James D. Doss
James D. Doss (1939, Kentucky, -17 May 2012) was a noted American mystery novel author. He was the creator of the popular fictional Ute detective/rancher Charlie Moon, of whom he wrote 17 mystery novels. James "Danny" Doss was born and raised in Kentucky and died in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He was also an electrical engineer who worked on particle accelerators and biomedical technology for the University of California's Los Alamos National Laboratory, while writing his novels. After retirement from Los Alamos National Laboratory, he continued to write his popular novels while living in Taos, New Mexico and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Doss
“[Charlie] Moon was trying hard to get a handle on this. Maybe he's got a PhD. What with pass-fail replacing conventional grading, Internet diploma mills, and who knows what other academic innovations that has been driving the dumbing-down in American education, you couldn't tell who might have a sheepskin tucked away in his hip pocket.”
James D. Doss