Where the Hurt Is

Emmett Hardy Mystery #1

by Chris Kelsey

"Poignant and funny, studded with characters who haunt your imagination long after you've read the final page." –Anne Hillerman, New York Times bestselling author of Cave of Bones When everyone would prefer to look the other way, can one man cut through fear and prejudice to unmask a killer? Oklahoma, 1965. Emmett Hardy is focused on drinking his failures away. And despite his general enthusiasm for the social reforms sweeping the country, the disillusioned police chief isn't surprised by his community's ongoing casual racism. But he's still shocked when he discovers the body of a Black woman with a slashed throat dumped by the railroad tracks. When the state authorities offer only a lazy investigation and arrest an unlikely suspect, Hardy puts down the bottle and swears to uncover the real murderer. But with resistance from his all-white neighbors and the clues leading to the small town's most powerful citizen, the upstanding cop may be heading straight into danger. Will Hardy's unrelenting race to find the truth destroy his life? Where the Hurt Is is the complex first book in the Emmett Hardy Mystery crime fiction series. If you like tortured heroes, tense twists, and authentic settings, then you'll love Chris Kelsey's poignant novel.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, Mystery Thriller, Ebooks

318 pages, Paperback

Published June 21, 2018

About the author

Chris Kelsey's first novel, Where the Hurt Is, won the 2018 Pencraft Award for Fiction Book of the Year. He's currently Director of Instrumental Music at Trinity-Pawling School in Pawling, NY.

Reviews

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's an Elvis movie on the marquee sign,
We've all seen at least three times
Everybody's broke, Bobby's got a buck
Put a dollar's worth of gas in his pickup truck
We're going' ninety miles an hour down a dead end road
What's the hurry, son, where you gonna go?
We're gonna howl at the moon, shoot out the light
It's a small town Saturday night
It's a small town Saturday night
- Small Town Saturday Night - lyrics by Hank Devito / Patrick Alger

The 1960's in fictional Burr, Oklahoma: small-town boredom and small-town minds, nowhere to go and nothing to do, rednecks and racism, and lots of alcohol. And the murdered body of a young black girl found tossed near the train tracks.

Police Chief Emmett Hardy, one of a handful of liberals in a town no bigger than a handful itself, is determined to find the killer. While others would have just shrugged off the murder of a "colored" girl, he can't do that. Ill-equipped to do much more than write speeding tickets in his tiny burg, Emmett sets out to investigate and bring to justice the murderer.

Narrated by the folksy police chief, the story is a true-to-life depiction of small town life in mid-sixties Oklahoma. Threaded through with both humor and pathos, this engrossing tale highlights the racists and church-goers that make up this community (often one and the same in this town) and where their loyalties lie.

A thoroughly enjoyable read that I couldn't put down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Black Rose Writing for a copy of this book, and a huge apology for the delay in reviewing this wonderful book.

4 stars

[Michael Hartnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Great Book with a Terrific Narrator
Chris Kelsey’s Where the Hurt Is catches the reader right from the beginning with the lively, engaging voice of our protagonist, Emmett Kelly. Emmett is chock full of colorful expressions (“Bernard had the same guilty look Dizzy gets when I catch her drinking out of the toilet”) as he investigates the death of a teenage black girl in 1965 Oklahoma. The police chief of a small town, Emmett is confronted with the deeply entrenched prejudices of the community and, more problematically, the money and power of Edgar Bixby.
While on the surface, this murder investigation could be a grim, humorless affair, Kelsey develops such rich and amusing characters that the reader simultaneously feels compassion for the victim but hope from those with great integrity who look to get to the truth. In particular, Emmett’s dedicated deputy Bernard and his assistant Karen give the novel a moral compass. Smart and sharp-tongued, Karen is an absolutely wonderful character. Her verbal exchanges with Emmett are particularly high moments in this terrific novel.
All along the way, Emmett is constantly incorporating his witty observations (“The room got 50% smarter by them walking out the door”) as he digs deeper toward uncovering disturbing truths. His self-awareness, especially of his faults, gives his amusing ruminations (“I tried to feel sorry for him but I might as well have been watching a rock cry”) and characterizations (“Edgar threw pennies around like tractor tires”) a nice balance.
Another of the novel’s many pleasures in the evocation of 1965 Oklahoma. Whether it is the references to the jade green Bakelite radio, the coffee percolator, the battered Underwood Typewriter, or Gomer Pyle, the reader is deeply entrenched in time and place. In fact, the opening viewing of a bit on the Johnny Carson show has a wonderful way of coming back later to provide necessary context to the time of the crime and location of the participants.
Simply put, I loved reading Where the Hurt Is. I truly hope this novel will be the beginning of a series since Kelsey’s writing is so good and Emmett is such an engaging narrator that I would be quite happy to encounter both author and narrator again.

[T.J. Wray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was another pretty good one. It is about a small town police chief, trying to solve a murder and getting very little help from the higher ups. It's old school and set in a small town in the 60's. It kind of reminded me of an episode of (In The Heat of the Night) TV show. Which by the way is right in my wheelhouse. I love that show. While reading this book, I could almost see Carroll O'Connor going around and collecting evidence, interviewing suspects, and trying to solve this thing. If you like a good crime drama, you will probably enjoy this book...

Now for the bad. There are at least 30 or 40 misspelled, miss used, left out, or otherwise, wrong words in this book. For this reason, I can only give it 3 stars. Mr. Kelsey you need to invest in a new editor for future projects...TJ

[Denice Langley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma that was 100% white in the 60's so the backstory is very real to me. The story line is realistic and it's easy to see the author wants the reader to understand the characters. Chris Kelsey has taken a snapshot in time and mixed in an atmosphere of fear and indifference to produce a quality mystery that any reader will enjoy. Don't skip any pages or you'll find yourself backtracking to figure out who done it.

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about small town Oklahoma. I’m from here so may be biased but the author’s descriptive language was realistic and truthful. I could imagine the pictures he painted as he described the scene and the smells. Great first novel.

[❤Marie Gentilcore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book set in Burr, Oklahoma which I think is a fictional small town. The story takes place in 1965 and starts off with the dead body of a young black woman. Sheriff Emmett Hardy is determined to solve the crime. I really liked Emmett. He seemed like a decent guy with a few demons so I hope this turns into a series. I also liked that the story mentioned the real town of Anadarko, Oklahoma.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend the book.

From the start until over half way through the book I gave it one star. All of the author's cutesy asides got him nothing from me--not even cute. I figured this had to be the author's first time out. Something happened in the last quarter of the book that changed my thinking. Suddenly, this man was putting out some extraordinary writing that captured my whodunit interest. I was truly shocked to learn who the murderer was. The police chief in a rural town in Oklahoma was an alcoholic, and I did not want for him the hell of leading an alcoholic life. With his problems he had no business being Chief of Police. The richest man in town and his son were easy to dislike. The other main characters crossed the broad spectrum of society that we encounter every day. I did not like it that the victim was only half black. Did that make her murder only half as bad? Women's issues were feebly mentioned. Did that make our issues not quite worthy of putting pen to paper? There were other ISSUES OF THAT DAY brought out in the book but that have since been addressed from parlors to the Supreme Court, ad nauseam. Given the popularity of this book, those issues may be raised again in literary circles. That is sad, because that is not what the book was about. Issues of that day were the background giving readers a chance to see how people acted and thought in that piece of time.

Thank you, Mr. Kelsey, for a good read.

[Vikki Ascuena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of character

The first few pages reminded me of Larry McMurtrey's early work; lots of local color to introduce and meld character and setting. These are the best chapters in the novel, but the plot and characters remain true.

Small town police force investigates the murder of a young woman. The town's richest family is accustomed to having things their way. That influence creates difficulty when the police are required to investigate the theft of a prize pig and instead stumble onto the corpse of the woman along the train tracks. What seems coincidental is just a tangle of incidents piled on each other. What seems to be quotidian detail becomes vital.

I enjoyed this thoroughly and hope author Chris Kelsey can find reason to return to Burr, Oklahoma and the characters he skillfully developed.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

First book I’ve read by Chris Kelsey and I’ll likely read another one. While this book wasn’t the greatest Novel of all time, I enjoyed it and it was a worthwhile read. I rate it 3,5 stars.

[Cathy Dodd · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for any life-long Oklahoman

This book captures life in small-town Oklahoma quite accurately through a captivating who-dunnit. It held my interest throughout the book, eager to discover who killed Sheryl. The story is well written and walks the reader through the interconnects lives of several small-town families and exposes the shameful and almost unanimous bigotry, as well as the entitlement of the wealthy.

[Lois Letchford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this thriller on Book Bub and loved it—a quaint and engaging page-turner. With the voice and language of Emmett Hardy's dry, Oklahoma accent, heat drips off the page both due to the daily temperatures and the tension perfectly placed throughout the story. I particularly enjoyed the weaving of history—both local and national—as the search to unravel the mystery unfolds.
The murderer found the author leaves the social justice issues alone. The question “Who will be convicted?” might be topic in another book. A standout read.

[Pamela · Rating 1 out of 5]

Small town blues

The main character of this story is a Korean War vet turned sheriff of the one-horse OK town of Burr. He has a challenge to find out who murdered a young girl and dumped her body near the railroad tracks. Along the way, the reader is treated to a lot of small-town history and characterization. Ultimately, however, the story itself suffers from poor editing; redundant plot points being the primary example. How can this happen in a published novel?

[Bren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the character development in this book. Maybe the book could have been 50 pages shorter, but I love how Kelsey builds each character through the eyes of the narrator, Emmett. You feel Emmett's grief and his flaws are true. Sure, it wasn't the murder of the century, but the cast of characters are so well defined that you can feel each one in your bones.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Western OK, this crime novel begins with Emmett Hardy having to search for a stolen pet pig, and ends with a murder investigation.

[Bobbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best murder mysteries I've read lately. Realistic characters set in an era that I'm very familiar with. I can relate since Oklahoma is where I was born, raised and still live. This is the first book I've read by the author. I really like his writing style.

[F.R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I genuinely loved!

The prose is as folksy as Stephen King at his most homespun, which might in other hands have been irritating, but I was swiftly onboard. Set in rural Oklahoma in the 1960s, this low key crime thriller is gripping, tense, but never sensational. It builds a real world with real people, which means the gruesome crime at its centre hits hard.

I’ll be reading the second book shortly.

[Curtiss Matlock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't out it down

Great characterizations. People with heart and complexity. Kept me intrigued until the end. Truly captured the era and p!ace of Oklahoma.

[OMalleycat · Rating 2 out of 5]

The police chief of Burr, OK is an alcoholic which seems problematic, especially when he’s citing a prominent citizen for drunk driving and self-righteously incensed when the powers-that-be let the man off. The chief himself does quite a bit of drunk driving and causes a potentially serious accident while in drunken pursuit of a suspect. I don’t like to read about drunks, their exploits, near misses, and regrets.

I wish I could get over non-Oklahoma writers literarily invading my territory and getting it wrong, especially when some misinformation could be corrected by googling. Burr is an imaginary town pretty specifically placed, but distances from other (real) towns are inaccurate as are driving times. Note to authors: when one lives in a big, rectangular Western state, it takes a while to get from the border to the center of the state. And why would the author invent a county name that’s a homophone for a real OK county, and then acknowledge the ludicrousness of the doubled names in the text?

Chief Hardy has some enlightened and liberal ideas about tolerance, race, and women’s rights that are unfortunately unlikely for the time and place (the book is set in 1965). We learn about his progressive ideas as he endlessly ruminates and compares himself to the townspeople. Yes, that sets up the book’s premise as the Chief is the only one interested in seriously investigating the death of a young black woman, but I needed a lot more explanation than what’s provided to buy his lone adherence to an ethos so alien to his milieu.

This book appears to be a set-up for a series. No doubt Chief Hardy will pursue a relationship with his dispatcher and perhaps he’ll even find out why his father is digging that hole in the yard. I won’t be along for the further adventures of Burr, OK.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Subtle, sneaky, but riveting murder mystery!

This book sneaks up on you. Set in the mid 60's, in small town Oklahoma, with all the mid century prejudices and stereotypes still intact, the sordid underbelly of Burr, Oklahoma is slowly revealed as the local police chief doggedly pursues his investigation of a young negro girl found brutally murdered near the railroad tracks. Despite the state police arrest of another "convenient" minority suspect, something about the case doesn't jibe for Chief Hardy, and he is unwilling to settle for the "usual" suspects. Struggling with his own demons, he can't get the girl's murder out of his mind, and cannot rest until he solves the mystery. Full of twists and turns, it slowly builds to a surprising climax. The seriousness of the crime, and the deplorable attitudes of the era are occasionally relieved by the humor and sarcasm of the main character. It was impossible to put down. My only criticism is it needs a good proofreading. There were many errors in grammar and syntax, but the basic storytelling is so good, I was willing to overlook the very annoying lack of competent editing. In fact, I sincerely hope we hear more from Chris Kelsey, especially about Chief Hardy and the residents of Burr!

[Kymberli Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Where the Hurt Is" was thoroughly enjoyed. I also live in Oklahoma (though not born here, thank god), and am a misfit and an outsider. It's a mystery why I've ended up here, but enough of that. The book was so realistic, it was frightening. "These days, the state is run by a crowd of blue-nosed hypocrites with an imaginary hotline to Jesus" -- nothing's changed apparently. The "good 'ole boy network" runs the courts, politics, "justice" system, legislature, and everything else one can think of. I think Chris Kelsey did a brilliant job of describing how conservative, racist, and a number of other things Oklahoma is. Yes, "is." Nothing's changed that I can see in the last 50 years. It seems as if the end was left open, for a sequel perhaps? If so, I'd definitely read it. Well done.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a surprisingly gripping story that follows the investigation into the murder of a young coloured woman in rural Oklahoma in the mid-60s against the backdrop of changing attitudes, childhood grudges and the politics of small-town life. This is very much a character driven story that is well written and keeps the reader engrossed from start to finish and pulls them right into the middle of town life. Emmett Kelly, the local police chief and story narrator, is a great character and has a dry wit and sarcasm that I absolutely love and adds a certain humour to even the tensest situations.

[Melissa Dinwiddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Booknapped!

It took me a chapter or so to get into this book, but the narrator’s appealing personality, the fully-fleshed characters, movie-like dialogue, and great storytelling had me booknapped pretty quickly.

I couldn’t understand how Emmett could be in love with such an obvious gold-digger, even after all these years, and the book is peppered with small typos, but the writing is top shelf. (Especially loved the scene with Emmett and Karen, when he asked to borrow her “women’s intuition.” Fantastic!)

I’d read more by this author in a heartbeat!

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this author’s writing style, and I really enjoyed the book. A good story despite being a little predictable. I will definitely be continuing the series.

[Dan A. Foster · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hurt to read

This was too tongue in cheek, filled with cliches, and a frequent use of the profane in reference to god.

[Steven Howes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be one of the best murder mystery books I have read in long time. Chief Emmitt Hardy of the small-town Burr, Oklahoma, leads his rag-tag department in trying to find the killer of a young black prostitute whose body has been dumped along nearby railroad tracks. This all takes place in the mid-1960's amid racial tensions, local and law enforcement politics, and a bunch of interesting and at times humorous red-neck characters.

The Burr, Oklahoma police department reminded me somewhat of the Absaroka County Sheriff's Department made famous by Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire novels. Emmitt Hardy has a great deal of personal baggage and has a bit of a drinking problem. However he is a likable guy and seems to do the right thing. While his staff members are quirky and require constant management, he seems to know how to get the best out of them.

This was a long book but it was well-written and I actually hated to see it end.

[David Pearce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The essential nature of books involving the malevolence of others is in the character by which that evil is exposed. In the small Oklahoma town of Burr, Emmett Hardy, chief of police, is that character. Set in the mid-60's, Where the Hurts Is, tells of Emmett's discovery one night, while investigating the theft of a prized pig, of a murdered young black woman. As a returned local, Emmett is both Burr's past and present, a voice to its good and bad. Chris Kelsey puts this to good use in fleshing out the people of Burr as Emmett pursues the murderer. As one might expect, given the time and place, race and its history, its insinuation into the fabric of both Oklahoma and Burr, play a big part in what drives Emmett. Like all books of this kind, it lives and dies by how we are pulled in by the story-telling of Kelsey and by the voice he gives Emmett, a man who drinks too much, pines for the wrong woman, and longs for a more tolerant Oklahoma.
To this reader, he succeeds.

[Jared Eberle · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot is basic and the ending is pretty simple to figure out. The books suffer from two things:

1. Kelsey feels the need to regularly include racial epithets in the writing. Yes, we know the characters are from small town Oklahoma during the 1960s, but you can easily write a book that includes racist characters without needing to resort to using the n-word, especially as a white author.

2. This passage:

With some effort, I managed *not* to sneak a peak at Peggy Miller’s shapely legs, which were a great deal more exposed than I am accustomed to seeing.

“Glad to know you Miss Miller.”

I had to look somewhere, it would’ve been impolite not to, so I looked in her eyes. They were heavily massacred and shadowed, but I could tell they were brown with flecks of green.

[BONNIE GUNN · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sad but good read

I read this book as a freebie on either BookBub or eBookDiscovery. I chose it because I like to support writers from Oklahoma, my home state. This story is set in the early 1960's in a fictional rural Oklahoma town that seemed very familiar. The characters were well-developed and the story well written. The author uses the Chief of Police's voice to develop the story a d he does it very effectively. I was drawn into the investigation; I could feel the Chief's frustration, weariness &, at times, almost desperation to make sense of this murder & find justice for this very young woman. He fights ignorance, racism, small town politics & indifference to solve this crime.

[Ana-Maria Bujor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a surprise this one! I got it for free on Amazon and usually the books I get this way are hilariously bad. This one however is a good crime novel. The main character annoyed me quite a bit with his self-righteousness (I am not racist, folks!) and many, many comparisons, but besides that I don't have any reproaches.
The mystery is good and sad without becoming a gore-fest. The characters are interesting and the investigation realistic. No sudden stroke of genius, but endless interviews, small pieces of evidence, tunnel vision, unreliable witnesses, like in real life. And also the murderer is not some evil genius that pulls impossible feats. It is all quite realistic and this is why I enjoyed reading it. So good job on this one!

[Cathy Cason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good mystery

When I first started reading this book I had trouble engaging and thought I’d made a mistake in purchasing it. That concern left about a 3rd way through it. I slowly began to really like police chief Emmett Hardy and his sidekicks. I grew to the point I didn’t want to put it down. I thought I’d solved who the killer was only to find I was off, not by much but enough. I throughly enjoyed reading this story,once I got into it. Enough so that I’ve purchased the two sequels. Four stars due to a certain foul word used although I know many people use it and it fit the dialogue. Still I think it could be eliminated in all speech and written word without affecting the message! Now for some more reading time with Chief Hardy!