James Grippando

Infobox Writer
name = James Michael Grippando

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imagesize =
caption =
pseudonym =
birthdate = birth date and age|1958|1|27
birthplace = Waukegan,
Illinois,
American
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = Novelist
nationality = USA
period = 1994-present
genre = Crime fiction
Legal thriller
Young adult
subject =
movement =
influences = Ernest Hemingway, Albert Camus
influenced =


website = http://www.jamesgrippando.com/

James Grippando (born January 27, 1958) is an American novelist and lawyer.

Biography

Born in Waukegan, Illinois and raised in the rural area of Antioch, Illinois (north of Chicago), [D. Hiltbrand, "Don't Give Crime Author any Ideas," The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 7, 2006.] James Michael Grippando is the son of James Vincent (of Italian and Irish heritage) and Gloria Marie (of German and Czech heritage) Grippando. His father was a printer, and his mother, one of the first nurses in America to earn a doctorate degree, taught college level nursing and authored a nursing textbook. Raised as a Roman Catholic [D. Hiltbrand, "Don't Give Crime Author any Ideas," The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 7, 2006.] in a family of five children (three sisters, one brother), Grippando graduated from Antioch Community High School in 1976, attended the University of Illinois for one year, and then transferred to the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he earned his B.A. in 1980 and his J.D. in 1982.

From August 1983 to August 1984, Grippando served as law clerk to the Honorable Thomas A. Clark, United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta. There and in private practice Grippando worked on a number of appeals in death penalty cases, [B. Goldsmith, "Everyone's a critic, says author Grippando," Reuters News Service, February 21, 2007.] an experience that later served him in writing his first novel, "The Pardon". [D. O'Briant, "A Better Verdict the Second Time," The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Section F-4, October 6, 1994.] From September 1984 through September 1996, Grippando was a trial lawyer in Miami. In a David vs. Goliath legal battle that lasted seven years, Grippando served as lead counsel on behalf of Florida chicken farmers in a case that was "the catalyst for wholesale change in the $15 billion-a-year [poultry] industry." [B Ortega, "Pecking Order Being Challenged in Chicken Industry," The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 12, 1992.]

As a lawyer, Grippando wrote numerous scholarly articles. In the late 1980s, he shifted to creative writing, but his first attempt at fiction was never published. [A. Suarez, "Two Dreamers Have it All," The Miami Herald, Section E-1, July 25, 2000.] A near arrest in a case of mistaken identity sparked an idea for a new novel about a man accused of a murder that he may not have committed. [J. Fleischman, "Lawyer Writes Thriller after Brief Police Encounter," The Miami Herald, Section B-2, August 12, 1994.] [C. Mabe, "Innocent Beginning", Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Section E-1, October 18, 1994.] [M. Carlin, "Personal Experience Turns into Novel for this Lawyer," Rocky Mountain News, 67A, October 16, 1994.] ["Miami Attorney's Legal Thriller Really Takes Off", The Florida Bar News, November 1, 1994] Grippando's first published novel, "The Pardon," was released in hardcover in September 1994, where he first introduced the character Jack Swyteck, a Miami criminal defense lawyer. [J.D. Reed, "Picks & Pans--Pages: The Pardon," People Magazine, p. 40, September 19, 1994.] Grippando wrote one more novel while still practicing law:" The Informant" was published in October 1996. [C. Mabe, "Miami author has made a case for himself with book for teens," Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, May 14, 2007.] He then left the law to write full time, [A. Suarez, "Two Dreamers Have it All," The Miami Herald, Section E-1, July 25, 2000.] and a string of novels followed: "The Abduction" (1998); "Found Money" (1999); "Under Cover of Darkness" (2000); "A King's Ransom" (2001); "Beyond Suspicion" (2002);" Last to Die" (2003); "Hear No Evil" (2004); "Got the Look" (2006); "Leapholes" (for young adults) (2006); "When Darkness Falls" (2007); "Lying with Strangers" (2007) and "Last Call" (2008). "Beyond Suspicion" marked the return of character Jack Swyteck, and since then, all but "Leapholes" and "Lying with Strangers" have been in the Jack Swyteck series.

"Leapholes," Grippando's first novel for young adults, was also the first novel for young readers ever to be published by the American Bar Association. [A. Couture, Book Review, "Foreword Magazine" at 61 (January/February 2007).] That same year (2006), Grippando's first short story, "Operation Northwoods", was published in an anthology "(Thriller: Stories to Keep you Up at Night" Thriller (book)) with other top thriller writers.

Grippando writes outdoors at his south Florida home, [C. Mabe, "Miami author has made a case for himself with book for teens," Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, Section E-1, May 14, 2007.] and most of his novels are set in Florida, chiefly in Miami. He writes novels of suspense in the genre of crime fiction, including psychological thrillers and legal thrillers, many of which draw upon his experiences as a trial lawyer. [D. Hiltbrand, "Don't Give Crime Author any Ideas," The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 7, 2006.] Grippando's novels have have been published in twenty-six languages: Bulgarian, Czech, Chinese (simplified), Croatian, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Slovakian, Spanish, Serbian, Thai, Turkish, and Ukrainian.

In 1994, Grippando married Tiffany Suzanne Russell. [A. Suarez, "Two Dreamers Have it All," The Miami Herald, Section E-1, July 25, 2000.] They have three children.

Bibliography

Fiction

* "The Pardon" (1994)
* "The Informant" (1996)
* "The Abduction" (1998)
* "Found Money" (1999)
* "Under Cover of Darkness" (2000)
* "A King’s Ransom" (2001)
* "Beyond Suspicion" (2002)
* "Last to Die" (2003)
* "Hear No Evil" (2004)
* "Got the Look" (2006)
* "Leapholes" (2006) (young adult novel)
* "When Darkness Falls" (2007)
* "Lying with Strangers" (2007)
* "Last Call" (2008)
* "Born to Run" (2008)

hort stories

* "Operation Northwoods" (2006, "Thriller (book)", a collection of 30 short stories edited by James Patterson)
* "Death, Cheated" (2007) (to be published in "The Prosecution Rests," anthology of short stories from Mystery Writers of America, edited by Linda Fairstein (Little, Brown 2009)

Non-fiction

Nonfiction (Scholarly)
*"Condominium Rulemaking: A Call for Substantive Judicial Review in Florida (1982)
*"Declining to Exercise Extraterritorial Antitrust Jurisdiction on the Grounds of *International Comity," University of Virginia Journal of International Law (1983)
*"Warsaw Convention--Federal Jurisdiction and Air Carrier Liability for Mental Injury," *The George Washington Journal of International Law (1985)
*"Attorney-Client Privilege: Implied Waiver through Inadvertent Disclosure of *Documents," University of Miami Law Review (1985)
*"Fear of Flying--The Fugitive's Fleeting Right to a Federal Appeal," Fordham Law Review (1986)
*"Don't Take it Personally--Limited Liability for Attorney Shareholders," Florida State University Law Review (1987)
*"Circuit Court Review of Orders on Stays Pending Appeals," the American Bankruptcy Law Journal (1988)
*"Caught in the Non-act: Expanding Criminal Antitrust Liabiltiy for Corporate Officials," The Antitrust Bulletin (1989)

Nonfiction (Magazines and Newspapers)

*"Writing the Good Book on Lawyers" (ABA Journal November 1994)
*"The Quest: Five or Six (Hundred) Easy Steps to Overnight Success" (Mystery Scene Magazine Summer 2004)
*"Animal Attraction: A Tribute to my Co-Author, a Dog Named Sam" (Miami Herald, February 12, 2006)
*"Five Years After the Terrorist Attacks of 11 September, American Author Says 'Thanks, Mates'" (Goodreading Magazine (Australia), Sept. 2006)

Grippando in Popular Culture

* On June 14, 2005, "A James Grippando Novel" was the clue for 38 Across in the New York Times Crossword Puzzle (Answer: “Under Cover of Darkness”) [The New York Times, Section B-8, June 14, 2005.]

Awards

*2005 Distinguished Author Award, University of Scranton.
*2007 Benjamin Franklin Award Finalist ("Leapholes")

Other Florida-based crime fiction writers

* Dave Barry
* Edna Buchanan
* Michael Connelly
* Tim Dorsey
* Carl Hiaasen
* James W. Hall
* Stuart M. Kaminsky
* John Katzenbach
* Elmore Leonard
* John D. MacDonald
* Laurence Shames
* Les Standiford
* Elaine Viets
* Randy Wayne White
* Charles Willeford

References

External links

* [http://www.jamesgrippando.com/ James Grippando’s homepage]

Persondata
NAME= Grippando, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Novelist, Lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH= January 27, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH= Waukegan, Illinois, United States
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=