Season 6 - Ep. 133 New Sheriff in Town with guest Jess Montgomery

This week we talk to our first mystery series author: Jess Montgomery. The first book in her 4-book Kinship mystery series is The Widows which introduces us to Lilly Ross, a wife and mother in 1920s rural Ohio whose husband Daniel, the county sheriff, is killed in the line of duty.  The town council asks Lilly to take over the sheriff’s position for the rest of the term and the first crime she wants to investigate is the murder of her husband.  Lilly Ross is inspired by a real Ohio woman named Maud Colins who also became one of the first female sheriffs in the United States after her husband, also the sherrif, was murdered.

Jess’ most recent novel, The Echoes, was published this past March and follows Lilly and the townspeople of Kinship, OH as they reckon with ghosts of World War 1 some 10 years later.  Many of the men served. While some, like Lilly’s brother, died in The Great War, many others came back with emotional scars that affect their personal choices and the town at large.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- The Widows by Jess Montgomery (Kinship series)
2- The Echoes by Jess Montgomery (Kinship series)
3- Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen Kirby 
4- Deer Season by Erin Flanagan
5- How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
6- The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans