¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ

By Jennifer K. Morita

January 12, 2026

James L’Etoile’s unusual childhood—growing up on remote California prison camps where his father worked as a Department of Corrections guard—taught him a valuable lesson at a young age. 

Inmates cut his hair and played pool with L’Etoile. He learned to train racing pigeons, but “failed miserably” at the blues guitar despite lessons behind the prison kitchen. 

“I was able to connect with them,” said the two-time Sacramento State alum. “It made me see these men doing time as people, not just criminals.” 

Knowing the inmates his father kept behind bars were as human as he was served L’Etoile throughout his own 29-year career in law enforcement and later as an award-winning author of crime fiction — two paths he never intended to pursue. 

“I’m coming at this very late in the game,” said L’Etoile, ‘78 and ‘81 (Criminal Justice). “I didn’t intend to write crime fiction, but it’s opened up a whole new world of people and opportunities I didn’t even know about. 

“... You live in that world, you understand it. Those interactions we have in real life, some of that never really goes away. You still hear those voices, and I think it helps give a little bit of edge to what I write.” 

L’Etoile’s father, Robert, was a “career Department of Corrections guy,” whose job took the family up and down the state from remote camps in the Redwoods to San Quentin, California’s notorious death row prison. 

“One of my earliest memories as a kid was going with my mom to pick him up after he got off his shift,” L’Etoile said. “He was the death row sergeant. I remember sitting in front of these towers at San Quentin, waiting for Dad to come home. 

“You drive up to the gate and see this imposing, almost Gothic-looking structure. That’s the memory that’s etched in my brain.” 

L’Etoile had no plans to follow in his father’s footsteps. Until a high school criminal justice program “struck a chord.” After a couple of years at American River College, L’Etoile transferred to ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ. 

“¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ had one of the two top Criminal Justice programs in the nation,” he said. “The other one was on the East Coast. We had a really good faculty, and ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ was the right choice.” 

Professor Charles Eden taught L’Etoile how to sort out issues and served as his thesis advisor. Together, they arranged field trips to jails and prisons.  

His first job out of school was the graveyard shift at Juvenile Hall.

“I was doing my master’s degree at ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ, and I needed a job that would let me read while I was working,” he said. “Everybody was asleep, so I’d catch up on my reading and write my thesis.” 

During his nearly 30 year career, L’Etoile did a little bit of everything: investigator, hostage negotiator, correctional counselor, associate prison warden, and director of substance abuse programs.

“¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ had one of the two top Criminal Justice programs in the nation. We had a really good faculty, and ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ was the right choice.” -- James L'Etoile

Part of his investigative work included writing pre-sentencing reports for judges. He’d talk with detectives and read their reports, interview the defendant as well as victims and their families before recommending a sentence to the judge. 

“I learned a lot in that process that I didn’t realize until later, when I started writing crime fiction,” he said. 

When he retired in 2007 as director of parole for California’s prison system, L’Etoile spent leisurely mornings sipping coffee and catching up on his reading — this time for pleasure. Thrillers, police procedurals, and even cozy mysteries. Any type of crime fiction was in his wheelhouse. 

“One morning I was in the backyard reading with my retirement cup of coffee, and the book just wasn’t very good,” he said. “I tossed it aside and thought, ‘I could do better than that.’” 

Another chord was struck. 

L’Etoile took up his own challenge. He enrolled in writing workshops and classes, went to conferences and threw himself into the writing community, joining organizations like Mystery Writers of America (MWA), Sisters in Crime (SinC), and International Thriller Writers (ITW). 

“The crime fiction community is incredibly supportive, open, and willing to help anybody who comes into the game,” L’Etoile said. 

He learned about pacing, dialogue, and story structure, even wrote a few manuscripts that are buried in a bottom drawer and “will never see the light of day.” 

All those pre-sentencing reports he’d written over the years proved to be training for his new career. 

“I’d been writing crime stories all along,” L’Etoile said. “I wish I’d had the bug (to write) back then because I would’ve kept so many stories and notes and ideas. 

“A lot of the things I write now are based on one little element or situation, and then the story blossoms from there.” 

L’Etoile pitched his manuscript to a literary agent — a thriller about Sacramento police detectives on the trail of a serial killer who’s been dumping bodies with missing organs. He signed with the agent, who got him a two book deal.

“It came from two incidents that happened when I was working in the secured housing unit of the prison,” L’Etoile said. “Members of the Aryan Brotherhood were out in the yard and one of them started stabbing someone. We shot and killed him to stop the assault.” 

Later that day, the hospital called to say the inmate’s organs were going to be donated. 

“We all worked with this guy, and were like, ‘Who would want his organs?’ He was a Nazi, drug user, a filthy kind of guy,” he said.

But a few weeks later, one of the officers announced his son needed a bone marrow transplant, and L’Etoile started to wonder how much it would matter if your child’s life was at stake. 

“We all got on the registry,” he said. “When I wrote At What Cost, I had a detective whose son needed a kidney transplant. So did he track down the killer to bring him to justice, or to get the kidney his son needed?” 

At What Cost was published in 2016, followed a year later by Bury the Past. 

After a standalone thriller about big pharma, L’Etoile started a new series set in Arizona with Dead Drop in 2022. These days, he’s juggling two detective series — and a punishing schedule that has him launching two books a year. 

His books have been nominated for several crime fiction awards, including the Anthony, Lefty, Killer Nashville Reader’s Choice award, and the Silver Falchion. In 2025, Served Cold won the Lefty Award for Best Mystery. 

When L’Etoile isn’t reading or writing, he’s serving as MWA’s executive vice president or director of QueryFest where writers pitch their unpublished manuscripts to literary agents or editors and get one-on-one feedback. 

“Community is important for writers. Finding that connection makes all the difference in the world,” L’Etoile said. “We’re all going through the same struggles, and we commiserate together and celebrate together. 

“It’s just very supportive.” 

He helped launch an MWA mentorship program pairing writers with published authors to learn about the business side of writing. 

“You’d think writing would be the hard part, right? The real work happens after that,” he said.  

L’Etoile and his wife also visit assisted living and memory care facilities, hospices, libraries, and bookstores with their Welsh Corgis Tanner and Emma. The trained therapy dogs help soothe patients and ease young children’s anxieties about reading out loud. 

“The dogs have a way of connecting people, and there’s something special about that bond,” he said.