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Jodi Compton biography

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Jodi Compton

Jodi Compton

Jodi Compton Biography

Jodi Compton grew up in northern California and graduated from UC Berkeley. Three years in Minnesota for graduate studies in journalism inspired her Minneapolis detective, Sarah Pribek. She returned to California for her first newspaper job, in San Luis Obispo, and the L.A.-influenced youth culture of that town gave rise to Hailey Cain.

While Jodi has lived in some of California's most beautiful coastal towns — Santa Cruz, Ventura, San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay — she now lives in Bend, in the mountains of central Oregon, and is waiting to see what that new setting will inspirem

Jodi Compton's website

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Interview

Jodi Compton answers many questions about her first book, the 37th hour.

The 37th Hour is much more than a suspense novel. It is also a novel that moves beyond genre classifications by focusing on two people ---Sarah and Shiloh --- who are flawed and damaged in deep and dangerous ways that neither of them suspects. What was your inspiration for the characterizations of, and the relationship between, Sarah and Shiloh?
With Sarah and Shiloh, I wanted to make people believe in a relationship that is really unsentimental and unconventional. Early in the book, Sarah refers to Shiloh as 'you son of a bitch.' Later, in flashbacks, the reader finds that they met through a one-night stand. There's no roses or candlelight in this marriage; it's an alliance between two soldiers. While I was writing it, I sometimes wondered, 'I am going too far with this?' But I really wanted to make people feel the powerful kinship-between-outsiders that bonds them. I knew I'd succeeded when female early readers weighed in with a lot of anxiety over whether Shiloh would survive the events of The 37th Hour to be featured in upcoming novels.

We love how you structured The 37th Hour -- weaving a lot of background ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Jodi Compton at BookBrowse
Thieves Get Rich, Saints Get Shot jacket The 37th Hour jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Jodi Compton but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Robert Crais

    Robert Crais

    Crais is the author of the best-selling Elvis Cole novels. A native of Louisiana, he grew up on the banks of the Mississippi River in a blue collar family of oil refinery workers and police officers. He purchased a ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The 37th Hour

    Try:
    The Forgotten Man
    by Robert Crais

  • Richard Hawke

    Richard Hawke

    Hawke was born and raised in the heart of a major American city in the Industrial South. The fire to become a writer ignited for the boy at an early age, most particularly with his multiple devourings of the DC comics ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The 37th Hour

    Try:
    Speak of the Devil
    by Richard Hawke

We recommend 2 similar authors


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