Harmon Creek

Harmon Creek is a razor-sharp work of crime fiction that reads like a true-crime exposé because it just might be.

In 1930s rural Texas, aspiring political candidate Earl Swanger is found dead near a remote bridge en route to a campaign event. The headlines are brief, the investigation rushed, and the inconsistencies glaring: stab wounds shrugged off, conflicting witness statements, and a suspiciously swift conclusion. Then, in short order, nothing more was reported about the case.

Through a modern lens, the red flags are impossible to miss: a buried case, silenced witnesses, and a community bound by fear and power. Harmon Creek resurrects this long-forgotten mystery, peeling back the layers of a likely cover-up that speaks volumes about the times and the forces still at work today.

Part In Cold Blood, part Red Harvest, and part Dateline special, this gripping narrative delves deep into a murder that's anything but open-and-shut. It exposes systemic injustice, racial tensions, and the lengths to which the powerful will go to protect their own.

Swanger's family always believed it was murder. After reading Harmon Creek, chances are you will agree.