Note: this transcript was generated by AI and only lightly edited, so there may be errors or typos.

[00:00:04.040] – Alan Petersen
Welcome to Meet the Thriller Author, the podcast where I interview writers of mysteries, thrillers, and suspense books. I’m your host, Alan Petersen. I’m a fellow thriller author, an avid fan of the genre. Today, I’m thrilled to bring you episode 213 featuring Jerri Williams. Jerri served an impressive 26 years as a special agent in the FBI, specializing in major economic fraud investigations. She’s seen it all from con artists to corrupt and she knows better than anyone how a lie can steal millions. Since retiring, Jerri has channeled her expertise into writing, gripping crime fiction, hosting the widely popular FBI Retired Case File Review podcast, and consulting for major television networks to create authentic FBI dramas. Her podcast has over 10 million downloads and more than 300 episodes where she interviews retired agents about their high-profile cases, one of my favorite podcasts out there. Jerri is also the author of FBI myths and Inceptions, a manual for armchair detectives, which debunks 20 common clichés about the FBI. She’s also written two crime novels featuring flawed, yet compelling FBI agent, Kari Wheeler. In 2021, Jerri was honored by the FBI Agents Association for her outstanding contributions to the FBI family. We’ll talk about her incredible career, her writing process, and how she blends accuracy with the entertainment to create stories that keep readers and listeners hooked. Stick around for an insightful and inspiring conversation. Before we dive in, don’t forget to rate and review this podcast. It helps us reach more thriller fans like you, so I really do appreciate that. And be sure to visit thrillerauthors. Com for show notes, episode transcripts, and so much more. All right, let’s get into the interview with Jerri Williams.

[00:01:46.310] – Alan Petersen
Hey, everybody. This is Alan with Meet the Thriller Author. On the podcast today, I have Jerri Williams. Jerri, welcome to the podcast.

[00:01:53.770] – Jerri Williams
Thank you. I’m glad to be here. We have so much in common, so I’m looking forward to our discussion today.

[00:02:00.020] – Alan Petersen
Yeah, really excited to talk to you. Just quickly for our listeners, you were an FBI Special Agent for 26 years. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you transitioned to writing crime fiction and being a podcaster? We’ll get to all that good stuff. Tell us about your FBI life.

[00:02:17.370] – Jerri Williams
Yeah, well, I came in young at 25, and before I became an FBI agent, I was a juvenile after-care counselor, which is like a probation officer. But I got the kids that were a adjudicated that had been sent away to reform school. So I traveled all around Virginia meeting with my clients. And then I also was working with the parents so that when they transitioned back to the community, hopefully we can keep them from continuing to be in trouble. One day, I just saw this newsletter that the FBI was looking for women and minorities, and I was like, check, check. And I made the call, and next thing you I’m an FBI agent.

[00:03:02.180] – Alan Petersen
Oh, wow. That’s crazy. How was the process from when you applied to you were at the academy? How long does that… I’m assuming it takes a little while.

[00:03:10.020] – Jerri Williams
It can take from a year to a year and a half. But when I came in, and this is over 40 years ago. I came in in 1982. It took me six months. It was rapid fire. It was at the point where I’m walking down the hallway in the FBI I’m thinking, How did this happen? What did I get myself into?

[00:03:35.280] – Alan Petersen
What was it like? Actually, in the early ’80s, you were going into a very male-dominated world. How was that in the beginning? Can you tell us a little bit about that That’s a very interesting experience.

[00:03:46.050] – Jerri Williams
Absolutely. It was a different world way back then. I tell people that Hoover may have died in 1972, and I came into the bureau 10 years later. But it was still Hoover’s FBI because the majority of the people in the FBI, at least half of them, had come in during his era. Most of the supervisors and the bosses in charge, definitely, they were a little older, and so they definitely came in during his era. Yeah, it was different. It was definitely different. I was in the 22nd or 23rd black female agent, and that may sound like a lot, but we have 56 offices around the country plus headquarters. You sprinkle that number around, and basically, every one of us were the only ones and being a trailblazer at that time period. It It was not pleasant all the time, and there were a lot of challenges, and I’ve always been honest about during that first four years, I thought about quitting many, many times.

[00:04:56.850] – Alan Petersen
Yeah, I can’t even imagine what you went through.

[00:04:58.840] – Jerri Williams
They don’t call it G and G boys for nothing. But let me just make sure I’m very, very clear. I stuck it out. I am so glad I did. It’s a career like no other. I absolutely loved it. I had so many people that I consider my friends and great relationships. I’ve got so much out of being an FBI agent. All I do now is to promote the FBI, to talk about FBI stories. It’s amazing the way that I started at the beginning, not sure if this was the right place for me. At the end, being someone that promoted the FBI and was the person out in front of the public and the media trying to set everyone straight about who the FBI is and what the FBI does.

[00:05:59.330] – Alan Petersen
Why do you think it’s a fascination for us civilians with the FBI because there’s a lot of law enforcement agencies in this country, but the FBI is like the top one. Is it just like the the the lore from all the history because it’s been around for so long? What do you think is our fascination with it.

[00:06:16.650] – Jerri Williams
Because it’s so damn cool. Okay, that’s absolutely. I mean, and I’m not here to promote my podcast, but as you know, I have the podcast FBI Retired: Case Fel review where I interview exclusively retired FBI agents. They come on to talk about their cases. There are cases that are amazing, things that you never even knew the FBI was involved in, and just stories that would put all of our crime novels and thrillers to shame.

[00:06:53.460] – Alan Petersen
Now, for your career, you specialized, I was reading in your bio, you specialized in economic fraud investigations. Tell us a little bit about that. I was just curious to what was the most surprising or elaborate scheme you ever encountered in your career?

[00:07:06.100] – Jerri Williams
I was on an economic crime squad, and that meant that my investigations were advanced fee schemes, which are basically con artists. They were business to business telemarketing fraud, where it’s not some individual, but another business being scammed. I did embezelments. I also did Ponzi schemes. I would say that the most interesting case that I worked was a $350 million Ponzi scheme that at the time was one of the biggest charity frauds in the country.

[00:07:42.600] – Alan Petersen
What was that case?

[00:07:44.870] – Jerri Williams
The name of the subject, I’m having one of my senior moments, John Bennett. He ran the Foundation for New Era Philanthropy. Basically, he started out as legitimate. Most Ponzi schemes start off legitimate, and then something happens where the fraud begins because the founder or the business person is trying desperately to make their business float. And so they start doing things that start off maybe unethical and then slowly, but surely become illegal and criminal. And that’s what happened with John Bennett. He was helping charities and nonprofits find funding. And next thing you know, he’s getting people, philanthropists and all kinds of donors to give him money, and that money was supposed to be matched by an anonymous donor. Next thing you know, it’s $350 million that he’s taken from some of the biggest organizations institutions in this country. It was a fascinating case to work, and I actually turned that case and I fictionalized it, and that became my second crime novel, Greedy Givers.

[00:09:13.780] – Alan Petersen
Oh, Greedy Givers. I like the title. I have to check that one out. It sounds fascinating.

[00:09:17.850] – Jerri Williams
It really was. It really, really was. I think writing that as a novel was my way of trying to figure out how a man who had done so many good deeds in the Christian charity movement, how he could turn into a criminal. This was just my way of figuring out. I don’t know if it was the truth for him, but it just helped me figure out and understand how something could go so wrong.

[00:09:47.990] – Alan Petersen
I was curious, too, because with your expertise, and you keep hearing now the last year or two years of this crypto scams, especially with celebrities, those influencers who keep doing these rug pulls. What are your thoughts about that? Will any of them eventually sometime go to jail, maybe?

[00:10:02.670] – Jerri Williams
Well, all I can tell you is that there was no crypto in my days working in financial frauds. I’m just glad because I don’t understand any of it.

[00:10:17.970] – Alan Petersen
Yeah, it’s so crazy how they could do that. It’s all like pulling it from the air. It’s just so weird.

[00:10:25.620] – Jerri Williams
Yeah, but it’s no different than any other fraud. Frauds are based on lies and deception. This is just a same situation where somebody is doing whatever they can with whatever justification they have to take somebody else’s money. Because the What I think about fraud, which I think is why I’m so fascinated by it, is that the people, the fraudsters, are able to convince you to give them your money. Your money wasn’t stolen. Your money. Somebody didn’t come in at the dead of night and take it from you. The fraudsters are able to convince you to give it to them. I think that’s what makes frauds hard for people to accept that they’re a victim. Sometimes they’re full of shame because they thought they should have been smarter. But I mean, these fraudsters are so good at what they do. They always think they’re the smartest people in the room. That’s why as an agent working these cases, I was absolutely fascinated, and I really enjoyed the challenge.

[00:11:38.250] – Alan Petersen
What was it like to transition from the high-stakes world of the FBI to now becoming a storyteller, an author, and podcaster? What was that like in the beginning? Are you enjoying it now?

[00:11:49.840] – Jerri Williams
Oh, absolutely. But I grew up as an Air Force brat living all around the world. I mean, I lived in Germany, in France, in England, and Morocco, and then all over the country here, too, in Maine, and Massachusetts, and Spokane, and Virginia. I never lived anywhere for more than three years, and then we were on to the next place. And so I grew up, my mother was a big reader, so I grew up with books being my friends. My whole family, I have two sisters, we read a lot because when you go to a new place and you’re trying to make friends and meet new people, it’s always nice to have that familiar comfort of a book and of a story. I’ve always been a big reader, and I just decided at some point during my FBI career that I wanted to write a book. I actually found the best case ever. A fascinating story. Two friends of mine, very attractive female agents, were investigating fraud and corruption in the Philadelphia strip club industry. I was just fascinated. Every day, there was an article in the newspaper about the Commissioner that was in charge that was doing all these dirty deeds.

[00:13:10.140] – Jerri Williams
I talked to my two friends, and they said they had no interest whatsoever and writing a book. I talked to them and got their stories and made up my own. That’s my first book, which is called Pay to Play. It’s all about a female FBI agent working an investigation in a strip club And as Joseph Wambach always says, I love this quote of his, that a really good crime story is not how a cop works on a case, but how a case works on a cop. And so I took that case and I found a way to have it affect my protagonist in a way that was really going to cause her some trouble as she tried to investigate this strip club corruption case.

[00:14:04.910] – Alan Petersen
Your character, the FBI agent, Kari Wheeler, did you? Is any part of you ended up in her?

[00:14:11.930] – Jerri Williams
I have to tell you that But I almost had to sign a waiver for my husband to make sure that people understood that, no, she is not me, because I’m telling you, she was an adulterous, and she She has some struggles. Yeah, she had a lot of struggles. She cheated on her husband. She was doing a lot of things. This book is, Expectation… What’s the word I want to use? It’s people who think they’re going to read a book written by a female FBI agent. They’re thinking it’s going to go one way. But this is not the book they thought that me, Jerri Williams, would write, but it’s definitely been well received, and I’m still very excited about it. A lot of people look at their first book and they think, Oh, my God, I can’t believe I wrote that. No, I may say I can’t believe I wrote that, but in a positive way because it’s full of all kinds of things that were not things that I would do.

[00:15:23.320] – Alan Petersen
I was going to say, it’s probably more fun for you, though. You’re able to look curiously through her.

[00:15:27.870] – Jerri Williams
Oh, absolutely. Now, she is a black female, and she does have three kids and a husband that’s a school teacher. But that’s just about where Kari Wheeler, where Jerri Williams ends and Kari Wheeler begins. But yeah, I still love that novel. There’s nothing about it that I would change. I’ve only written two crime novels. I’ve only published two crime novels, and both of those were cases that, if not directly involved in, they were inspired by cases that I may not have been directly involved in, but definitely knew the true crime story intimately.

[00:16:08.220] – Alan Petersen
Did you publish those after you retired or were you still in the FBI?

[00:16:11.750] – Jerri Williams
I actually had retired and had been retired. You know how people talk about their first novel and how long it takes them to write it. It actually took me eight years to write my first novel. I started writing it before I retired from the FBI. Then I had a post-FBI job where I was Director of Media Relations for Philadelphia’s Transportation System, the busses, the subways, the trains, and the trolleys. And I did that for seven years. And I left that job in order to concentrate on writing and publishing, getting that first book published. I had a literary agent who really talked about me building a platform, and One of the things that I thought that I would do was to create a podcast. This is back in 2016, and people were starting to listen to podcasts, so was I. I knew that I had lots of friends in the FBI. I knew about these great FBI stories because my last five years in the FBI, I was the spokesperson for Philadelphia. I was the person going out there to the public and to the media and talking about the FBI. So I knew how to do that.

[00:17:33.010] – Jerri Williams
And so I decided I would start a podcast. And then 2016 continued, and we all know about the turmoil of the political climate during 2016. And so the podcast just took off. And I did get that one book out. My first book, Pay to Play. My first book, Pay to Play, came out in September, just before the election. And then I wrote another one two years later, the second book in the… I think they call it a duology. And so that came up. But the podcast is really what I do now. I am writing crime fiction again. I have a new agent who I met at Thriller Fest. I’m actually wearing my Thriller Fest baseball cap right now. And so I am getting back into crime writing, and hopefully, either way, we’ll have a novel out sometime in 2026. But the podcast is really what I spend most of my time doing now, and I absolutely love telling FBI stories.

[00:18:48.900] – Alan Petersen
Yeah, your podcast is so great. That’s how I found you, found your podcast, instead of listening to those episodes. It’s been amazing. You have over 300 episodes and over 10 downloads. That’s just incredible. We talked a little bit about it before we hit the record button that you didn’t consider it to be part of the true crime world.

[00:19:08.720] – Jerri Williams
I really didn’t. When I started the podcast, like I said, I started to build a platform trying to bring in people who like FBI stories, figuring… I started in January of 2016. My book came out in September of 2016. I figured I had nine months to to entice and to introduce myself to people who like FBI stories. So I actually, when you sign up to download your podcast into the different podcast apps, you have categories. And I would say for the first two or three years, I had it in the arts and literature category. It wasn’t in true crime because I was looking at it as a storytelling podcast. And then I started hearing true and people started calling the podcast true crime. And then I realized, oh, well, maybe this is a true crime podcast. But again, I initially looked at it as a storytelling and a way for people like me who were writing crime fiction and thrillers and mysteries that had something to do with the FBI would have an opportunity to get their stories right, to be more authentic because they can listen to these real FBI stories and maybe learn the vocabulary, the lingo, what really would happen, how a search would be done, an arrest, and incorporate some of those educational or teachable moments, as I like to say, in their stories.

[00:20:52.340] – Jerri Williams
But yeah, I guess at the end, I’m going to be publishing my 341st episode this week. Oh, wow. I guess it’s true crime.

[00:21:06.170] – Alan Petersen
It’s a great podcast. I highly recommend it to the listeners. It’s about how you’re hoping to educate people and the writers and stuff. I know I have a lot of writers that listen to this podcast, Driller Writers. I just wanted to say you have some non-conviction books, too, the FBI, Mis and Misconceptions, which I was just reading over the weekend, and it is amazing. How did that come about and what are the differences do you think between writing fiction and non-conviction? Which one do you like better?

[00:21:34.070] – Jerri Williams
Well, I can tell you which one is easier. That non-conviction book just flew out of me. My fingers were… As an investigator, and the reason I became an FBI agent and an investigator, and the reason it fit so well with me is because I love to go down the rabbit hole. I love to research. I love to learn. I was watching 60 Minutes years and years ago. So I’ve always loved that. Writing the non-fiction book was so easy to do. Crime fiction is a little harder. That’s why I’ve only had two published. Again, I’m in the middle of finishing up a story right now. But definitely non-conviction is easier than fiction for me to write.

[00:22:21.950] – Alan Petersen
And I was curious on your writing process because I always get into this with my guests. Especially since you’re basing on on true cases, do you like… So you do your research and then do you like to create an outline or what’s your writing process like?

[00:22:38.970] – Jerri Williams
Yeah, I like really dense, meaty stories. That’s what I like to read, and that’s what I like to write, which means you need to sit with it a while. You need to do your research. So I’m definitely an outliner. But it’s really hard. And I’ve listened to several of your episodes and had heard the answers that people give to this. I think I’m right there in the middle. I do do an outline. I know how the case is going to end, and I know different points along the way that I need to hit to show that conflict, to show the pursuit and the issues that people are having along the way. But as I’m writing, I’m thinking, Oh, you know what could happen later on? Then I stop in the middle of writing this chapter and I go way ahead and put some words or a couple of sentences to an idea that I’m going to have for something further on. Or as I’m writing something today, I realize what I could do. I could go back to the beginning and beef this up. So it’s not a hard and fast outline. It’s like a roadmap, a little bit, I’m going to start here and I’m going to start here and I’m going to go there, and this is the route I’m going to take.

[00:24:03.670] – Jerri Williams
But if I decide to stop off at a different place or go the scenic route, I can do that. So I don’t think I could just sit down and start writing without having an idea of where my story is going to go. I really enjoy that. It helps me each day as I sit down. I know where I’m going to start and I know what I need to do, but I’m definitely flexible in that journey. As I’m listening to a podcast or I’m reading another book, I’m just walking down the street and overhearing a conversation, I can pop those new ideas and new thoughts and story plots into my outline, and it’s not a problem whatsoever.

[00:24:51.120] – Alan Petersen
What are you used to write your novels with? Is it just like word or something else?

[00:24:56.160] – Jerri Williams
I’m a scrivener. I love scrivener. That’s why in my process, scrivener is really very helpful because if you have an idea, you can just run up there and toss it into that particular folder and come back to it later. Or if something happens and I want to take the chapter that I thought would work at the beginning and realize, no, the character probably isn’t going to do that until later, then I can just move that to another location. So I absolutely enjoy Scrivener. I’ve used it for all… Well, I guess the first book, I did not. The first book, it was Word, but for the FBI, myths and misconceptions, and for Greedy Givers, and then for the… I’m actually writing two books at the same time. I like writing two-part books, and so I’m actually working on two at the same time for a new character who was Zepora McMathis, an FBI agent Zip. I’m using Scribner for that, too.

[00:26:08.390] – Alan Petersen
I saw also from your bio that you’ve been a technical consultant for TV networks. Can you tell us a little bit about that? What are some of the biggest mistakes and inaccuracies that you’ve had to correct when it comes to the way the FBI is portrayed in entertainment?

[00:26:22.370] – Jerri Williams
All right, so let’s go back to you had asked me about FBI Miss and Misconceptions: A manual for Armchair Detectives. And I wrote that book after I had been doing the podcast maybe for five years. Yeah, just about there, four or five years. An entertainment lawyer that I had on something else I was doing said to me, Why don’t you have a book that’s based on your podcast? And I was like, I never thought of it. I was thinking of myself as a crime novelist. And I thought, You know what? He’s so right, because I had already done podcast episodes on my thoughts or tips about what people get wrong about the FBI in books, TV, and movies. And so I made those into a checklist of 20 clichés and misconceptions about the FBI. And that’s what the book is. So for each cliché, such as our FBI profilers, Hunt Down Serio Killers, then I’ll have that chapter I’ll have some information based on from the actual FBI, FBI website. Then I’ll have some quotes from an agent that I might have interviewed, like John Douglas, who’s one of the most famous FBI profilers. I might have some information from what he told me.

[00:27:48.630] – Jerri Williams
Then I’ll bring in a book, TV show, or movie and talk about what they got right, what they got right, what they got wrong, and teachable moments. That’s AI, Miss and Misconceptions. Between the podcast and that book, I started hearing from producers and scriptwriters. And so I worked very closely with Tom Rob Smith, who was the executive producer and writer for the Class of ’09, which was on Hulu. At the same time, which is so wild, I also started working with JJ Abrams and Latoya Morgan on their TV show, which is going to be on Max, this in 2025. Tv show is called Duster, and it’s about the first black female agent and the trials and tribulations that she goes through working on a case. I’ve been working with them for Oh, yeah. It’s been four years. We started that show from the ground up in 2020. There’s not many people who could talk about working with high-level producers like JJ J. Abrams and showrunners like Latoya Morgan. But that has been so much fun. I tell you, there’s nothing more exciting than looking at your email, and there’s an email to you from J.

[00:29:14.300] – Jerri Williams
J. Abrams, but it’s been fun. I’m totally invested in this show. We still don’t have a date for when the show is going to air. It’s going to air definitely next year, 2025, on Max, and you can You’ll start to see little bits of promotions about it. But I just want to do so much with that as far as maybe podcasting each episode or whatever I can do to promote the show because I absolutely love what they’ve done. I’ve read every single one of the scripts and have been able to talk with all of the people working on that, the screenwriters, the people that do the wardrobe. What are they called?

[00:30:12.300] – Alan Petersen
Oh, yeah, the custom designers or whatever?

[00:30:14.860] – Jerri Williams
Yes, Yes. And the set designers. I am totally invested in this TV show, so I’m excited to be a part of it in my own little way. And I hope we get a second season, a third season, a fourth season. But it’s been so much fun. I’ve learned so much, and it’s probably one of the reasons that after writing two crime novels in 2016 and 2018, and they’re not doing anything I did not write again, that I started to do it. Again, I met this literary agent, and she was interested, and I didn’t have a book. Then I was working on this TV show, and I thought, Let me get back into this. And so I’ve been enjoying it, trying to find the time to do it. But definitely, there will be some books out because I’m very much into independent publishing. If If it doesn’t work out with the agent, then I know that I have the time and the money to devote to make sure that the novel is good. Even if a publisher is not sure how they they could publish it, how they could promote it. I know how to do it.

[00:31:34.540] – Jerri Williams
If it doesn’t work out with the agent and traditional, then I will put these two novels out, and I know that I’m going to dedicate the time and professional help to make them the best that they can be.

[00:31:51.970] – Alan Petersen
If you’re writing crime readers, you’re using FBI agents, it’s got to be a delicate balance because you want to entertain people, but you want to be realistic, but you can’t make it boring.

[00:32:03.330] – Jerri Williams
No, do not. I like to stress to people, the most important thing is the story. I would love for them to get my book and to look at the 20 clichés and misconceptions that people have that need to be thrown out or not used as much. But I’m not saying that it needs to be totally authentic. We are writers, and we dream up things, and you can certainly make up a squad or make up an assignment, or if you need to do a search, and I know that that’s not really the legal way to do it, but it works for your story, then do that. But I just want to make sure people are creating stories and creating their plots and their characters based on some type of foundation, that they do know what really happens, but they’ve chosen to do something different because it works for their story.

[00:33:10.400] – Alan Petersen
I highly recommend your non-fiction book and your podcast to the listeners, the readers and aspiring writers, because I know I have several that listen to this podcast. What would be the advice that you get to them, too? If somebody’s trying to write their first book, what’s advice that you can offer them?

[00:33:32.040] – Jerri Williams
I thought about this because, again, I’ve listened to your other episodes, and I know you’ve asked the question. I thought that I would give them the intelligence community, I guess you would tagline, and that is trust but verify. Basically, what I’m saying is to trust in your writing, trust in your story, that you have written something that is good, that you truly believe in, and that you think is well done. But then before you put it out there, whether you’re trying to find an agent or you’re going to independently publish, verify that. Verify that by using a professional editor, not just somebody who’s going to check to make sure you spelled something right or use the right grammar, but a professional editor that’s going to I’ve helped you vary your sentences and add some emotion and some tension and some senses. So you want to do that. And then you want to put it out and give it to people who are not your mother, who are going to be able to tell you, Yeah, this is good, or, I had questions, or, I didn’t believe this, or, I didn’t feel this. Trust that you can write a story and then verify that by having others, professionals and people who read the stories that you write, let you know what you can do to make your book the best it can be.

[00:35:10.790] – Alan Petersen
Okay, great. That’s awesome advice. For the listeners, probably the best place to find it is at your website. Can you tell us about that? It’s Jerriwilliams. Com?

[00:35:20.410] – Jerri Williams
Yeah, at Jerriwilliams, and that’s J-E-R-R-I, williams. Com. It’s everything that I do. You have all of my books, my non-fiction, my crime fiction books there. You have all of my podcast. Then once a month, I also do a review of an FBI-focused TV show or movie, and I review it, not to say whether it’s a good TV show or a good movie, but I review it for teachable moments about the FBI. What’s in there that we can learn? Maybe they got it wrong, so I want to teach you what it’s really like. So I do that also once a month, and so you have all of that, my blog, my podcast, and my books at Jerriwilliams. Com. Of course, I’m all over social media, so you have that, too.

[00:36:12.630] – Alan Petersen
I love those reviews that you do. You reviewed a movie that I don’t know how big it was, but I really enjoyed it back in the ’90s, Thunderheart. I really enjoyed your review of that one with Val Kilmer.

[00:36:24.300] – Jerri Williams
Yeah, it was so much fun. I did just do, just this last year, two podcasts, our two blog posts, where our blog post where I try to find all of the TV shows about the FBI and movies about the FBI. I define an FBI TV show or an FBI movie. I define it by whether or not the FBI agent is a main character, and if there are scenes where the FBI is alone. If an FBI agent comes through doing a search, then I don’t consider that a TV show or a movie about the FBI, but if there’s an FBI character. I actually spent so much time gathering and looking at and finding all of these. I have two separate blog posts, and I’m real excited to I’m going to ask your listeners to help me put together a list or a chart of FBI books. There are so many authors like Meg Gardner and Lisa Garner and James, Stephen James. Oh, and of course, one of my closest friends, Isabella Maldonado, our closest author friends, Isabella Maldonado. She’s the person who introduced me to my agent. They’re all writing these books where their main character is an FBI agent.

[00:37:53.590] – Jerri Williams
If people have other ideas for me of other authors who are doing books like that, I would I love to hear from them. I’m at Jerriwilliamsauthor@gmail. Com, so I can put together a chart of books about the FBI, crime novels.

[00:38:12.860] – Alan Petersen
All right. Yeah, that sounds like fun. I’ll send you my list.

[00:38:16.360] – Jerri Williams
Okay, good. At some point next year, I’ll gather all of those books together because I got to figure out how to visualize it because if a movie or a TV show, I can just use the cover. But when it comes to a book or a series, do I just use the first book in the series? I don’t know how to do it, but I’ll figure it out, and I will put together that chart at some point next year. So help me out, folks.

[00:38:48.880] – Alan Petersen
All right. Sounds like a lot of fun. Jerri, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I really enjoyed talking to you. And come back next year, especially. We’ll follow up on this next year.

[00:38:59.640] – Jerri Williams
Okay. I think that’s a good idea. I’d like that.

[00:39:02.430] – Alan Petersen
That wraps up another episode of Meet the Thriller Author. A huge thank you to Jerri Williams for joining me today and sharing her fascinating journey from FBI Special Agent to Thriller Author and podcast hosts. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Jerri’s books, including FBI myths and misconceptions, especially if you’re an author or aspiring one, and her crime novels, Pay to Play and Greedy Givers. You can also find her podcast, FBI Retired Case File Review, wherever you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget to rate and review this podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us continue to grow and connect with more thriller fans around the world. Then, of course, head on over to thrillerauthors. Com for show notes, episode transcripts, and links to all my social media, my own thriller books, and all that good stuff. While you’re there, you’ll also find past episodes, author interviews, and plenty of other resources for thriller readers and writers alike. So head on over to thrillerauthors. Com. Thank you for listening. Until the next time, keep reading.