainment and diversion, but she is also writing social history as accurate in its essences as a road map and generating a most admirable work of literature.” —Los Angeles Times

Love and rodeos, land and greed. The inhabitants of Blue Deer are gearing up for the annual Fourth of July rodeo, with tourists descending upon the town “in a kind of berserk westward ho.” When the bodies of an environmental lawyer and his lover are found bobbing inside a tent in a reservoir, Jules at first assumes jealousy, but follows the evidence through the intricacies of mining law, rodeos, and explosions, leading to a proposed resort in the Crazy Mountains.

Going Local continues the exploits of Sheriff Jules Clement in this exciting installment of the critically acclaimed mystery series.

Blue Deer Thaw

A Jules Clement Novel

“Blue Deer Thaw is a delight.” —The Seattle Times

“The fourth book in the Blue Deer series is another gem.” —The Washington Post

Alcohol and art, love and death. When a woman freezes to death in a snowdrift, Jules follows the mystery back to the newly renovated Sacajawea Hotel, where he’s cataloging antiquities for the owner. What seems like a random act of misfortune plays out as a more complex story of family greed and revenge; for Jules, it will mean both love and tragedy. The reluctant sheriff will have to face the arctic winter in his search for clues to multiple murders, and the town of Blue Deer will never be the same.

Blue Deer Thaw continues the exploits of Sheriff Jules Clement in this exciting installment of the critically acclaimed mystery series.

An Unfortunate Prairie Occurrence

A Jules Clement Novel

“Harrison takes her time resolving these criminal matters, allowing us to linger in Blue Deer long enough to learn its history, drink in the scenery and laugh at the kinds and quirks of its idiosyncratic residents. No wonder the world-weary Jules came running back home the first chance he got—the place is heaven.” —The New York Times Book Review

“The third and best of Jamie Harrison’s laconic Montana mystery novels . . . The people of Blue Deer are more than just a cast. They are a community.” —Time

It’s the fall season in Blue Deer, and Jules is once again up to his crooked grin in trouble. A camper’s discovery of old bones threatens to expose secrets long and deliberately buried in the hearts and minds of the town’s eldest citizens. Jules’s investigation mushrooms into a nightmare of long-simmering enmities, love affairs, arson, and murder.

An Unfortunate Prairie Occurrence continues the exploits of Sheriff Jules Clement in this exciting installment of the critically acclaimed mystery series.

The Edge of the Crazies

A Jules Clement Novel

“In this madly original debut, Ms. Harrison speaks up in a fresh, animated voice to say something worth saying about the festering animosities of small minds cooped up in small towns.” —The New York Times Book Review

Blue Deer, Montana may seem like a tranquil town nestled at the foot of the Crazy Mountains, but an influx of writers, artists, and actors has driven its inhabitants a little nuts. When someone uses a rifle on George Blackwater as he’s working on his new screenplay, Sheriff Jules Clement figures the culprit is George’s angry wife, Mona, who has been on the rampage since George’s latest batch of affairs. But soon the number of killings multiplies, and Jules is surrounded by a variety of suspects, including George himself, still unhinged by something that happened twenty years ago. As Jules reluctantly digs into the seamy side of his hometown, he finds himself swamped by bad dreams, bad press, and an increasing distaste for his job.

This new edition showcases this wickedly brilliant debut to the critically acclaimed mystery series.

The Center of Everything

A Novel

Set against the wild beauty of Montana as a woman attempts to heal from a devastating accident, this generational saga from the award-winning author of The Widow Nash is a heartfelt examination of how the deep bonds of family echo throughout our lives.

For Polly, the small town of Livingston, Montana, is a land charmed by raw, natural beauty and a network of family that extends back generations. But the summer of 2002 finds Polly at a crossroads: a recent head injury has scattered her perception of the present, bringing to the surface events from thirty years ago and half a country away. As Polly's many relatives arrive for a family reunion during the Fourth of July holiday, a beloved friend goes missing on the Yellowstone River, dredging up strange memories for a family well acquainted with tragedy. Search parties comb the river as carefully as Polly combs her mind, and over the course of one fateful week, Polly arrives at a deeper understanding of herself and her larger-than-life relatives.
 
Weaving together the past and the present, from the shores of Long Island Sound to the landscape of Montana, The Center of Everything examines with profound insight the nature of the human condition: the memories and touchstones that make up a life, and the loves and losses we must endure along the way.

The Widow Nash

A Novel

Winner of the 2017 Reading the West Award
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

"This gorgeously written historical novel follows Dulcy, a young woman in 1904 who attempts to flee her late father's business problems―and her violent ex–fiance's grasp―by traveling west and posing as a wealthy widow." ―Entertainment Weekly

Dulcy Remfrey has traveled the globe with her eccentric father, Walton, a wealthy entrepreneur obsessed with earthquakes and catastrophe, searching to cure his long battle with syphilis through any crackpot means necessary. Their deep connection is tested, however, when Walton returns from an African expedition without any of the proceeds from the sale of his gold mine. It seems he's lost his mind along with the great sum of money, his health declining rapidly. Her father's business partner (and her ex–fiancé) insists Dulcy come to Seattle to decipher her father's cryptic notebooks—a dozen in all, wrapped in brightly colored silk—which may hold clues to the missing funds. Yet when her father dies before they can locate the money, Dulcy falls under suspicion. Petrified of being forced to spend the rest of her life with her ex–love, Dulcy decides to disappear from the train bringing her father's body home.

Is it possible to disappear from your old life and create another? Dulcy travels the West reading stories about her presumed death and settles into a small Montana town where she is reborn as Mrs. Nash, a wealthy young widow with no burden of family. But her old life won't let go so easily, and soon her ex–fiancé is on her trail, threatening the new life she is so eager to create.

The Widow Nash is a riveting narrative, filled with a colorful cast of characters, rich historical details, and epic set pieces. Europe in summer. New York in fall. Africa in winter. The lively, unforgettable town of Livingston, Montana. And in Dulcy, Jamie Harrison has created an indelible heroine sure to capture the hearts of readers everywhere.

"Sweeping and richly hued . . . features a character set loose to wander the American West at the turn of the 20th century, a woman whose early experiences seem drawn from the worldly peregrinations of the era of Henry James . . . Harrison has rendered her imagined world anachronistically, but Henry James might still have approved." ―The New York Times Book Review