Latest from Julien
A Day at the British Library
I spent a day last week at the British Library in London, buried in research for the next two Omus Jones books.
Crime fiction
Three detectives. Three cities. Atmospheric crime.
The Inspector Maja, Omus Jones, and Toby Austin series — Stockholm, Bristol, Austin, by Julien St. James.
The crime series
Three series. Three cities.
Each opens on its own — start where you like.
Inspector Maja · Stockholm,
Sweden
Perfect Attachment
Stockholm crime scene: two bodies chemically fused. Maja and her partner have 36 hours before the feds take over.
“Intense Swedish thriller exploring research, ethics, and human attachment.”
— Booklife
Omus Jones · Bristol,
UK
The Second Pen
An anonymous post accuses romance author Marian Vale of using AI. Within an hour her career is over. She's suing — and hiding what she really paid for on Wednesday nights at seven.
“Thoughtful, quirky, and immensely likeable — a character-driven British mystery with real depth.”
Toby Austin · Austin,
USA
Holdout
A grandmother sets a folded police report on Toby's booth. Her grandson didn't drink and feared the water — and Toby knew the man who signed it shut.
For readers of James Lee Burke, S.A. Cosby, and Attica Locke.
Also from Julien — standalones
Standalone · Literary
Love Notes and Sticky Tape
Mei returns to her Japanese fishing island. Paper boats start appearing in the harbour — each one carrying a secret.
“An intriguing, tender tale...” — Kirkus Reviews
Book details →
Standalone · Humour
Lint Socks and Rock Paper Scissors
Absurdist academia. Doctoral papers on garden gnomes, rubber ducks, thumb wrestling, and other subjects worthy of peer review.
Book details →New — the series in audio
Now on Audible
All four books are now narrated — listen on Audible:
- The Tenth Car
- Perfect Attachment
- Love Notes and Sticky Tape
- Lint Socks and Rock Paper Scissors
An Omus Jones Mystery · Book 3
Coming Q4 2026
The Cask
The next case for Omus Jones. The third book in the series arrives in Q4 2026 — join the mailing list and I’ll send release news first.
Get release news firstBook 1 of 4
Perfect Attachment
St. James’s first offering in his Inspector Maja series pierces the limits of humanity, as Detective Maja Norberg and her partner, Sven Svensson, are entangled in a string of gruesome murders unfolding in Stockholm, Sweden. When a middle-of-the-night call brings Maja to a horrifying crime scene—two bodies fused together with a chemical compound, brutally murdered, and arranged to be discovered—she realizes this is a case like none other, the kind that will “follow her home… [and] sit at her kitchen table during her solitary dinners, [whispering] to her in the small hours when sleep refuse[s] to come.” As more bodies are found—and the media dubs the culprit “The Adhesive Killer”—Maja and Sven have just 36 hours to solve the case before the feds take over.
"Intense Swedish thriller exploring research, ethics, and human attachment"
— Booklife
Notes on writing
The craft, the process, the small failures.
I also write on Substack about the writing life — more personal, less on-schedule than the book news you get here.
Read chapter one — free
The Tenth Car opens in a Cornish carriage house.
A Bristol PI takes on an £18M insurance claim and finds a pre-war French car that shouldn't exist. Enter your email and I'll send you the opening chapter. You'll also hear from me when new books release.