Hello, my name is Jess and I write fiction.
I write mysteries where the past doesn’t fade quietly—and where making things right matters.
I began in journalism, went on to publish two children’s books with HarperCollins, and spent years writing speeches inside Fortune 500 companies. I returned to creative work with my debut mystery, The Man Who Was Like a Dog with a Bone, a novel set among the sunlit streets and hidden corners of Malibu.
At its heart is Joe Novak, an investigative journalist and a man shaped by both loss and love—raised in a close-knit family, and driven to quietly pursue the truth about the long-ago tragedy that destroyed that family. He’s observant, persistent, sometimes intense—but never without humor, and never without heart.
I live in a small town just outside Ann Arbor and I’m now working on the next book in the Joe Novak series, where Joe returns to his own small-town Michigan roots. When I’m not writing, I’m recording and editing videos for my YouTube channel, Jess Hatchigan, or walking my hometown’s nature trails (or a treadmill in rainy weather). I also steadily supply my family with endless loaves of sourdough bread made from scratch for which—*ahem*—I’m getting rave reviews. (And as my fellow sourdough aficionados can tell you, sourdough baking, like writing, requires a bit of science, a bit of art, and way more patience than you’d expect.)
In the past, I’ve hiked through Michigan’s wilderness paths, a Costa Rican rainforest, and stretches of the Appalachian Trail, climbed to the top of Chichen Itza (back when it was allowed), wandered Norway’s fjords, ventured into Alaska’s bear country, tried (and failed) to snorkel in Cozumel (don’t ask), and explored cities like Paris and London, Stuttgart and Warsaw, Amsterdam and Montreal—all experiences that sharpened my sense of place and story.
If you enjoy character-driven mysteries where truth emerges one careful step at a time—and where even difficult pasts are met with resilience, humor, and heart—you’re in the right place.
J. R. Hatchigan
The Man Who Was Like a Dog with a Bone by J. R. Hatchigan is available at Amazon.com
J. R. Hatchigan 