Biography writer james scott bell

As a writer of Christian thrillers, James Scott Bell's work is "about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food," to quote one of his favorite authors, Raymond Chandler.

Christian, suspense, hard-boiled, page-turner and novel are words that usually don't keep company in sentences.

But Bell, a 48-year-old former trial attorney, has written himself into that very niche with nine books since his debut novel in 1995. He's part of a literary pack of new Christian authors who've helped double the sales for faith-based fiction in the last seven years.

The Los Angeles resident's sevenyear rise to the elite of Christian fiction writers shows both his talent and the thin competition in his genre.

His first novel, "The Darwin Conspiracy," landed him a five-book contract "for more money than I ever imagined I could make writing fiction," he said.

Since 1995, the number of novels classified by publishe