Hell in the Heartland

Praise

“There is, in the best of us, a search for the truth, to serve the living and dead alike, an obsessiveness that means never giving up, to balance the scale and give the dead their due. In the modern tradition of I’ll be Gone in the Dark, Jax Miller is one of those people and Hell in the Heartland is one of those books.”—Robert Graysmith, New York Times bestselling author of Zodiac

“Harrowing, beautifully written, and filled with unexpected twists, readers won’t be able to put down this book until they reach the very last word. A new true-crime classic that is sure to engross fans of the genre.”—Booklist

“Beautiful and devastating.”—CrimeReads

“A captivating ride through the frustrating twists, turns, and dead ends of a horrifying murder case…. This is as much an exploration of the underlying social issues that feed into a system of fear and violence as it is about the crime itself. A vivid storyteller, Miller proves herself as adept at nonfiction as fiction.”—Publisher’s Weekly

“The title of Jax Miller’s book is, believe me, no exaggeration. This writer marched straight into a piece of Oklahoma that can fairly be called Hell and didn’t come out until she’d covered every track leading to and from an ice cold crime and relentlessly covered a whole lot of nasty possibilities.  Murder and Meth are only the beginning.”—Beverly Lowry, author of Who Killed These Girls?

“A top-notch true crime work shot through with desperation, paranoia, and regret. Reading this book feels like running headlong into danger, and Miller’s writing is haunted and haunting. It’s a patchwork of broken dreams, of secrets and lies, of trouble under the surface. Mesmerizing, raw, evocative, unforgettable.”—William Boyle, author of A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself 

“Every generation has its standout true-crime writer. Jax Miller does with Hell in the Heartland what Truman Capote did with In Cold Blood. I’ve witnessed firsthand the extraordinary lengths Miller went to in order to investigate this case. She is without doubt a writer at the peak of her powers.”—A.A. Dhand

“True crime fans who are fascinated by the dark side of rural life and police incompetence and open to a somewhat ambiguous ending will find much to savor.”—Library Journal