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Bio:
JJ Harrigan grew up in a place much like Jeeptown. He served with the Army in Germany during the Cold War and later as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer in Latin America. With a PhD from Georgetown University, he taught university level Political Science for many years before turning his hand to writing historical fiction. Currently, he scribbles his tales of intrigue on the banks of the St. Croix River in Minnesota, where he lives happily with his life Sandy.
Webpage: https://jjharrigan.com/
Books:
Goodbye Demons (2026)
When injuries cut short the figure skating career of Angie Fernandez Parnell, she joins the Peace Corps. She is assigned to Tunis where she finds her soulmate, U.S. diplomat James Whitcomb. At the conclusion of their tours of duty, they marry, and within weeks of the wedding, he is taken captive in the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979-81.
James, held hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Teheran, endures the same demons that afflicted the real-life hostages during the actual crisis 45 years ago. Deprivation, bad treatment, political manipulation, and above all the uncertainty of whether or when it would all end.
Angie, biting her nails at home, endures her own demons. How can she support him? Should she join efforts that pressure the president to negotiate a release? Or even a rescue? A take-charge person by nature, she follows a path that will reap huge benefits if it works. Or destroy her life if it fails.
Goodbye Demons is a visceral, emotionally charged exploration of resilience in the face of adversity. It is the story of a man and a woman struggling to overcome demons beyond their control.
The Jeeptown Sock Hop (2025)
Frustrated over racial and class divisions in the 1950s, Charlie and his friends form a dance band and organize a sock hop they hope will bring black and white teenagers together. But, unknown to Clarice, Charlie struggles with a demon, his raging obsession for vengeance against the man who sexually molested him. Just as they bring their sock hop plans to the verge of success, Charlie's need for revenge erupts, and their dreams explode.
No longer young, the two lovers meet again decades later to make sense out of the events that scarred their lives so many years earlier. This is the 1950s as they've never been shown.
If you ever wondered why your parents or grandparents never turned out like the folks in Norman Rockwell paintings, this is the story for you. Harrigan paints a bittersweet picture of the 1950s: a troubled coming of age, tender first love, and stark racially-divided story in the gritty industrial setting of Jeeptown.
This is no Bobby sock or other jacket bouncy ponytail story it's the other side of the 1950s.
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