Standalone Novels
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Bearskin | 2018 | Buy |
| Panther Gap | 2023 | Buy |
James A. McLaughlin is an American writer who grew up in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia. He studied biology in college and worked in conservation before turning to fiction, and both of those backgrounds show up clearly in his work. His debut novel, Bearskin (2018), follows a man named Rice Moore who takes a job as caretaker of a remote nature preserve in the Virginia mountains. Moore is hiding from his past, but when he discovers that poachers are killing black bears on the property for their gallbladders, he gets pulled into a confrontation that puts his new life at risk.
Bearskin won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and drew praise for its detailed knowledge of Appalachian ecology and its slow-building tension. McLaughlin’s writing about the natural world reads like someone who has spent real time in the woods, not like someone who looked it up. His second novel, Panther Gap (2023), is set on a large ranch in the Colorado mountains and involves a family caught between a dangerous inheritance and outside threats. McLaughlin writes at a deliberate pace, and both books reward readers who enjoy thrillers rooted in a strong sense of place.