The Cumberland Mountain Trilogy, Volume 1

The Sheriffs' Murder Cases is the initial volume in The Cumberland Mountain Trilogy, a series highlighting life the Kentucky Mountains during the early and middle decades of the 20th Century.


Jacob Newton Herald, High Sheriff, or Chief Deputy, of Chinoe County from 1920-45, is the trilogy's central character, and the accounts are in his own words, or as nearly as his granddaughter Jennifer could copy down.


Jake, as he was commonly known to friend and foe alike, received a B.A. Degree from Valparaiso University outside Chicago in 1914. He subsequently applied and was admitted to medical school at the University of Louisville. He left that school with a year remaining, in order to fight in the Great War. He emerged from the war a heavily decorated soldier with the battlefield rank of Captain.


He returned to his home county in the mountains, where he became involved in law enforcement, serving for a quarter century.


In The Sheriffs' Murder Cases, Jake takes the County Sheriff's job for a shockingly immoral purpose and ends up trying to solve a series of puzzling murders. He enlists the aid of family members, deputizes friends and war buddies, and is led down many paths that build suspense and create the dramatic tension that propels the novel to its climax.


Author_Bio: Called by one reviewer, "The Tony Hillerman of the Kentucky Mountains," Southeastern Kentucky native and novelist Dr. Jack Justin Turner commands perhaps the most authentic voice in generations to emerge from this literary-rich area. Dr. Turner passed away in December 2011, but not before finishing two trilogies and a non-fiction classic.


In the first two volumes of The Cumberland Mountain Trilogy, Dr. Turner brings to life the rich heritage of mountain life, the deleterious effects of industrialization, and the heroic actions of very real, engaging and complex personalities. Volume I, The Sheriffs' Murder Cases and Volume II, The Sheriff of Frozen's Murder Cases, shed a much different light on a region often ineptly and perfidiously portrayed. When published, Volume III, The Sheriff of Hell's Murder Cases will complete this exciting series.


His epic trilogy, The Foxes and the Hounds, is a riveting ride through the tumultuous days of early coal, cut-throat steamboat races, immense wealth, love triangles, feuds and treason in the Kentucky hill country and the Bluegrass. Thus far, two novels in this trilogy have been published: Big Medicine River Days and the "hot off the presses" Bluegrass Days; with Colorado Days soon to come. Although The Foxes and the Hounds trilogy is a work of fiction, much of it reveals historical events as they actually happened. The author, through decades of fastidious research and fortuitous family connections, was allowed access to certain sealed records thought unattainable for decades. Dr. Turner also is the primary author of the best-selling nonfiction book, Maytown Magic and Mayhem: Fifty Years of Mountain Basketball.


Dr. Turner received his B.A. Degree from Berea College (where he once simultaneously appeared on the college disciplinary list and academic excellence list,) his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky and was honored as Professor Emeritus at Middle Tennessee State University.


Keywords: Romance, Revenge, Action, History, War, Kentucky, Herald, Fiction, Iron Fist, Mystery, Veteran