Sometimes the best way to know a person is by asking questions, where you can learn more about what makes them tick. Get to know Johanna with her answers below.

What is your full name?
Johanna Marie Hudson

How old are you?
Thirty-two

What is your profession?
Professional Genealogist (and sometimes missing person’s consultant)

Do you have a significant other?
I used to. My husband and daughter were killed three years ago. And now? Yes, sort of … maybe.

What is their name and profession?
Dominic (Nick) Quinn, Detective

Do you have any children?
My 2 year old daughter was killed. But I like to think I’ll have more.

Do you have any siblings?
No. I think my parents didn’t want to push their luck.

Are your parents nearby?
Yes, my Mom who’s divorced lives nearby. She’s getting married to a really great guy. My Dad, still single, lives on another coast, but we are close too.

Who is your best friend?
Ava Lowell, my business partner

Do you have cats, dogs, or other pets?
Nope, they would starve to death.

What town do you live in?
Unincorporated Pleasanton in the SF East Bay

What type of dwelling do you own or rent?
I own my condo

What is your favorite spot in your home?
I have an atrium where I’ve placed my desk in front of the window overlooking a grove of trees.

What is your favorite meal and dessert?
I love southern food. Shrimp & Grits / Peach Cobbler

Do you have any hobbies?
Jigsaw Puzzles

What music do you listen to?
Spanish Guitar

What is your favorite color?
Cornflower Blue

What is your favorite vacation spot?
San Francisco

Are you a morning or night person?
Definitely morning.

What is your idea of a really fun time?
Small dinner party with friends.

If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
Here and Now

Amateur or professional sleuth and whom do you work with?
Professional Amateur Sleuth. My company, Legacy Consultants, provides researching client ancestry, and sometimes missing persons. We attract complicated cases. I love it!

What is a typical day in your life like?
Hello, I’m Johanna Hudson. I own Legacy Consultants, an ancestry search company. Legacy includes my business partner, a former anthropologist, Ava Lowell and our junior assistant, the colorful character, Trinidad Owens. I’m fortunate to be located in my favorite region, the San Francisco East Bay Area. Legacy is a twenty-six hour a day job, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This morning while on my way to get coffee, I stumble onto a homeless person who came to my rescue a couple of months ago—he literally saved my life from a killer. I had to be taken away in an ambulance. I tried to explain to the EMT’s that the stranger was my savior, but the police disregarded my protests and chased him away back to the streets.

This morning I saw him again—rather he saw me first. He was standing on the corner with a large sign asking for food. After an awkward confrontation he asked me not for money, but for a job. He said he needed a chance, a hand really, like the one he gave me. He tracked me down from the newspaper. He actually seems intelligent as well as kind—just down on his luck. Out of gratitude and guilt I told him to come to Legacy for an interview as a receptionist.

Anticipating the worst, Ava and Trinidad were not pleased but grudgingly went along.

I spent the rest of the day doing research when a new client came in. She was looking for her grandfather who was a criminal informant in the witness protection program. She was just a child when her real identity had to be erased and her parents moved to Oregon. But now, with the death of her parents, she discovers that her social security number, birth certificate and background are fake. Who is she?

Using only a few mailed birthday cards she received in the past from her grandfather, she asked Johanna to help her find her true history—no matter where it leads. Johanna takes on the charge.

Later she notices the time. It’s getting late and she has to get ready.

Nick has asked her out for a drink.

The Missing Link, A Johanna Hudson Mystery Book 2
Genre: Traditional Mystery
Release: October 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

It has been a little more than a year since Johanna Hudson realized that her genealogical research talents could be used for more than just revealing her client’s family trees. Johanna, along with her partner Ava Lowell, and junior assistant Trinidad Owens, comprise Legacy Consultants.

Legacy takes on two new clients. Trinidad signs Simone Copeland, her first client. Simone wants to know her father and the relatives from his side of the family she never knew. She wants to meet the man who gave her only one gift – a shared fatal genetic disease.

Leslie Todd is another new client. A grandchild of a witness protection program witness. Her grandfather turned state’s evidence, causing his family to change their identity, their home and their connections. As the only grandchild, Leslie discovers that who she thought she was, was a myth. Social Security numbers, birth certificates, residences were faked. Her parents were killed in an accident and the grandmother who raised her, dies-she knows only one person knows her truth. She seeks Johanna’s help to locate her grandfather and her real background.

Only there was a reason why he was in the witness protection program-and it hasn’t gone away.

About the author
(Rae) Franklin James has published ten books, winning a best fiction award from Northern California Publishers and Authors. Her six-book Hollis Morgan Mysteries series was released by A&E/Lifetime as a TV movie series. The Missing Link (Oct 2024) is book three in her Publisher’s Weekly acclaimed Johanna Hudson Mysteries series. The Inheritance, the first book in the series, was followed by Look Twice. James was a former Chair of Bouchercon, a world-wide mystery convention. She is a member of Sisters-In Crime, Mystery Writers of America and Northern California Publishers and Authors. James lives in Northern California.

James can be reached on Facebook and Instagram.