Carbon City, 1925

Coal money built Carbon City, but corruption and violence keep it alive, and power belongs to those willing to take it. When city officials and clergy endorse the Ku Klux Klan as law enforcement against rival bootleggers, corrupt officials look the other way, mine owners profit from the chaos, and ordinary citizens keep their heads down, hoping to survive.

Into this maelstrom steps Jackson Hall, the last independent newspaperman in town, determined to uncover the truth about a masked vigilante who haunts the rooftops. Hall finds himself chasing not only a story but also his own fading sense of integrity. The line between reporting and involvement blurs as he is pulled deeper into Carbon City's violent heart.

Along with Hall, five unforgettable characters are swept into the turmoil of a city at war with itself. Adelaide Belden, Hall's young protégé, refuses to temper her bold reporting or her unapologetic sexuality. Bell Allen, a mixed-race veteran of the Great War, transforms into a masked vigilante, driven by vengeance and the hope of redemption. Vera Kay, torn between her gangster employer and her affair with Hall, lives on the knife's edge of loyalty and independence. Dr. Elijah Frank, owner of a medical practice in the neighboring African American community of Grayson, is a trusted ally and a steadfast voice of reason and pragmatism in the fight against the KKK and other threatening forces. Jacob Grace, a teenage coal laborer saved from violence in a Carbon City alley, becomes a zealous street evangelist bent on saving the souls of this forsaken place.

Equal parts historical epic and hardboiled thriller, and based on real events that rocked Southern Illinois coal towns between 1922 and 1927-including bloody gang wars, public killings of striking miners, and the final state-sanctioned hanging in Illinois-Carbon City, 1925 is an unforgettable journey into the dark heart of America's past, and a reflection of the battles still raging in its present.

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Previous Praise for James Alan Gill

Gill's writing unfurls like a fantastic roll of film, capturing hidden pockets of wonder.

-Whitney Otto, New York Times Bestselling Author of How to Make an American Quilt and Eight Girls Taking Pictures.

Gill writes with grace and humor and pain. Poignant and powerful.

-Benjamin Percy, author of The Ninth Metal, Red Moon, and Thrill Me.

James Alan Gill is a master at creating a world and inviting the reader to live in it for a while, a gifted storyteller who shines a loving light on an oft-overlooked part of the country-the Midwest-and in doing so reveals its landscape of narrative riches. I have been a fan of his fiction for years.

-Stephanie G'Schwind, Editor-In-Chief, Colorado Review