Jim Duncan first appeared in Root of All Evil and one of the best ways to learn about a person is by asking questions, so let’s get to know Jim.

What is your name?
Uh, full name? James Andrew Duncan. Only my mother calls me that. Jim is just fine.

How old are you?
36.

What is your profession?
I am a Trooper First Class with the Pennsylvania State Police.

Do you have a significant other?
Uh, is this a trick question? Sally and I have been. . .flirting with a relationship. Not sure if it’s serious enough for her to be my “significant other,” but it’s more likely to be her than anyone else.

What is her name and profession?
Sally Castle. She’s an assistant public defender for Fayette County.

Any children?
Nope. My wife split before we got to that part. I’d like kids, but it’s probably for the best.

Do you have any sibling(s)?
My sister, Meg, lives in Seattle with her husband and two kids, who act like my kids when they visit.

Do your parents live near you?
Heck no. As soon as they both retired, they bolted from Ligonier, my hometown, and Pennsylvania winters for the sunny climes of Arizona.

Who is your best friend?
At this point probably Sally.

Cats, dogs or other pets?
I have a Golden Retriever, Rizzo. I adopted him to annoy my ex. He’s a doofus, but he loves Sally. And Sally loves him. That’s probably a sign of something.

What town do you live in?
Confluence, PA, a small town in the Laurel Highlands that is split over Fayette and Somerset counties.

House or building complex? Own or Rent?
I own my house in Confluence. It was a compromise with my ex because she wanted to live in a town rather than the country and Confluence was as “town” as I could deal with.

What is your favorite spot in your house?
Kind of fond of my front porch. Sitting in an Adirondack chair after a shift, with a beer in my hand, Rizzo at my feet, and watching my neighbors walk by.

Favorite meal? Favorite dessert?
I like steak, but what I really like is a fish, usually trout, that I caught that afternoon. And I’ll never say no to a slice of New York-style cheesecake, especially if it has strawberries on it.

Favorite hobby?
Fishing. Or anything outdoors, but mostly fishing and I don’t really care if I catch anything either.

Favorite color?
I’ve never really thought about this. Let’s go with gray, since I wear it so often.

Favorite author?
I don’t read much, but when I do, it’s science fiction or fantasy. So probably Robert Heinlein, Terry Pratchett, or David Eddings. When crime authors get things wrong it drives me nuts, so I don’t bother.

Favorite vacation spot?
Home is nice. I don’t usually have to leave the Laurel Highlands to have a nice vacation.

Favorite sports team?
Pittsburgh Pirates. Yeah, yeah, I know. Twenty losing seasons. Be quiet.

Movies or Broadway?
I have more opportunity to see a movie. But I guess it might be nice to see a Broadway show at least once. . .if the company was right.

Are you a morning or a night person?
I am a whatever-shift-I-happen-to-be-working-that-day person.

Amateur sleuth or professional?
Professional. . .at least I try to be.

Whom do you work with when sleuthing?
Sally and I have teamed up a couple times. It seems to work, even though we come at things from different angles.

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
Get up, make coffee, let Rizzo out, patrol work, come home, eat, sleep. Adjust the preceding for the shift I happen to be working. Sometimes I’ll go see Sally, or hang out with a buddy on the river (weather permitting). Of course, that hanging out sometimes includes investigating a murder. Do I know how to treat a woman or what?

You can read about Jim in Heaven Has No Rage, the second book in the “Laurel Highlands” traditional mystery series, released August 13, 2019.

State Trooper Jim Duncan’s quiet overnight shift turns deadly when fire destroys a ski lodge at a local resort and the first responders find a man’s body inside. What starts as a suspicious accident quickly becomes sinister when the autopsy proves the victim is not the man who rented the cabin. Jim’s left with three questions. Who is John Doe? Why was he at the ski lodge? And who hated him enough to kill him?

Assistant Public Defender Sally Castle, still reeling after the events of several months ago, tries to bury her feelings of guilt and fear in her work. When an anonymous note from a secret admirer arrives at the courthouse, she brushes it off as an empty threat. As the missives, each one darker than the last, continue to arrive at her office as well as her home, Sally’s forced to review all the possibilities. Is the letter-writer a person from her legal past? Or is the threat closer to home?

As the questions multiply, Jim and Sally are thrown into a race to find a murderer as well as a stalker. . .before Sally ends up facing more than an unwanted pen pal.

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About the author
Liz Milliron has been making up stories, and creating her own endings for other people’s stories, for as long as she can remember. She survived growing up through reading, cutting her mystery teeth on Agatha Christie, Mary Higgins Clark and, of course, Nancy Drew. As an adult, she finds escape from the world of software documentation through creating her own fictional murder and mayhem. She lives near Pittsburgh with her husband, two teenage children, and her rescued Greyhound, named Koda.

To learn more about Liz, visit her website at lizmilliron.com.

All comments are welcomed.