{"product_id":"kingdom-of-devils-a-tale-of-murder-in-the-shadow-of-the-american-revolution","title":"Kingdom of Devils: A Tale of Murder in the Shadow of the American Revolution","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eKatherine Grandjean\u003c\/b\u003e is an associate professor of history at Wellesley College, where her research explores early American and Native American history, environmental history, and violence in American history. Her first book is \n\u003ci\u003eAmerican Passage: The Communications Frontier in Early New England. \u003c\/i\u003eShe has been the recipient of several major research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Antiquarian Society, and the American Council of Learned Societies, among others.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Historian Katherine Grandjean has researched this once-famous cold case with a detective's tenacity and told it as a gripping story of violent young men and the havoc they wreaked in the unsettling early days of the American republic.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Kathleen DuVal, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eNative Nations\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"With her novelesque prose and high-resolution verbal portraits of her story's remarkable-but-real characters, Katherine Grandjean pioneers a new genre: true crime set in the 1700s. And \n\u003ci\u003eKingdom of Devils\u003c\/i\u003e shows that some crimes, like the Harp brothers' twenty-seven murders in two years, can be solved only with a deep dive into their historical context.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Woody Holton, author of \u003ci\u003eLiberty Is Sweet\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Part true crime, part western, part ghost story, \n\u003ci\u003eKingdom of Devils \u003c\/i\u003eplumbs the dark underbelly of the American West in the years following the Revolution, when, as Katherine Grandjean writes, 'not even the ground beneath your feet was fixed.' Pairing deep and inventive research with crackling prose, Grandjean has written \n\u003ci\u003eIn Cold Blood\u003c\/i\u003e for the 1790s: a rare history that makes its times memorably vivid, and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Jane Kamensky, president and CEO, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"Written with compassion, lucidity, and historical acumen, Katherine Grandjean's thrilling \n\u003ci\u003eKingdom of Devils\u003c\/i\u003e--about a once-famous, now-forgotten murder mystery--blows off the dust of the past, which isn't quite past, to illumine what we forget at our peril.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Brenda Wineapple, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eKeeping the Faith\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"[An] exceptional true crime saga . . . Readers will find it an eerie tale of bloodshed and a chilling foreshadowing of similar crimes that continue to be perpetrated by 'young men . . . pushed out of America's social and economic order.'\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"An investigation into the meaning of a brutal rampage in post-colonial Appalachia . . . [Grandjean] makes the era come alive with vivid descriptions of wilderness and towns, thumbnail sketches of colorful personalities, and stimulating tangents on post-revolutionary politics and popular culture. . . . An engagingly juicy evocation of life and death in the early Republic.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eThe chilling true story of a brutal string of deaths on the post-Revolutionary frontier that reveal the violence at the heart of the young United States\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eIn Cold Blood\u003c\/i\u003e for the 1790s . . . Part true crime, part western, part ghost story, \u003ci\u003eKingdom of Devils \u003c\/i\u003eplumbs the dark underbelly of the American West in the years following the Revolution.\"--Jane Kamensky, president and CEO, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eKentucky, 1798: A harrowing series of murders begins. The first body, discovered by cattle drovers, lies bloody at the bottom of a ridge. Then another--a dead boy staring up from a sinkhole. Bodies turn up along roadsides, stuffed into brush. They float to the surface of muddy brooks. For nine terrifying months, over hundreds of miles of Kentucky and Tennessee countryside, the terror unfolds. The killers--two men with hazy backgrounds--are brothers, named Wiley and Micajah Harp. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe Harps killed dozens, but why they did it has eluded folklorists and historians for generations. Almost every story imagines that their motive was pure bloodlust, but for historian Katherine Grandjean, that's too simple. Instead, she uses the Harp murders to reveal the dark side of the young United States' independence. These were uncertain and dangerous years--a time when the fledgling federal government could do little to protect its citizens. And if the American Revolution was liberating, it was also deeply destabilizing, politically and socially. Even as it built up some men, it stacked the deck against others, punishing them with volatile markets, lost safety nets, and shattered aspirations. Unspooling the mystery of what sent the Harps reeling exposes the hidden, violent legacies of the revolutionary era. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBristling with tense, page-turning storytelling--and driven by a historian's obsessive detective work-- \n\u003ci\u003eKingdom of Devils\u003c\/i\u003e recovers these long-forgotten murders as a haunting tale about the darkness at the heart of the American dream.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/span\u003e 04\/27\/2026 (EAN 9780593729939, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 06\/15\/2026 (EAN 9780593729939, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496160952598,"sku":"9780593729939","price":40.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9780593729939.jpg?v=1783054498","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/kingdom-of-devils-a-tale-of-murder-in-the-shadow-of-the-american-revolution","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}