Inherit the Land

by Joe Edd Morris

"Joe Edd Morris tells a poignant tale of a young man's search for identity... This beautifully-upbeat and enduring novel is recommended for all ages." - The Library Journal In Land Where My Fathers Died, the first book of the Shelby Amateur Sleuth Series, twenty-four-year-old Jo Shelby Ferguson, just out of prison for a crime he didn't commit, embarks on an adventurous pilgrimage to Mexico in a successful search for the roots of his confederado kin, the only family he has remaining. Inherit the Land is the story of Jo Shelby Ferguson's return from Mexico to the Mississippi Delta and of his reunion with his childhood sweetheart, Athen, the daughter of the landowner Jo Shelby believes illegally possesses land that belongs to his family. Athen learns of his designs, which includes returning part of the land to the Negroes farming it. Sparks fly. She leaves him. Her two nefarious brothers abduct him and leave him in the middle of the night-bound, gagged and hooded in a cotton field. Miraculously, Jo Shelby frees himself. With the aid of an aged attorney, and after considerable legal mining of ancient county land documents, the attorney discovers a cloud on the land title dating back to 1885 when the property was lost in a crap game ... while the old colonel Calvin T. Ferguson, owner of the land, was still alive in Mexico. A dramatic, emotional court battle ensues. The plantation blacks, also aware of Jo Shelby's ultimate plans, fill the courtroom. Athen strides in with her family. With the aid of his aging sidekick, Jo Shelby serves as his own attorney. A climactic pivotal moment occurs when he faces Athen on the witness stand and discovers she is on his side. Months later, the judge rules that a "material fact was possibly concealed when the deed changed hands." There was a cloud on the title. Jo Shelby has sixty days to find the original will. In the final scene, he is on a bus returning to Mexico to find the will. Unexpectedly, when the bus stops at Indianoloa, Athen, boards the "I thought it might prove interesting, us headed in the same direction for once. Besides, I couldn't let you go traipsing off to Mexico where some señorita might grab you." She is unaware of Jo Shelby's Mexican girlfriend. Look for book three, The Will, and more adventure.

189 pages, Paperback

Published October 25, 2023

Reviews

[Michael Hartnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Character for the Ages Returns to the Delta
Sometimes an author develops a very special character who the reader is willing to follow anywhere, a figure the reader can’t wait for the next chance to learn about another stage of his journey. Joe Edd Morris has created such a character in Jo Shelby Ferguson, whose story is bookended by the majestic Land Where My Fathers Died, depicting Jo Shelby as an energetic, charmingly determined dynamo and the complex masterwork The Prison, in which he transforms into an aging patriarch with a few last tricks up his sleeve. Inherently kind and decent, Jo Shelby confronts in both of these novels the built-in inequities of the South with grit and a disarming wiliness.
Inherit the Land finds Jo Shelby returning to the Mississippi Delta after losing some of this youth in prison and discovering his family legacy in Mexico. He returns to seek the restoration of land taken away from his family after sordid dealings almost a century earlier, ultimately ending up in the hands of Jack Patrick, a piece of aristocratic nastiness. Patrick’s daughter, Athen, has had a simmering romance with Jo Shelby. Given the conflicting allegiances, Athen has quite a complex relationship with Jo Shelby, the man she simultaneously sees as her future and as a memory with no future at all.
One of the novel’s great pleasures is the romance between these young lovers, as it features snappy dialogue and psychological complexity grounded in the demons each feels from a tumultuous family history. Another highlight of the novel is Jo Shelby’s relationship with the Patrick’s black maid Cissy. Wise and tough, Cissy grounds the novel in the South’s unavoidable racist traditions and demonstrates how foundational African Americans have been in nurturing both the land and its people.
The injustices of the past will come to a reckoning in the novel’s 1955 present as a highly entertaining trial serves as both a satisfying climax and a promise of a future that will unfold. A sequel is clearly in order. Through the prism of a land dispute, Jo Edd Morris has delivered a compelling tale that captures the South’s lurid history, a legacy of romance and courage set in a landscape of racism and ruthless power grabs. Ultimately, the Inherit the Land propels the reader to look forward to another experience once again with Jo Shelby, a character for the ages.