All the titles in my Kinship Mystery Series, inspired by Ohio’s true first female sheriff in 1925, have co-narrators. In each novel, Sheriff Lily Ross shares her investigations from her point of view. She’s joined by a co-narrator in each novel who might just have a different perspective on Lily and on Lily’s case and,…
Prologue Wednesday, November 23, 1927 Thanksgiving Eve 8:42 a.m. Week before last, cold shooed warmth into a wish and a memory, then rattled tree limbs to leaflessness with one gnarly hand while gripping the earth with the other. Now on this cold earth Zebediah Harkins lies belly down in the shaggy brush line by an…
In my Kinship Historical Mystery Series, Lily Ross serves as Sheriff of Bronwyn County in the Appalachian foothills of Ohio, in the 1920s. Lily’s character is inspired by Ohio’s true first female sheriff—Maude Collins, who became sheriff of Vinton County in 1925 after her husband was killed in the line of duty. (In real life,…
Kinship. Most simply, Kinship is the name I assigned to the county seat at the heart of fictional Bronwyn County in which Lily Ross— inspired by Maude Collins, Ohio’s true first female county sheriff in 1925—investigates the murder of her husband. But just as Kinship is the heart of the beautiful yet challenging Appalachian county…
We teamed up with six crime writers to create a short story in real-time. The end result was “Murder on the Cul de Sac” which you can read in full below. A special thank you goes out to the participating authors (in order of appearance): Jess Montgomery, D.J. Palmer, Sarah Stewart Taylor, Brian Panowich, Sandie…
The Hollows by Jess Montgomery is the second book in the Kinship series, a powerful, big-hearted, and exquisitely written follow-up to her highly acclaimed debut, The Widows. The Hollows is Jess Montgomery’s second book in the Kinship historical mystery series set in Southern Ohio. The first book in the series, The Widows, introduced readers to…
Not long after I completed the final draft of The Widows—the debut title of my Kinship Mystery Series, inspired by Ohio’s true first female sheriff in 1925—my husband and I were enjoying a Friday night like the introverts we are: reading. (But in the same room.) My husband happened to be reading an article online…
Here is my not-so-secret secret guilty pleasure: I love the television show Supernatural. In 2013, our older daughter was home on holiday break from college, and one night she wondered if I’d like to stay up and watch a show I’d never heard of—Supernatural—though by then the show had been on television for eight years.…
Inspired by the true story of Ohio’s first female sheriff, The Widows by Jess Montgomery is a powerful debut about two women’s search for justice as they take on the corruption at the heart of their community. The characters in Jess Montgomery’s debut novel, The Widows, wait for signs. The cry of a hawk wheeling in…
Inspired by the true story of Ohio’s first female sheriff, The Widows by Jess Montgomery is a powerful debut about two women’s search for justice as they take on the corruption at the heart of their community. Kinship, Ohio, 1924: When Lily Ross learns that her husband, Daniel Ross, the town’s widely respected sheriff, is killed while…
