Born in Washington, D.C., Roland S. Jefferson moved to Los Angeles, California at an early age. He matriculated through the Los Angeles public school system where his interest in writing first began. He was forced to abandon this goal however, due to family pressures to pursue a more traditional academic and professional career. He attended the University of Southern California and then relocated to Washington, D.C. where he received his medical degree from Howard University. It was during his two-year stint in the U.S. Air Force that his interest in writing surfaced again, and he started by writing film reviews for various local magazines and periodicals.

Following military service he returned to Los Angeles where he continued to develop his literary interest, writing articles for both academic journals as well as the lay press. In 1976 he turned to writing fiction and his first novel, The School On 103rd Street was published to critical acclaim. Now considered a classic in African American political fiction along side the works of acclaimed authors John Williams and Sam Greenlee, The School On 103rd Street has since been published three different times in the U.S. and simultaneously published in Germany, garnering numerous awards and accolades in the process.

A prolific author, Roland S. Jefferson has continued to write novels in various genres, all of which are invested with compelling modern day themes and dynamic multi-layered characters that demand your attention. Whether its stories of contemporary Middle Eastern terrorism, a casino heist, art deco hotel robberies or romantic triangles during the Viet Nam war, Roland S. Jefferson’s novels span such a rich tapestry of human experience with edgy characters so highly charged with emotion that just reading about them is an adventure in itself.

White Coat Fever
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Hardcover: 308 pages (also available in paperback)
Publisher: AuthorHouse (May 14, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1438951523
ISBN-13: 978-1438951522
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches

Stepping back from his critically acclaimed crime genre novels, Roland S. Jefferson's White Coat Fever takes the reader on a fascinating trip back in time to the exciting world of the 1960's, when Motown, Jazz and the civil rights movement defined an entire generation. And nowhere was the aspiration of upward mobility more evidenced than on black college campuses where some middle-class black women became obsessed with the idea of marrying doctors.

September, a hauntingly attractive civil rights worker who finds both love and brutality in Mississippi jails..... 

Perry, a brilliant medical student spoiled by good looks and his reputation as the ultimate womanizer...

Aiyana, a self centered predatory social climber determined to marry a doctor at any cost, even if she doesn't love him.....

Bennyboy, an idealistic and principled young medical student who shares an illicit past with a girl he once loved.....

Here then is Roland S. Jefferson's magnificent, highly imaginative and immensely compelling story of a black cultural lifestyle at a pivotal time in history.....as four young people are plunged into the center of a raging conflict between political idealism and the relentless obsessions about class, color and romantic entitlement. But obsessions, even noble ones, can sometimes go tragically awry.....

One Night Stand (A Novel)
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ISBN: 0743268881
Format: Hardcover, 336pp
Pub. Date: May 2006
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group

This sexy, action-packed thriller, set on the streets and in the courthouses of Los Angeles, is an explosive literary mix of contemporary urban authenticity and classic old-school crime fiction by the author of Damaged Goods and the cult classic The School on 103rd Street.

How did a street hustler, in and out of jail since he was ten, beat a murder rap -- no matter whether he did the crime or not? Meet Myra Cross, a thirty-one-year-old redheaded beauty with a take-no-prisoners reputation as a public defender. She confounds her colleagues and clients alike as she not only wins acquittal after acquittal for her clients but poses for Playboy spreads in her spare time. She has the face of an angel, the body of a goddess, and a mind like a steel trap -- but with secrets and demons, she neither pretends to be a Girl Scout nor to have all the answers. But this time, when she's once again assigned the defense of Napoleon T. Booker, aka Little Dog Nine, who's charged with another homicide, she gets much more than she bargained for.

"Street smarts stopped Myra Cross dead in her tracks. Napoleon Booker had reached inside her brain and ripped out her essence, dangled it in front of her like an item for sale at an eBay auction. Was she that transparent -- 'a coke-snorting, nymphomaniac basehead little freak?'"

Roland S. Jefferson's fiction earns him comparisons to fellow master storytellers, including Elmore Leonard and Walter Mosley. This hot new novel will have his loyal following and a legion of new fans alike on fire, sitting on the edge of their seats in this pulse-pounding thriller they won't be able to put down until the last page!

Damaged Goods: A Novel
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ISBN: 0743268865
Format: Hardcover, 256pp
Pub. Date: April 2005
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group

"An explosive interracial love triangle anchors Roland S. Jefferson's suspenseful, immensely compelling hard-boiled crime drama about three desperate people on the fringes of society who are drawn together to pull off a dangerous, near-impossible heist. Orchestrated by a corrupt prison warden with his own agenda, bank robber Alonzo Crane is secretly released mid way through his 25-to-life sentence to do the warden's bidding. But he hadn't counted on the Mexican Mafia. And the absolute last thing he needed was to fall in love.....with a white girl."

The School on 103rd Street
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Format: Paperback, 192pp.
ISBN: 0393316629
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Pub. Date: August  1997
 

Voted as one of Thumper's Top 100 African American Novels of the 20th Century

When Dr. Elwin Carter is confronted in his Watts clinic by two boys terrified by the brutal murder of their friend, his investigations lead him far beyond the usual suspicions of drugs and gang violence to an apocalyptic discovery of just how far the government will go to keep the lid on the country's riot-torn cities. Combining action and suspense with political insight, this 1976 novel presents a frighteningly prophetic and disturbing picture of the subterranean war between the races in America.

559 To Damascus
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Hardcover
Publisher: Exposition Pr of Florida (September 1985)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0317197975

Terrorism is virtually an everyday occurrence in the modern world. Terrorist acts take place in all societies, in every part of the globe with frightening speed, little warning, excessive media attention and predictable public outcry. Worse, terrorism breeds counter-terrorism. Imagine what would happen if an extremist group was in a position to purchase enough fissionable material to make a nuclear device? This is exactly the question posed by Roland S. Jefferson in this chilling tale of international blackmail, political intrigue and unparalleled suspense.

In the pages of 559 to Damascus, you will meet men determined to bring about a new order. Men like Fouad Rakha, so hardened by years of strife in the Middle East that all he wants is victory for the Islamic Revolution-no matter the cost. And you will meet the people who became inexorably drawn into his plan. Kelly Davis, a young black woman on the run from her past, was having a secret love affair in Trinidad when she came across a photograph that changed her life forever. Dennis Tamarkin, CIA agent and Kelly’s long-time lover, is assigned to recover a missing operative in Europe and finds himself on an unscheduled ride aboard the 559 to Damascus. Alexander Kussoff, a Russian KGB agent, was headed for the top until this mission. And Yuri Kostikov, the Russian scientist, starts everything off by letting it be known that, although he was in a French prison for twenty-six years, he had not been idle.

Everything comes together on the 559 to Damascus. Some are on the train by plan, others by coincidence. But all are on the same ride to destiny. You won’t soon forget what happens on the 559, and you will never stop hoping that the forces of reason will somehow prevail in the end.

A Card for the Players
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Hardcover
Publisher: New Bedford Press (1978)

He was known as Karajian, or at least that was the name he went by. To say that he was a wheeler-dealer would only describe a fragment of his personality-“manipulator” would be the more appropriate description. Yes, in hindsight, it would indeed seem that he wore the label well.
Those with any appreciable contact with him could attest to the fact that he was a schemer-a man of unusual talents, big ideas, and risky plans. But Karajian was also a gambler and, perhaps, that single facet of his being was the genesis of what would later be known as the Great Las Vegas Heist. It had come to him so suddenly, so spontaneously one evening in the casino that he’d been caught off guard. It was simple, so ingeniously simple that he was forced on more than one occasion to question why it had not been tried before.

Oh, he had a plan all right, and for anyone not in tune with his thinking and motivation, it would sound idiotic. But Karajian’s plan was not idiotic. As he unfolded it before his confederates, the more certain he became of its workability.

He would eventually involve four others in the heist but only he would know every detail, every step, every contingency. He knew his confederates more intimately then they knew themselves as he skillfully moved them like pawns on a chessboard. When their contribution to his ends was firmly implemented, it would become clear that they functioned as no more than mere extensions of his personality.

Related Links

Roland S Jefferson's MySpace Page
http://www.myspace.com/rolandthewriter

Roland S Jefferson's Personal Website
www.rolandsjefferson.com

TV Interview (three parts)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HacSRNGK1eI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqGZIykk9v8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQgI6AxVFWo