"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

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 Novel crime fiction series. If you like tortured heroes, tense twists, and authentic settings, then you'll love Chris Kelsey's poignant novel.