The Cumberland Mountain Trilogy, Volume 3 - The Sheriff of Hell's Murder Case

Book excerpt: The Sheriff of Hell's Murder Case is the final novel in Dr. Jack Justin Turner's highly-acclaimed Cumberland Mountain Trilogy. With a mangled arm, and with his long-barreled Luger close at hand, Sheriff Jacob Newton Herald must muster all the cunning and courage that saw him through The Great War to survive the sometimes savage place he calls home. Jake, as he is known by both friend and foe, has been described as a combination of Hamlet and Dirty Harry – but in this last volume Jake exhibits a quite different and endearing personality, when he makes two of the most important decisions of his life. Part murder mystery and part magnificent love story, The Sheriff of Hell's Murder Case again demonstrates Dr. Turner's powerful and insightful explanation of character and locale, in a page-turner that is perhaps unparalleled in modern Appalachian fiction. Turner obviously knows and loves the setting and its inhabitants and puts the lie to the work of a litany of literary carpetbaggers. As one reviewer put it, "Jack Justin Turner's voice rings so true that one might think the author is actually channeling the spirits of his early twentieth century characters. Seldom does a book transport a reader so surely to another place and time." Keywords: Romance, Revenge, Action, History, War, Kentucky, Herald, Fiction, Iron Fist, Mystery, Veteran