Mystery | Suspense | Psychological
Every murder has a story. Every story begins at home. Dive into the twisted world of
mystery with a psychological twist... where nothing is as it seems.
Hi. I'm JC
I Write mysteries filled with tight twists, slow-burn tension, and endings that land with that perfect "Oh... wow, I didn't see
that one coming!"
If you love following clues, decoding people, and staying one step ahead of danger—or realizing you were one step behind all along—you’re in the right place. I keep writing because there’s always another clue, another shadow, another secret waiting to be uncovered.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR - JC GATLIN
A Man Who Follows Shadows Into the Light
JC Gatlin is an award-winning author whose mystery-suspense books feature amateur sleuths and are set in Florida, specifically in and around Tampa.
He wrote his first novel Prey of Desire, when he was in college and self-published that mystery novel about a student receiving notes from a secret admirer that escalates to murder in 2013. In the years following, he released The Cypress Trap, about a troubled couple who find new troubles when the husband’s past comes back to haunt them, and 21 Dares, featuring a girl celebrating her 21st birthday with a game of 21 Dares but one of the party guests intensifies the dares to deadly heights.
Milford House Press, the fiction imprint for Pennsylvania publisher Sunbury Press, picked JC up in 2019 and published his next novel, H NGM_N: Murder is the Word. That mystery features a crime reporter who returns home to investigate the murder of a childhood friend.
H_NGM_N: Murder is the Word won the prestigious Florida Royal Palm Award for Best Mystery or Crime Novel, as well as runner-up for Book of the Year. Darkness Hides, also published by Milford House in 2021, featured a boat safety instructor who finds a body washed ashore in Tampa Bay. Darkness Hides was a Finalist in the Best Thriller Book Awards. Milford House will be publishing the sequel to H_NGM_N in 2026.
JC also writes articles for Mystery Suspense Magazine and is a member of the Florida Writers Association and Mystery Writers of America. He grew up in Grapevine, Texas and currently lives in Dade City, Florida.
A message from the grave. A killer still alive.
At sunrise, a body hangs from the old water tower, and the town Tori fled suddenly calls her home. Then the texts begin—sent from the deceased’s phone. One look at that tower and Tori knows the truth: her friend didn’t jump… she was murdered. The closer she gets to answers, the faster the town closes its fists around its secrets.
To uncover what really happened, she must face the man she once loved—and the past she never outran. But every clue drags her deeper into a darkness that feels designed just for her. A silent little girl holds the story no one wants told and unlocking it may cost Tori everything. The killer’s game tightens, the messages sharpen, and the shadow behind them steps closer.
Then, when the final text arrives, and the sender is revealed, Tori realizes she’s not solving a mystery… she’s being invited into one…
Before the Silence… There Were Letters.
Start at the beginning with The Missing Letters, a free H_NGM_N story by JC Gatlin—and uncover the fragments that shaped the mystery.
COMING SOON
What begins with a wedding ends in murder—and every secret comes due.
Tampa crime reporter Tori Younger expects nothing more than champagne, small talk, and awkward introductions when she accompanies cameraman RJ Barringer to his family’s winery estate for his mother’s wedding.
Then RJ’s estranged brother comes home.
The brother is an unsettling presence—an odd young man accused of stabbing their stepfather fifteen years earlier. His return rattles the family, reopening old wounds and stoking long-buried fears. No one wants him there. Some are genuinely afraid of him.
But the ceremony goes from bad to worse when the groom is found stabbed to death during the reception dinner. Suspicion lands squarely on the estranged brother. The weapon, the location, the motive—all the details fit too neatly. Almost too neatly.
With a wedding turned deadly and a family on the brink, Tori must uncover the truth before the real killer disappears for good.
Before the Silence… There Were Letters.
Start at the beginning with The Missing Letters, a free H_NGM_N story by JC Gatlin—and uncover the fragments that shaped the mystery.
21 DARES
Run from the dark long enough, and it learns how to follow.
A childhood horror Abbie Reed was never meant to survive has returned, stalking her on her 21st birthday and commandeering her party game of 21 Dares.
As shadows from the past bleed into her present, each dare escalates to dangerous heights and pulls her closer to the truth she’s spent sixteen years trying to forget.
Someone knows what happened that night—and they aren’t finished with her yet.
And when the darkness finally catches up, Abbie must face the one question she’s never dared to ask: What if the monster wasn’t a memory… but a promise?
"Before the story unraveled… there were letters."
Solve an early murder in the H_NGM_N series and meet the sleuths in this short story, Missing Letters, that takes place before the first book begins.
Before the Silence… There Were Letters.
Start at the beginning with The Missing Letters, a free H_NGM_N story by JC Gatlin—and uncover the fragments that shaped the mystery.
Someone she knows is watching.
Someone she knows is stalking.
And something hides in the darkness.
With a Category 4 hurricane about to make landfall, boat safety instructor Kate Parks is running out of time. Bodies are piling up--and they're not from the raging storm. An injury may have ended her career as a Fish and Wildlife officer, but nothing can keep her away from the investigation.
And it doesn't take long for her to see that the clues have one thing in common: a connection to the recent death of her five-year-old nephew.
In a brewing storm of rage, guilt, and family secrets, Kate fights to protect her grieving sister just as the hurricane threatens everything she knows and loves. But before her world is completely ravaged, she must uncover one final truth:
Run from the water.
Hide from the wind.
Flee from the shadows where a weeper seeks revenge.
Before the Silence… There Were Letters.
Start at the beginning with The Missing Letters, a free H_NGM_N story by JC Gatlin—and uncover the fragments that shaped the mystery.
The Cypress Trap
Owen and Rayanne wanted one last chance to save their fractured marriage.
A quiet lake. A rented cabin. A weekend to breathe.
But the Georgia woods have teeth.
A careless mistake unearths something they were never meant to find — something stolen, dangerous, and desperately hunted.
Now, with a killer dog prowling the shoreline and...
They said disappearance of two students years ago was a mystery that couldn't be solved... No one ever said it shouldn't be.
Prey of Desire
After a painful breakup, Kimberly Bradford starts receiving charming but unsettling love notes she assumes are from her ex—until she learns he’s been murdered.
Someone close to her is sending them, and their attention is becoming increasingly obsessive.
The deeper she digs, the more she uncovers ties to a decades-old unsolved killing that pulls her friends and family into...
They said disappearance of two students years ago was a mystery that couldn't be solved... No one ever said it shouldn't be.
The Designated Survivor
Having just escaped from inmate work detail, Tess is on the run and has one goal: get her daughter back. So, hitching a ride to Sarasota, where her daughter is staying, seemed like a good idea at first. That is until she realized her Good Samaritan is clearly suffering from the recent loss of his wife.
As the miles go by and they get closer to Sarasota, she comes to suspect that this crazy widower may in fact be...
They said disappearance of two students years ago was a mystery that couldn't be solved... No one ever said it shouldn't be.
A Few Places JC Galin Has Been Featured:
Contact JC Gatlin
Before the Silence… There Were Letters.
Start at the beginning with The Missing Letters, a free H_NGM_N story by JC Gatlin—and uncover the fragments that shaped the mystery.
JC Gatlin - A man who always leans in and listens when a story begins to whisper.