Noir · Mystery · Hardboiled & other fiction
Jack Halliday is a fiction author and optioned, multi-award-winning screenwriter with over forty years in radio, television, and print — private eyes, cold cases, and endings that hit twice.
The author
Jack Halliday is an author and optioned, multi-award-winning screenwriter whose work has appeared in numerous digital and print publications — from Hardboiled Magazine and Black Cat Mystery Magazine to Bold Venture Press and Wildside Press.
On the page: private eye Howard Millar of Cincinnati’s Queen City, exchanging his badge for a bond with the abused, abandoned, misused and missing; a hypnotherapist under the big bluff in Bundaberg; a screenwriter curing writer’s block the hard way outside L.A. On the screen: crime, action, and drama scripts with first-place wins at The Indie Gathering, plus honors from Horror Hotel, ScreenCraft, and the New York International Screenplay Awards.
He lives with his wife and son in the Midwest. Screenwriting representation: the late Ray Cavaleri of Cavaleri and Associates Talent & Literary Agency.
The catalog
Noir, mystery, hardboiled, and other fiction — for producers, readers, and anyone who still likes a twist that lands twice.
Features and shorts with festival first places — ready to option, purchase, or discuss.
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Part mystery and romance, and all suspense — from The Big Bluff to the Howard Millar capers.
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Millar on the case, pulp adventures, and noir that would make Spillane proud.
View stories →Featured
Novels, scripts, and stories with the Halliday touch — named places, hard cases, and climaxes that don’t quit on the first twist.
American hypnotherapist Vernon Prescott finishes a lecture tour in Bundaberg, Australia — recovering under the big bluff from too many vodka gimlets — when Mindy Winthrop seeks treatment for repressed memories of a four-year-old cold-case murder. A cult centuries old will stop at nothing to keep those memories buried. Part mystery and romance, and all suspense… with two twist endings.
A female American and a male Australian detective/martial artist team up to stop a murder spree — perpetrators: the offspring of fallen angels and earthly women.
A private detective investigates the murder of a teen as a friend of the grieving family — and becomes judge, jury and executioner in this noir, hardboiled short.
A private detective, hired to protect a female executive, becomes embroiled in an international plot involving the theft of Soviet missile codes. Called “a classic of the genre… ripe for a feature film — and possibly a TV series.”
Private eye Howard Millar has seen life’s darker side. After twenty years as a first-grade detective with the 9th Precinct, he exchanged his badge for a bond with the abused, abandoned, misused and missing in Cincinnati — the Queen City of the Midwest. Armed with wit and wisdom, timing and tenacity.
A pilot’s crash landing in an unfamiliar town leads him to a new land, life and love, beyond his wildest dreams.
Accolades
The Indie Gathering International Film Festival, Horror Hotel, ScreenCraft, the New York International Screenplay Awards, and more.
2022 · Indie Gathering
Giants!
2021 · Indie Gathering
DownUnder Double Cross
2020 · Indie Gathering
In the Blood
2019 · Indie Gathering
Rahab and the Ribbon of Redemption
2019 · Indie Gathering
The Burning Man
2019 · Indie Gathering
The Drowning Man
2017 · Indie Gathering
The Queen City Murders
2023 · Horror Hotel
The Closet
2019 · NY International Screenplay Awards
Rahab and the Ribbon of Redemption
Also: ScreenCraft semi- and quarter-finalist placements for Finding Phyllis, The Burning Man, Swan Song, The Big Bluff, and In the Blood; additional Indie Gathering and Horror Hotel honors for Kawanga, Moonlight and Roses, Tomorrow is Another Day, and The Green Man.
What others are saying
“Jack Halliday is one of the brightest new stars in mystery fiction. It’s hard to imagine the field in ten years without picturing him as its vital center.”
“Jack, I’d be happy to be a part of any film you had a hand in writing.”
“I enjoy your style of writing, and feel you are a gifted author.”
“I have known Halliday for years, and I am a real fan of his noir fiction. He has a number of good scripts, but his Queen City Murders is a classic of the genre, and is ripe for a feature film — and possibly a TV series.”
“Jack, you’ve got carte-blanche with me: I’ll issue a contract for any writing that you want to do.”
“Jack, thanks for letting me see Swan Song; good story and good writing, lots of good things here… I’ll get your story ‘Moonlight and Roses’ into a future issue of Hardboiled.”
On the page
Magazine appearances, anthologies, and press — from pulp revival to literary journals.
Rights & commissions
Screenplays, novels, stories — or a commission built to your brief. Email jack@jackhalliday.com, or use the inquiry form.
