Missouri Homegrown

by Jesse James Kennedy

Overview

Publishers Weekly: "Impressive storytelling chops." Booklist: "Fast-moving, wildly violent . . . vivid and rich in character . . . Strong, well-realized country noir." St. Louis Post Dispatch: "Jesse James Kennedy lives up to his first and middle name." Bill Crider: "The two opening chapters of Missouri Homegrown are as brutal as anything I've read, and Jesse James Kennedy is just getting warmed up." A Mexican drug lord thinks the McCray boys in rural Missouri will be a pushover when their lush marijuana harvests cut into the cartel's business in St. Louis. But the McCrays live by guns and blood, and it hardly matters that they've got not only cartel soldiers to deal with but also FBI undercover agent Jill Murphy. Jesse James Kennedy's debut novel is as fast and brutal as anything Jim Thompson or Elmore Leonard ever dreamed up, steeped in local color and infused with characters drawn from life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781720469063
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	05/29/2018
Series:	McCrays , #1
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.57(d)

About the Author

Here is what Jesse James Kennedy tells us about himself: "My nephew was sent to prison a couple of years back and asked me to send him my stories to help him pass the time. After he read the stories I wrote, he asked me to write something longer and I began Missouri Homegrown. I sent him chapters as I wrote them and he passed them around to other inmates and a couple of guards and they enjoyed them and asked for more so I kept going. (I left out the chapter on the prison break for obvious reasons.) "I am 45 years old, did a short stint in the Army, 10th Mountain Division Light Infantry which was part of the inspiration for Jay McCray. After the Army I got a little wild, did a little time, then moved from job to job keeping out of trouble and reading a lot and learning to write. I've known many people similar to my characters though none were quite that violent." Jesse James Kennedy lives in Missouri, where he is at work on another novel about the McCrays.

Editorial Reviews

02/27/2017
Debut novelist Kennedy shows some impressive storytelling chops in this high-action, heavy-body-count page-turner. When members of a Mexican cartel arrive in rural Missouri intent on taking over the area’s drug trade, they figure backwoods pot grower Jay McCray and his nephew Jack will pose no great threat. What they don’t know is that the McCrays have been raising hell in this region for generations and that Jay, a combat veteran, is as ruthless and as deadly as they come. The violence quickly takes on medieval proportions, and all members of the 12-man Mexican hit squad sent to assassinate the McCrays are killed, among them an undercover federal agent. Meanwhile, Jay’s equally psychotic brother, Jimbo, has just escaped from prison, leaving a bunch of dead guards in his wake. FBI agent Jill Murphy, working undercover as a bartender in a local watering hole, finds herself in the midst of an all-out war, as the cartel soon sends in one of its deadliest enforcers, along with legions of foot soldiers. Not for the faint of heart, this book should appeal to Don Winslow fans. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly