The Moonshine Messiah: A Mountaineer Mystery

As if being a woman sheriff in the West Virginia coal fields wasn't tough enough, Mary Beth Cain's 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 Beth's 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 Beth's high school sweetheart, but they broke up because Mary Beth couldn't cut the loose ties she maintains with her villainous family. Now Patrick's worked out a deal to wipe Mary Beth's 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.

"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." -Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire Series

"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." -Eryk Pruitt, author of Something Bad Wrong

"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. Everyone will find something to love in this unforgettable debut." -J.G. Hetherton, author of Last Girl Gone

"The Moonshine Messiah engages the current sociopolitical conversation without skimping on the action. An array of distinctive characters-including a remarkable female lead-lock horns in a fraught family dynamic with the potential for national and personal consequences. The Moonshine Messiah will leave readers eager to see where Johnson takes his talents next." -Bill Floyd, author of The Killer's Wife

"Russell Johnson really brings the heat with his debut Southern mystery, The Moonshine Messiah. With this intricately woven tale of crime, conspiracy, and corruption, you'll think you've discovered a lost season of Justified." -Scott Blackburn, author of It Dies with You

"The Moonshine Messiah shines as a portrait of rural America striving for hope and relevance in a changing world. Sheriff Mary Beth Cain is a tough and determined protagonist. Small-town Appalachian noir at its finest." -C.W. Blackwell, author of Hard Mountain Clay

"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, author of A Therapeutic Death

"A rural route odyssey of conspiracy and vice." -Coy Hall, author of The Promise of Plague Wolves

"Russell Johnson's The Moonshine Messiah is Justified meets Fargo and with as many twists and turns as a Blue Ridge Mountain pass you won't put this book down. It's one I wish I could read again with fresh eyes."

-Mark Westmoreland, author of A Violent Gospel