Charles Reed

Tracks to Harlon County Charles Reed

When the Pursuers' trilogy novels were written, it was impossible to provide more than a brief introduction of the people who appear there. Lives are complex. Experiences and events build on one another. Writers know that readers want to move on to what's next from whenever and wherever the story opens. Telling too much of what has happened in the past can bog down the mystery and adventure at hand.




But readers have expressed interest in learning how the people in the Pursuer's Trilogy came to be who they are. Why did they decide to act in one way rather than another? Bronco, Sarge, and Preacher, as well as the people they encountered, were busy living their lives long before they met danger on a dark country road, death in a creek bottom in Alabama or a frisky old man in the Lucky Star Tavern in Titustown, Georgia. Danger and adventure sometimes create wounds and sometimes build character. Sometimes people meet victory and sometimes defeat.

This anthology provides an opportunity for readers, who have not yet started the trilogy's first novel, Trouble in Harlon County, a taste of the lives of the three men through their earlier adventures. At the same time, readers who have already read the trilogy have an opportunity to read more about the three men who came from, Pumpkin, Missouri; Ashland, Ohio; and Titustown, Georgia.




The stories of the three primary protagonists are presented in chronological order in rotation. Stories of the people they encounter as friends and foes are woven into that sequence.