Jim DeFilippi

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The Lede

Jim DeFilippi (The Mules of Monte Cassino, Duck Alley, Jesus Burned) is a prolific and eccentric American author and novelist. His forty-four books have been praised by publications like Publishers Weekly, Newsday, The Library Journal, Booklist, and many more.

Jim enjoys jumping genres— literary fiction, crime novels, humor, history, biographies, stage plays, screenplays, children’s stories, even some poetry and a cook book. His latest book, Tough Guys Don’t Eat Muzzle, offers true crime, biography, American history, social commentary, sociology, personal memoir, “a pinch of failed poetry,” and creative nonfiction.

At last count, Jim has published over two and a half million words. All of his titles are still in print.

Name Dropping

Jim is proud of the personal contacts he has made throughout his career with some of the great literary figures of America and Europe.

Is considered a giant of American literature, with best-selling books in each of the seven decades after World War II. His The Naked and the Dead and Armies of the Night are timeless classics.

Mailer received two Pulitzer Prizes, wrote masterly novels and works of nonfiction, as well as being a filmmaker, an activist, a politician, and an iconic and fascinating personality.

When Jim suggested to Mailer that he write a biography of the prizefighter Sonny Listen, he explained to Jim, “A biography would be tough, because the people who know the truth have spent so many years lying that they don’t remember it. Certain men’s lives have to remain a mystery and I think Listen’s might be one of them.”

Nevertheless, Mailer’s next book extensively discussed the life and mysterious death of Sonny Listen.

Is the creator of the Jack Reacher series, the most popular and admired crime series of the Twenty-First Century. Child chose the first pages of Jim’s Jimmy Malignant as one of the best opening pages of any novel yet to be written.

Is one of the greatest writers in the history of American crime novels.

In regards to Jim’s first crime novel, Blood Sugar, “Dutch” Leonard told Jim, “Before long, a first-time novelist might be studying your style and say, ‘So that’s how you do it.’”

Was a master not only of the spy novel but of novel writing in general. He thanked Jim for sharing praise and insight into his work.

Jim made his bones on the short, tough sentence, but fell in love with leCarré’s twisting, meandering sentences, often ending with a surprise at the final word.

George V. Higgins wrote The Friends of Eddie Coyle, widely regarded as the best American crime novel ever
written. Jim and Higgins had a long and fascinating correspondence friendship.

About Jim’s novel, Duck Alley, Higgins wrote for a cover blurb: “Jim DeFilippi’s story of a boyhood friendship become a life-long bond, ending in one’s death and the other’s death-in-life for me is
A Separate Peace in blue collar. A wonderful book.”

Jim is especially proud of this praise since Higgins did not suffer fools kindly and was selective in his praise of fellow writers.

These two icons of crime writing, named Jim’s short story “A Fog of Many Colors,” as a distinguish mystery story in their anthology The Best American Mystery Stories.

Honors And Blurbs

Honors

Jim’s humor writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Press Award.
His novel Blood Sugar was nominated for a Hammett Prize for Best Crime Fiction.
His short story, “A Fog of Many Colors,” was named a “Distinguished Mystery Story” in The
Best American Mystery Stories.
The National Society of Newspaper Columnists recognized his column for Outstanding Humor.
Amazon named Jim’s biography, Busting Stones:The Trials and Treasures of Martha Gellhorn,
as “The Number One Top Release in Women’s History Studies.”
The Mules of Monte Cassino has been called a non-fiction Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse Five.
His novel The Cart Savior was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

Blurbs

“Blood Sugar is a suspenseful, often hilarious thriller.” (Newsday)
“This wacky tale finger-pops its way to a perfect ending.” (Publishers Weekly)
“A book that grabs readers quickly and doesn’t let go. The writing is precise and pithy and rings true.” (Library Journal)
“A good one. DeFilippi serves up suburban procedures with style.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“Jim DeFilippi’s story of a boyhood friendship become a lifelong bond, ending in one’s death and the other’s death-in-life, for me is A Separate Peace in blue collar—a wonderful book.” (George V. Higgins, author of The Friends of Eddie Coyle)
“DeFilippi creates a surprisingly fresh novel, a meditation on communication and on silence… full of texture. The Long Island setting is evoked vividly but with admirable restraint. A sleeper that could find its natural audience among fiction devotees.” (Booklist)
“A Fog of Many Colors” high-lighted in the anthology The Best American Mystery Stories (edited by Sue Grafton and Otto Penzler)
“A damn good one. The novel’s emotional range is from the grimly horrific to the absurdly comic. All of it works. There’s an important new voice in the field.” (Mystery Scene Magazine)
“DeFilippi carefully mixes unconventional characters, bizarre plotting, and off-the-wall language…jaunty tone and unexpected twists.” (Library Journal)
“Jim DeFilippi’s Blood Sugar is, happily, one of the few mysteries I’ve read that truly surprised me. And not just once. We’re quickly drawn into DeFilippi’s bizarre world, heavily loaded with snappy, tough dialogue. Read this book.” (The Vermont Times)
“Following in the footsteps of his greatest influences, George V. Higgins and Elmore Leonard, DeFilippi has found a niche in the world of detective thrillers.” (The Catholic Tribune)
“This book has a distinct quality. It works, it hooks you.” (Burlington Free Press)
“Blood Sugar has a great cast, fine dialogue and a plot that strikes hardest at the least likely characters—raising the stakes higher than most mystery novels would dare. DeFilippi has trashed the formula for first mystery novels.” (The Valley News)
“In the gritty, street-wise tradition of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Elmore Leonard, Jim DeFilippi has written a terrifically entertaining novel…Joe LaLuna is one of the best fictional detectives I’ve encountered in a lifetime of reading and relishing mystery novels.” (Howard Frank Mosher, author of Stranger in the Kingdom)
“The story is excellently paced and imaginatively told, in a series of flashbacks, imaginary scenarios and straightforward narrative sections, all enlivened with vernacular dialogue. DeFilippi’s novel is as much about emotions as it is about actions, and it delivers a jolt of a surprise ending that entirely fits the plot’s milieu.” (Publishers Weekly)
“Recalling the happy summertime of youth in the ‘50s, summons Coke bottles, friendly drunks, fussy moms, baseball games on the radio and harmless pranks.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“A terrific tale… a superbly crafted novel.” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer)
“Duck Alley is the moving, funny, ultimately tragic story of two buddies growing up in the 1950s. The plotting is ingenious and makes this book a page-turner, but it’s the dead-on portrait of childhood that really sets this novel apart. DeFilippi captures the combination of casual cruelty, peer pressure, intense loyalty and vivid imagination of childhood. His bits of dialogue are inspired. Readers will (be) swept up in the narrative flow and the wonderful character depictions.” (The Philadelphia Enquirer)
“A gripping tale of friendship and fate. It left me thinking for days.” (The Vermont Times)
“Duck Alley is rich with scenes of Jones Beach, high-school culture and, of course, the old neighborhood…stitched together with threads of discrete, peppery dialogue” (Newsday)
“Colorful and often hilarious anecdotes…are expertly interlaced with current events to reveal the complexity of a friendship. The unexpected aspects of the novel are a few crucial and heartbreaking plot twists, as well as the skill with which DeFilippi wrings out profound insight.” (The Austin Chronicle)
“Inspired Long Island dialogue, often laced with humor. The dialogue is right on, and so are DeFilippi’s descriptions of youthful lunacy. Duck Alley is a meditation on loyalty and betrayal. The plot reigns in the end, however, when DeFilippi delivers a more-than-satisfying twist.” (The Burlington Free Press)
“The book is a solid tale of friendship, lies, and loyalty without the stereotypical, sugar-coated, happily-ever-after ending.” (Inside pulse.com)
“Jim DeFilippi is an odds-on, smart money choice to be among the best crime novelists.” (The League of Vermont Writers)
“The book contains a real sense of the scrappy, back-lot existence of these 1950s kids. The episodes have the authentic patina of cherished memory. DeFilippi’s creation is strong enough to be genuinely unsettling, and to make readers grateful for the glimmer of redemption offered in its final pages.” (Seven Days)
“DeFilippi captures the comfort and intimacy of a lifelong friendship. Duck Alley is a page turner. With great conversation, timing, and references to the times, it is well worth the trip. A great job.” (The Winooski VT Eagle)
“As I closed Duck Alley I breathed, ‘Whoah. That was good.’” (The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus)
“A male story, told from a male’s point of view, yet that point of view is so sensitive it becomes universal.” (Cyber Oasis)
“With sensitivity and depth…every bit a thriller as (much) as a tale of innocence, trust, and loyalty. The book is thoughtful and thought-provoking.” (Colchester News Magazine)
“A must-read!” (The Optimist)
“Emotional. Intense. Nostalgic. Real. The story is filled with emotion, action and has a great punch in the end, will take you at a great pace and is deftly told. An irrefutable good read!” (about.Com)
“The tension mounts quickly, and the prose is rare, sometimes lyrical and sometimes brutally concrete.” (Seven Days)
“DeFilippi is an author who can tackle any subject and can turn it into a psycho-social critique or a descriptive saga or human frailties.“BUF was great. I’m humbled.” (Alex Canton of Book Junkies)
“An absolute laugh-a-minute riot.” (Wistfulskimmie’s Book Reviews)
“Great read, great history. DeFilippi’s book is written in a scathing, conversational style. Historically accurate…If you are looking for a kind of Catch-22 of a book about one campaign, a book to convince you of the misery and venality of war and the way it is fought, this is it.” (Mark Pendergrass, author of For God, Country and Coca-Cola)
“The Mules of Monte cassino is the non-fiction version of Slaughterhouse Five and Catch-22.” (literary critic Paul Bennett)
“Shows us the wonderful world of ‘crime writing’ in a new and exciting way.” (Kevin Carey, author of Murder in the Marsh and The One-Fifteen to Penn Station)
“This book is flat-out hilarious, better than The Onion” (J.D. Scrimgeour, Author of Spin Moves and Lifting the Turtle)
“A legendary killer made notorious by the Brinks Job — as well as for waving to his audience as he awaited execution — Elmer ‘Trigger’ Burke was a hitman like no other, and Forty Steps to Old Sparky is a true crime book like no other. To evoke the texture, the atmosphere, and the utter blackness of a true-life film noir, Jim DeFilippi employs a blistering style and an excoriating prose as brutal as pest control. You’ve never read anything like it.” (Craig Nelson, New York Times best selling author of The Age of Radiance and Rocket Men.)
“The author’s voice is masculine rugged, often derisive, yet also touchingly indignant.” (Stephanie V. Sears, internationally known poet and essayist)
“They can all go scratch, it’ll always be Duck Alley.” (Mary Hicks, lifelong resident)

The Books

Step into worlds of imagination, adventure, humor, and inspiration. This is your gateway to explore all of Jim’s books, available now on Jim’s Amazon Page. Click below to start your journey—every story awaits you!

Five Minute Lit

Jim publishes his short pieces at Five Minute Lit. (www.fiveminutelit.com) Their rules are: 1. Nonfiction; 2. A five-minute occurrence in a life; 3. EXACTLY 100 words. Jim loves the form so much he used it to write his autobiography, 100 MEMOIRS 100 WORDS. Here are a few of his pieces:.

I was sitting on a rock, three quarters of the way up Mount Mansfield, as my daughter and grandson were coming back down. I had told them I was tired, go on up, I would wait. My daughter said that once at the top, they had asked some fellow climbers about me. They were told, “Well, there’s an old man sitting on a rock, talking to everybody.” I realized that had been my goal in life all along and I had achieved it. I have always just wanted to be an old man sitting on a rock talking to everybody.

Combat training, Military Police School, Lackland Air Force Base. Prone firing position: belly on the ground, legs apart, elbows steadied in the dirt. The M-16’s muzzle is pointed down-range at the target: a human outline. The T. I. barks out: “Keep your shooter’s eye on the front gun-sight, not on the target.” Not on the blurred outline. “Aim at the chest.” I’m doing fine—Marksman, Sharpshooter, Expert. Suddenly my eyesight rises to the target itself. It has a face! My eyes water, the target blurs. He has a face! I realize: In my lifetime I don’t want to hurt anyone.

When I was eleven years old, my Dad took me to a meeting in a smoky, crowded union hall. The Bartenders and Restaurant Workers Union was a disreputable outfit. The president shouted into the microphone, “I see some non-union members here. They have to leave.” My Dad whispered to me, “They don’t mean you.” The president, pointing at an obvious reporter, “I mean like that guy over there!” Two busted-nosed thugs grabbed the reporter by his arms, dragged him out, threw him in the alley. No one ever noticed me, but for a while there, I continued to shit bricks.

I idolize Bob Dylan. When my son got a work-study assignment to prepare Bob’s dressing room for a campus concert, I drove six hours. We prepared the room per Bob’s roadies’ many instructions (first time I heard of balsamic vinegar). Then: Heartbreak. Security cleared us out. I figured out Bob’s route and snuck to the bottom of a staircase. Bob descended, looking like a tiny Tusken Raider. Screwing up my courage, I called, “Have a good show tonight, Bob.” In the best corner-boy tradition, Bob nodded his chin toward me, as if to say “Got it.” My life was complete.

from our blog

Jim’s newest is his first whodunit, THE CHAMPAGNE UNDERTOW, set on a billionaire’s island. Someone is killing the inhabitants.

Jim’s publisher is BROWN FEDORA BOOKS.

Jim’s very supportive writing group is the Carrot Cakes

As a hobby, Jim has enjoyed growing his own tobacco and rolling his own cigars for years. The slogan for DeFilippi Premiums is. “No one ever asked for a second one.” Go to YouTube and search his video, “Cigar Growing in Northern Vermont.”

In Jim’s cookbook/workout book, ERX: EAT RIGHT AND EXERCISE, each recipe is followed by a workout routine using that food. Here, two delicious homemade calzone are strapped on the knees and eaten while doing sit-ups.

Jim keeps every part of his body in top physical condition, including his index finger.

Jim recently read from his upcoming whodunit, THE CHAMPAIGN UNDERTOW, at the Salem, Mass, Athenaeum.

Jim’s family recently celebrated his 80th birthday.

Jim was a public school teacher for thirty years. His advice to new teachers was always the same: Whenever you have a choice between teaching a kid something and going for the joke, go for the joke, every time.