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Jack Chase

Goodreads Author

Born

in San Francisco, California, The United States

Website

https://www.abbycatgroup.com/

Genre

Fiction, Suspense, Contemporary

Influences

Cormac McCarthy ...more

Member Since

March 2025

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Jack Chase is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and founder of Abbycat Group & Publishing Brands (known outwardly as AGP), a rapidly growing multi-imprint small press based out of Southern California.

He started in early 2025 with a couple of digital shorts that landed well enough to keep him going. Then came the paperback release of “Overtime: The Ballad of Marcus Graves”—a sharp black comedy about a law student-turned-drug dealer for Hollywood’s elite, polished for years as a screenplay before becoming prose—which arrived to crickets. He pivoted immediately to “Violent Crimes: The Butcher of Westchester,” an Upstate murder mystery he calls an “anti-procedural”: a meditation on paternal rage, generational trauma, and true Jack Chase is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and founder of Abbycat Group & Publishing Brands (known outwardly as AGP), a rapidly growing multi-imprint small press based out of Southern California.

He started in early 2025 with a couple of digital shorts that landed well enough to keep him going. Then came the paperback release of “Overtime: The Ballad of Marcus Graves”—a sharp black comedy about a law student-turned-drug dealer for Hollywood’s elite, polished for years as a screenplay before becoming prose—which arrived to crickets. He pivoted immediately to “Violent Crimes: The Butcher of Westchester,” an Upstate murder mystery he calls an “anti-procedural”: a meditation on paternal rage, generational trauma, and true evil, built on a commitment to blending realism with cinematic precision without sacrificing class. It started as a five-minute short film screenplay in his first-period film class senior year of high school—a depiction of what would become the foundation of the 2025 novel’s devastating final act—which his teacher understandably shot down for being “literally just a guy shooting someone.” Seven years later, on Memorial Day 2025, it became his debut novel. In the definitive hardcover’s afterword, he describes the process as “either the worst or greatest experience” of his writing life, one that required him to inhabit a proximity to darkness he believes he still hasn’t fully shaken—but says was “worth it.”

After “Violent Crimes,” he returned to the beginning: “Immundus,” his first publication, remastered and expanded into a hardcover novella nearly unrecognizable from the original—a nonlinear desert fever dream blending Navajo and eldritch horror, anchored by Justin, an ostracized, self-destructive screenwriter circling the drain in the Yucca Valley as he becomes the fixation of an ancient evil. Then came the big swing: “Made in America: or The Tragedy of Billy Castle and Unexpected Absolution of Dean Willis,” a Greek tragedy disguised as a 630-page crime epic. Four years in the making, it began as a 150-page screenplay written at 21 and was drafted into prose over a scorching 2025 summer in the Coachella Valley. Somewhere between pages—probably to soothe the burnout—he quietly revisited and significantly revised “Overtime” into “one of the funniest things” he’s ever written, with a sequel planned for summer 2026 “whether anybody wants it or not.”

He’s since published a 10,000-word essay unpacking his intentions with “Made in America’s” characters and storylines, along with an intimate memoir piece framing the novel as his north star through years of tragedy and dysfunction—from his hometown to Santa Monica to Hollywood to his eventual settling in Palm Desert. Then he went straight into production on “The Bastard of Taylor’s End,” a 502-page Jacobean revenge epic about stolen lineage, power, and morality. The novel includes an original play-within-a-play entitled ‘The Dragon and the Prince,’ composed by Chase in period-accurate diction, that mirrors both the staged performance in the narrative and the arcs of its numerous characters. Similar to its predecessor, it began as a screenplay, written and completed at the age of 19—just a month before the world shut down. Almost exactly five years later, the story found life as a major novel and was released in hardcover on December 31, 2025.

Eleven books in, his catalog runs from crime to myth to the surreal—all of it built on fatalism, consequence, and people finding out who they really are when it costs them something. He has no plans to slow down and intends to expand AGP with the formation of ABBYCAT STUDIOS sometime in 2027.

He lives and works in Southern California with his tortoiseshell assistant, Mulan. ...more

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Jack Chase’s books

Average rating: 4.74 · 31 ratings · 15 reviews · 12 distinct works

	Made in America: or The Tragedy of Billy Castle and Unexpected Absolution of Dean Willis it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 2025 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Bastard of Taylor's End 4.38 avg rating — 8 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Immundus: A Western Navajo Folktale it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Violent Crimes: The Butcher of Westchester it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Immundus: A Western Navajo Folktale it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Kill the Bartender! it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Switch really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Beat Cop: A Love Letter to the City of Fog, Ghosts, and Lost Men it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Overtime: The Ballad of Marcus Graves it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dreidel Theory it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Jack Chase…

3 posts
Jack Chase's Blog

The real story behind Made in America — four years, loss, and proof of origin

New longform is live:
I just published a behind-the-scenes piece about how Made in America was actually written — process, whiteboards, 2021 screenplay photos, the four-year timeline, and what I lost to finish it.

Full piece on Medium here:
https://medium.com/@jackchasenovels/h...

(If anyone reads it, would love to know which part hit you the hardest.) Read more of this blog post »

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Published on October 23, 2025 11:06 • Tags: made-in-america

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Jack Chase rated a book it was amazing The Bastard of Taylor's End by Jack Chase (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 06, 2026 10:20PM · like
Jack Chase liked Kim Territo's review of Jokes About Suicide: The Man Who Sang With No Strings: "I received this as an advance copy, thinking it would be a heartwarming story. It was not. It was very dark, but I was very invested in the characters. It was short, only took an hour to read, and very to the point. Even though it was not what I expe" Read more of this review »
Apr 05, 2026 03:01PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Jokes About Suicide by Jack Chase. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Jokes About Suicide by Jack Chase <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jack Chase liked Tony Heck's review of The Bastard of Taylor's End: "“And Jamie rode south with blood on his hands and a new sword at his hip and the understanding that he’d found something in that darkness that had been waiting for him all along.” The epic novel, The Bastard of Taylor’s End, by Jack Chase, blends his" Read more of this review »
Mar 22, 2026 01:12AM · see review
Jack Chase liked PageGlow's review of Made in America: or The Tragedy of Billy Castle and Unexpected Absolution of Dean Willis: "Made in America: or The Tragedy of Billy Castle and Unexpected Absolution of Dean Willis by Jack Chase is a gripping and thought provoking novel that blends personal struggle with a powerful critique of society. Through Billy Castle’s journey from an" Read more of this review »
Mar 07, 2026 03:58PM · see review
Jack Chase answered Marcy's question: What inspired "Made in America," and how did you manage to capture 2014 New York so viscerally and accurately as a boy who grew up in California? I wanted to do something big, and I became drawn to the challenge of bridging gritty hyperrealism with myth and the tones of old-world Greek tragedy, but making it feel seamless rather than stylized. Archer Stone was the root of everything. I was too See Full Answer
Mar 03, 2026 10:58AM · 1 like · like