Jim Garrison is a recovering lawyer who lives and writes in Houston, Texas.

After the first black supervisor in a Texas oil refinery is murdered, there’s a damning confession—but the witness will never testify. A tale of murder, sex, racial conflict, and labor strife on the Texas Gulf Coast in 1980.

What Seems True was inspired by a true crime that took place in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1979, a crime for which the shooter has never been convicted or even tried. I was there when a real-life Texas Ranger came to a Texaco oil refinery’s asphalt plant to investigate the murder of the plant’s first African-American supervisor. While this outcome seems an injustice that cannot be corrected, what continues to intrigue the author is the psychological aspects of the case: the motives of the people involved and the nature of their relationships. What Seems True uses a similar fictional murder and situation to examine those relationships and motives—which may not be as clear cut as they seem at first blush. The novel is also a story about the fraught relationships of workers—white and black, male and female—in a gritty industrial setting on the Texas Gulf Coast in 1980, a time and place where the 1964 Civil Rights Act still provided minorities and women only a glimmer of hope for workplace equality.

"Award-winning author, J. D. Garrison returns with East Texas mayhem in the crime fiction novel, WHAT SEEMS TRUE. These larger-than-life characters deliver an entertaining read of lust, oil, good old boys, and one femme fatale."—Johnnie Bernhard, author of SISTERS OF THE UNDERTOW

"Smart and sensual, atmospheric, you can feel the humidity of the Texas Gulf Coast, smell the smoke-filled boardrooms and musty motels, the exhaust belching forth from the refinery that lights up the night sky like a fairyland in James Garrison's latest novel, What Seems True ... A savvy tale full of grit and grime and passion, vivid characters, and a male narrator who will appeal to both men and women. You will find yourself rooting for Attorney Dan Esperson, even when you are cringing at some of his choices ... I highly recommend it."—Kathleen M. Rodgers, Winner of the 2020 MWSA Founder's Award and author of THE FLYING CUTTERBUCKS

Jim Garrison is a recovering lawyer who lives and writes in Houston, Texas. Born in Statesville, North Carolina, he attended the University of North Carolina, where he nurtured his interest in creative writing, and Duke University Law School. After his first year in law school, he took a long sabbatical at Uncle Sam’s expense to tour the Mekong Delta, along with a couple of side jaunts to Tokyo and Sydney, whetting his appetite to visit exotic places. He arrived home from Vietnam on Christmas morning in 1970 and returned to Duke Law School the next month. After graduation and marriage to his best friend (providing them the occasion for travel to South America), he set out on a first career practicing law in a boutique law firm and then with big oil corp., visiting such exotic places as Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, and Port Arthur, Texas. Following a corporate merger in which he was paid to go away, he decided to stay home for the kids, one living in Berlin, Germany, the other in Delaware—just in case they called. And they did call. That’s when he started writing QL 4, which he’d been mulling over for years.

His wife and still best friend, June, is a clarinetist who really would have preferred he not stay home for the kids. Aside from literature and writing, Jim’s interests include travel, exercise, and good food, preferably with candlelight and a nice, reasonably priced wine.