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Jerusalem Camp
Judd does his usual exquisite job of character development. This book will restore your faith in westerns. -- El Paso Herald Post on JERUSALEM CAMP
"Brilliant characterizations . . . The classically suspenseful, neatly ironic ending is flawless. – Publishers Weekly (for Jerusalem Camp)
When a mysterious, pursued drifter named Tellico rides into the isolated Sierra Mountains town of Jerusalem Camp, he soon finds himself snowed in by a fierce winter storm in a town where an unknown killer has begun stalking the populace for reasons no one seems to know. Killing with a long knife and leaving his victims marked by the severing of one thumb, the unseen murderer soon begins leaving hints that his actions may not be as random as they appear ... As he is drawn into the effort to find and stop the "Gray Man" who terrorizes the town, the stranger Tellico joins with the local blacksmith-turned-reluctant-town-marshal in trying to determine why death has descended upon Jerusalem Camp, and just what, and whose, long-buried sin it is that the Gray Man is determined to avenge.
Cameron Judd is the author of more than fifty published novels of the American frontier, two of his works having been national finalists in the Spur Awards competition of the Western Writers of America. He has written under his own names and pen names including Judson Grey, Tobias Cole and Will Cade. A native and lifelong Tennessean, he has three adult children. He and his wife, Rhonda, share their Northeast Tennessee home with a cornbread-loving dog named Lola. He is a former award-winning newspaper journalist and editor.
"Brilliant characterizations . . . The classically suspenseful, neatly ironic ending is flawless. – Publishers Weekly (for Jerusalem Camp)
When a mysterious, pursued drifter named Tellico rides into the isolated Sierra Mountains town of Jerusalem Camp, he soon finds himself snowed in by a fierce winter storm in a town where an unknown killer has begun stalking the populace for reasons no one seems to know. Killing with a long knife and leaving his victims marked by the severing of one thumb, the unseen murderer soon begins leaving hints that his actions may not be as random as they appear ... As he is drawn into the effort to find and stop the "Gray Man" who terrorizes the town, the stranger Tellico joins with the local blacksmith-turned-reluctant-town-marshal in trying to determine why death has descended upon Jerusalem Camp, and just what, and whose, long-buried sin it is that the Gray Man is determined to avenge.
Cameron Judd is the author of more than fifty published novels of the American frontier, two of his works having been national finalists in the Spur Awards competition of the Western Writers of America. He has written under his own names and pen names including Judson Grey, Tobias Cole and Will Cade. A native and lifelong Tennessean, he has three adult children. He and his wife, Rhonda, share their Northeast Tennessee home with a cornbread-loving dog named Lola. He is a former award-winning newspaper journalist and editor.
- GenresWesterns
221 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1989
1 person is currently reading
7 people want to read
About the author
Cameron Judd
70 books30 followersCameron Judd (AKA: Tobias Cole) is a bestselling author of over forty historical and Western novels, including The Canebrake Men and Crockett of Tennessee. A former award-winning journalist, he continues to write his acclaimed column “Clips to Keep” and lives with his family in Greene County, Tennessee.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 17, 2026
Dual protagonists are trying to save a small town that is plagued by a violent killer. Tellico is a drifter who comes across the small mining town of "Jerusalem Camp" (1989) in the Sierra mountains during a terrible winter snowstorm. Jerusalem Camp's reluctant Sheriff Cable finds himself investigating some brutal murders around town that put the whole lot of them on edge and the town's elders may have some history that explains why these murders are taking place.
Verdict: A good, short, horror-slash-western tale, "Jerusalem Camp" has kind of a locked room murder mystery feel to it because this small town and its suspected killers, victims, and lawmen are trapped in a snowbound mountain setting.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13
Verdict: A good, short, horror-slash-western tale, "Jerusalem Camp" has kind of a locked room murder mystery feel to it because this small town and its suspected killers, victims, and lawmen are trapped in a snowbound mountain setting.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13
August 18, 2013
Jerusalem Camp gets most of the old west details right. A harsh wilderness experience, distrust of strangers, blood and violence, and most important for a western author, he knows his firearms.
Jerusalem Camp is a small mining camp that never became the big lawless boomtown that others did. Founded by a religious group, for many years the saloons and brothels stayed away. Eventually, though, a few found their way into the Camp.
As the novel opens, a stranger named Tellico is on the run, his mysterious opponents chasing him to the point of exhaustion when they stumble onto Jerusalem Camp. At first, Tellico is captured and in danger of being lynched for a recent murder, but it isn't long until another murder occurs while he is in custody and his innocence is clear. He joins forces with the local law to help find the killer.
At this point, the novel steers away from being a simple western and becomes a thriller, with a mysterious stranger stalking the residents of a snowbound town, killing people and for some mysterious he is hacking off his victim's thumbs. Eventually we discover that there is a reason for these crimes and the town has a dark secret, or at least some of the residents do. To complicate matters, the man chasing Tellico just won't give up and we finally find out what that is all about.
So we have a decent western-themed thriller. There also is a sense of religious idealism that flows through this novel, which is written in a very clean style, without being preachy... the concept of all men being sinners is clearly presented and the author does so while advancing the story, and apparently, his faith, to the reader.
FLAWS:
1) There is a coincidental factor that is fairly annoying that plays a part in the conclusion. In my opinion, if the author had left out that element the thriller would have been much better.
2) Western authors need to remember that liquor was used as anesthetic and not antiseptic in the old west. Whiskey was homemade and often had ingredients like tobacco plugs for color, or even rattlesnake heads. The concept of germs was not advanced in western medicines, which is way so many people died more of infections than gunshot wounds. A smart doctor would have washed a wound with water, but the antiseptic qualities of alcohol were not well known.
Jerusalem Camp is a small mining camp that never became the big lawless boomtown that others did. Founded by a religious group, for many years the saloons and brothels stayed away. Eventually, though, a few found their way into the Camp.
As the novel opens, a stranger named Tellico is on the run, his mysterious opponents chasing him to the point of exhaustion when they stumble onto Jerusalem Camp. At first, Tellico is captured and in danger of being lynched for a recent murder, but it isn't long until another murder occurs while he is in custody and his innocence is clear. He joins forces with the local law to help find the killer.
At this point, the novel steers away from being a simple western and becomes a thriller, with a mysterious stranger stalking the residents of a snowbound town, killing people and for some mysterious he is hacking off his victim's thumbs. Eventually we discover that there is a reason for these crimes and the town has a dark secret, or at least some of the residents do. To complicate matters, the man chasing Tellico just won't give up and we finally find out what that is all about.
So we have a decent western-themed thriller. There also is a sense of religious idealism that flows through this novel, which is written in a very clean style, without being preachy... the concept of all men being sinners is clearly presented and the author does so while advancing the story, and apparently, his faith, to the reader.
FLAWS:
1) There is a coincidental factor that is fairly annoying that plays a part in the conclusion. In my opinion, if the author had left out that element the thriller would have been much better.
2) Western authors need to remember that liquor was used as anesthetic and not antiseptic in the old west. Whiskey was homemade and often had ingredients like tobacco plugs for color, or even rattlesnake heads. The concept of germs was not advanced in western medicines, which is way so many people died more of infections than gunshot wounds. A smart doctor would have washed a wound with water, but the antiseptic qualities of alcohol were not well known.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews