Book excerpt: The Sheriffs' Murder Cases is the initial volume in The Cumberland Mountain Trilogy, a series highlighting life the Kentucky Mountains during the early and middle decades of the 20th Century. Jacob Newton Herald, High Sheriff, or Chief Deputy, of Chinoe County from 1920-45, is the trilogy's central character, and the accounts are in his own words, or as nearly as his granddaughter Jennifer could copy down. Jake, as he was commonly known to friend and foe alike, received a B.A. Degree from Valparaiso University outside Chicago in 1914. He subsequently applied and was admitted to medical school at the University of Louisville. He left that school with a year remaining, in order to fight in the Great War. He emerged from the war a heavily decorated soldier with the battlefield rank of Captain. He returned to his home county in the mountains, where he became involved in law enforcement, serving for a quarter century. In The Sheriffs' Murder Cases, Jake takes the County Sheriff's job for a shockingly immoral purpose and ends up trying to solve a series of puzzling murders. He enlists the aid of family members, deputizes friends and war buddies, and is led down many paths that build suspense and create the dramatic tension that propels the novel to its climax. Keywords: Romance, Revenge, Action, History, War, Kentucky, Herald, Fiction, Iron Fist, Mystery, Veteran