The Moonshine Messiah: A Mountaineer Mystery

As if being a woman sheriff in the West Virginia coal fields wasnt tough enough, Mary Beth Cains life is complicated by the fact that the local hillbilly crime syndicate is run by her mother, Mamie. It's an association that, along with Mary Beths head-busting ways, has her staring down a corruption investigation when she gets a surprise visit from Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Connelly. Twenty years earlier, Patrick was Mary Beths high school sweetheart, but they broke up because Mary Beth couldnt cut the loose ties she maintains with her villainous family. Now Patricks worked out a deal to wipe Mary Beths slate clean if she'll just do one thing: arrest her brother, Sawyer, who is the cult leader of a booming anti-government militia that's been giving the Feds headaches. It's an offer Mary Beth refuses until Sawyer's followers blow up a federal courthouse and G-men start swarming into town, preparing for a siege of the commando's compound. Suddenly Mary Beth is tasked with trying to head off a bloody, Waco-style massacre and the question isn't whether she should arrest her brother, but if she can do it in time. Early Praise "Russell Johnson hits the ground running with a novel so explosive you might not be allowed on a plane with it. Appalachian sheriff Mary Beth Cain heads up a cast of characters so well-rounded, they might well have been written by Carl Hiassen, Elmore Leonard or Ace Atkins. The Moonshine Messiah is the kind of book that will make you miss work to finish reading." Eryk Pruitt, Derringer Award finalist and author of Something Bad Wrong "Like the illegitimate child of Justified and Sons of Anarchy, The Moonshine Messiah leaps off the page with a rarified air of gritty, hillbilly realism. The legitimate part is the voice author Russell Johnson uses to tell this no-holds-barred, Appalachian assault of avarice and antagonism." Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire Series "Russell Johnson really brings the heat with his debut Southern mystery, The Moonshine Messiah. With this intricately woven tale of crime, conspiracy, and corruption, youll think youve discovered a lost season of Justified. Its witty, action-packed, and filled with unforgettable characters, headlined by badass sheriff, Mary Beth Cain. My fingers are crossed for a sequel to this winner." Scott Blackburn, author of It Dies with You "Russell Johnson performs an incredible magic trick with The Moonshine Messiah, pivoting between laughs, thrills, and tugs on the heartstrings just as fast as you can turn the pages. And he has created a compulsively readable character in Mary-Beth Cain, a small-town West Virgina sheriff as gutsy as Michael Connelly's Rene Ballard and as irreverent as Elmore Leonard's Raylan Givens. Everyone will find something to love in this unforgettable debut." J.G. Hetherton, author of Last Girl Gone "Russell Johnsons The Moonshine Messiah is Justified meets Fargo and with as many twists and turns as a Blue Ridge Mountain pass you wont put this book down. Its one I wish I could read again with fresh eyes." Mark Westmoreland, Author of A Violent Gospel and A Mourning Song "A rural route odyssey of conspiracy and vice." Coy Hall, author of The Promise of Plague Wolves "The Moonshine Messiah is crazier than a Saturday night at Waffle House, spicier than Nashville Hot Chicken, and as surprising as snow in Savannah." J.B. Stevens, award winning author and critic