Author J. McGrath was born in south Mississippi where he lived until the age of 25. He married his childhood sweetheart in 1956, and they will celebrate their 51st wedding anniversary in August, 2007. They have two children and two grandchildren. They moved to California in 1971, so Mr. McGrath could attend graduate school at the University of California at Davis majoring in physics. In 1973 Mr. McGrath was offered a job in the Physics Department which he held until he retired in 1999.

    Mr. McGrath began writing as a hobby in 1981, and soon decided to pursue writing as an avocation, taking creative writing classes through the extension service at UCD. Demonstrating innate skill to write dialog and compose fiction he was strongly encouraged by his professors to seriously pursue writing with the goal of becoming published.

    Since beginning his writing career Mr. McGrath has had thirteen articles published and has published two mystery novels, Murder at Sunset and Mysterious Valley, the first two installments in a series to be known as the Maggie Goss Mysteries. He has begun the outline of the third installment in this series with the working title of The Gentleman. Taking a short hiatus from writing fiction, Mr.  McGrath has just completed a serious theological manuscript with the title: Christian Religion is an Oxymoron.