James Tucker is a Target executive and former international lawyer, and he’s truly a Renaissance guy. The Deephaven native recently published his first novel, Next of Kin (Thomas & Mercer, 2017), a crime thriller featuring an NYPD detective and his quest to protect the lone survivor of a wealthy family, 10-year-old heir Ben Brook.
Tucker, who lives in Edina and has two young kids with his wife, artist Megan Rye, grew up in Deephaven and attended St. Therese Catholic School and the Blake School. It was in college, when he read The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald, that writing became one of his dreams. After college, he graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School and embarked on a career in international law. He also went on to become an executive in real estate at Target. He continued writing, but as the years went by, finding time became more and more difficult. “Like any hobby, finding time is a challenge,” he says. He wrote Next of Kin after his kids went to bed, on the weekends—whenever he had a spare moment. “I haven’t been to a movie since 2012,” he says, laughing. What’s next for Tucker? The sequel to Next of Kin is expected to be published in the fall.
Next of Kin is available for purchase at Amazon.com, Target and online at Barnes and Noble.
