Justin Scott
Personal Information
Description
Justin Scott is the author of thirty-eight thrillers, mysteries and sea stories including The Man Who Loved The Normandie, Rampage, and The Shipkiller, which the International Thriller Writers lists in Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads. Born in Manhattan July 20, 1944, he grew up on Long Island’s Great South Bay in a family of professional writers. His father, A. Leslie Scott, wrote Westerns and poetry. His mother, Lily K. Scott, wrote novels and short stories for slicks and pulps. His sister, Alison Scott Skelton, is a novelist, as was her late husband, C.L. Skelton. The Mystery Writers of America nominated Scott for Edgar Allan Poe awards for Best First Novel (1974)and Best Short Story (1994). He has been a member of the Authors League, the Adams Round Table and, for thirty-five years, The Players. He is an Eagle Scout. Scott holds Bachelors and Masters in history, (B.A. Harpur College, 1966; Two-year M.A. State University of New York at Binghamton, 1969). Before becoming a writer, he drove boats and trucks, built Fire Island beach houses, edited an electronic engineering journal, and tended bar in a Hell’s Kitchen saloon. He writes the Ben Abbott detective series about a small-town Connecticut real estate agent, and collaborated with Clive Cussler on nine Isaac Bell detective adventure series thrillers set in Teddy Roosevelt’s Progressive Era, three of which debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List. PAUL GARRISON is his main pen name under which he writes modern sea stories and an occasional thriller based on a Robert Ludlum character. Scott lives in Connecticut with his wife, filmmaker Amber Edwards, with whom he collaborated on a 2021 thriller published by the University of Louisiana Press—Forty Days and Forty Nights by Amber Edwards & Justin Scott. His latest book, just emerging from the computer, is an Elizabethan historical novel, Treason’s Playwright.
Books
Mausoleum
Angered when Newbury, Connecticut's three-hundred-year-old cemetery is invaded by an eyesore of a mausoleum belonging to newcomer Brian Groses, Ben Abbott launches a personal investigation when Brian's body is found in his monument, the victim of a shooting.
Hardscape
Recently home from the slammer, former Wall Street trader Ben Abbott is hired by a New York City private detective to spy on Rita Long, suspected of cheating on her husband.
Frostline
When Newbury's newest resident, ex-diplomat Harry King, the close confidant of Kissinger and reputed to have been heavily involved in the Vietnam War, summons real estate agent Ben Abbott to his new McMansion, Ben dreams of big dollar signs. The commission from selling the Fox Trot estate would be huge. But King doesn't want Ben's selling expertise, he wants him to act as a mediator between him and his troublesome neighbour, surly Vietnam vet Ronnie Butler. A strip of Butler's land cuts straight into King's estate like a knife, acting as a red flag for two neighbors who are as ornery and quarrelsome as a pair of rival bulls. In fact, the testoserone is flowing heavier than the waters in the stream King is damming up for a picturesque lake. Before Ben can mediate, an explosion rocks a lavish party on the Fox Trot lawn. The blast blows up the dam--and Butler's ex-con son, Dickie, along with it. Butler, an army-trained sapper, is arrested for setting the dynamite. Ben, whose childhood friend Dickie had tried his patience and loyalty many times before, refuses to accept Butler's guilt. Besides, too many things don't add up. Could it be the work of terrorists? Of one of the many groups holding a grudge against King? Or just someone with his own axe to grind? With the Feds on the scene, caught in state and local law enforcement jockeying, Ben negotiates an unpopular course through the usual minefield of his various loyalties to friends, family and lovers, of whom there are plenty ...
The Shipkiller
An exciting, fast-paced story of revenge and love set on the oceans of the world, from the South Atlantic to the oil-slicked reaches of the Persian Gulf.
The wrecker
A man tells his drinking partners about his exciting past.
The Striker
When his new bride, and the woman he has fallen in love with, betrays him, Eoin MacLean, who has decided to fight with Robert the Bruce, leaves her behind with no intention of ever coming back. Then Bruce puts him charge of conquering the province ruled by her father where she, believing him to be dead, plans to remarry.