Book excerpt: "Poignant and funny, studded with characters who haunt your imagination long after you've read the final page." –Anne Hillerman, New York Times bestselling author of Cave of Bones “This top-notch suspense thriller will seize your attention, and you’ll be enthralled by the characters and the author’s witty and appealing style.” –Sublime Book Review "A strong mystery-thriller that clearly shows some secrets, like a few bodies, can’t stay buried." –Kirkus Reviews ***This box set includes the first three crime fiction novels in the Emmett Hardy Crime Novels. Book #4, Junker Blues, is now available. WHERE THE HURT IS (Book 1) When everyone would prefer to look the other way, can one man cut through fear and prejudice to unmask a killer? Oklahoma, 1965. Emmett Hardy is focused on drinking his failures away. And despite his general enthusiasm for the social reforms sweeping the country, the disillusioned police chief isn't surprised by his community's ongoing casual racism. But he's still shocked when he discovers the body of a Black woman with a slashed throat dumped by the railroad tracks. When the state authorities offer only a lazy investigation and arrest an unlikely suspect, Hardy puts down the bottle and swears to uncover the real murderer. But with resistance from his all-white neighbors and the clues leading to the small town's most powerful citizen, the upstanding cop may be heading straight into danger. Will Hardy's unrelenting race to find the truth destroy his life? Where the Hurt Is is the complex first book in the Emmett Hardy Crime Novel series. If you like tortured heroes, tense twists, and authentic settings, then you'll love Chris Kelsey's poignant novel. BUTCHERVILLE (Book 2) The residents of tiny Butcherville, Oklahoma love their God-given freedoms so much, they refuse to hire their own police force. When they need a cop, they just call Emmett Hardy, police chief of Burr, the closest neighboring town. Whether it’s to break up a fight, dissuade an angry good ol’ boy from hunting rabbits with an M-16, or eject an unruly patron from Butcherville’s combination strip joint/bookstore, Emmett’s always glad to oblige … that is, until a local business owner’s lust for money and power results in a deadly shootout and multiple kidnappings. Suddenly, Emmett’s good intentions are fraught with dangerous consequences. Besieged by friend and foe alike, and sabotaged by a fondness for drink that’s starting to affect his work, Emmett is the last man standing between a community of honest people trying to do their best with what little they have, and an evil that threatens not only their jobs and homes, but their very lives. AIN'T NOTHIN' PERSONAL (Book 3) After a kidnap-for-hire plot results in the death of a young boy, Burr police chief Emmett Hardy blames himself and has an alcohol-fueled breakdown. His life at a crossroads, Hardy checks into the hospital for treatment, only to discover upon his release that he's been suspended from duty. When a dying prisoner contacts him about a long-forgotten unsolved case, Emmett-temporarily at loose ends-begins an informal investigation. Soon he becomes a target of violence himself, as his investigation becomes a murder probe implicating the most powerful men in town. Hardy is forced to relive one of the most traumatic events of his childhood, and faces the possibility that members of his own family may have been involved in the crime. Ultimately, with Emmett's tenuous grasp on sobriety slipping and his moral foundation shifting beneath his feet, the answer to the question, "Who do I trust?" becomes a matter of life and death.