Bayly Goes South
Phil Bayly is back.
That’s good news! And more good news!
Bayly, a long time television news reporter and anchor, is the author of the Murder on Skis mystery series and his eighth book “A Southern Slope” comes out November 6
And Bayly, one time college racer and avid recreational skier, has his new season’s pass in hand and his skis waxed and ready to slide when the season begins just weeks from now.
Phil, with “A Southern Slope”, his new Murder On Skis novel due out Nov 6
THE BOOK
A Southern Slope is the first time below the Mason Dixon line for JC (Jean Claude) Snow, the fictional Denver TV reporter and main character in Bayly’s novels which, since the first one came out in 2019, have all been based in ski country; in the Rockies and the Northeast. This time, a fictional Murder Mountain resort near Sugar Mountain and Beech Mountain is featured as JC heads south to catch up with an escaped felon who has fled Colorado to the hills of Western North Carolina.
The idea for a ski novel based in the south came from a friend who had lived in Ashville and told Bayly about skiing where few from the traditional cold winter states think of when its time for their turns. Bayly, who lives north of Albany New York near the Adirondack Mountains, was skeptical. But a trip south changed his mind.
“You go there in February and flowers are starting to bloom. Then you head up the hills and there is snow; lots of it. The skiing is really good.”
While skiing is the environment, what makes A Southern Slope – and all the other novels in the Murder of Skies series – stand out is the local color that comes throughout the narrative. For the reader, there are plenty ‘voila’ moments. If you have ever been in the area where the story takes place, chances are you’ll recognize at least one of the restaurants mentioned, or drank a glass of the same local beer, or skied at least one of the trails at the areas featured.
How does Bayly absorb the local scene, even in places where he is just a first time visitor?
“I talk to people, whether it is on a chair lift at a ski area, or when I’m at a restaurant. It is what I did when I was a reporter. These days, especially when I introduce myself as an author working on a novel, people always seem willing to talk.”
THE COMEBACK
That Bayly is there to have these conversations, much less to write a book, is remarkable. In March of 2025, the experienced skier had a near catastrophic crash while cruising an intermediate trail on his first run of the day. The weather was good; the trail was freshly groomed; and it was a run at a local area he knew well. More than a year later, he still doesn’t know what happened. But the result was a helicopter medical evacuation, two weeks in a coma, weeks of in- patient rehabilitation and months of therapy, all the while not being allowed to drive a car or ride a bike.
Despite that, he was insistent on skiing again and last February, he was back on the slopes, At first, there was a off duty ski patroller alongside, but after a couple of days, he was skiing again with wife Carolyn, his caretaker since he came home from the accident. He logged 12 days on the hill before season’s end.
“Starting my first run, I didn’t know what to make of it”, the former collegiate racer, now 72, said recently. “But then after a couple of hundred yards, I realized I was okay. It was like meeting up with an old friend.”
Bayly still has a few physician advised limitations, but he can now drive and bike. And ski! And write! He has three more books already in draft form and he is looking forward to starting on his next new Murder on Skis novel in January.
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