Corner of Fiction & Fact plus Murder Mystery Books by John Warley

Jury of One murder mystery book, to be published April 4, 2023, is a legal thriller set in the South Carolina lowcountry, it deals with two of my favorite themes: moral choice and conflicted loyalties. "Jury of One keeps readers on their toes to the very end--and then delivers an upending revelation so shocking as to demand a second reading." Jonathan Haupt, coeditor, Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy.    

At age twelve, Carter Barnwell suddenly finds himself in a war zone. With his brother in Virginia fighting for the Confederacy, Carter risks all by spying on Union troops occupying Beaufort, South Carolina, during the Civil War. Also at stake is the life of his grandmother, whose determination to remain in her place of birth has left them both in great peril. In an old family hunting lodge, they are struggling to survive when a missionary and her young daughter arrive to teach the newly freed at a nearby plantation. Smitten by the girl, Carter must grow up fast, and in doing so must make adult choices that threaten his life, his freedom, and his new-found hopes for the future...

Set against the exquisite, historical backdrop of Charleston's insular South of Broad neighborhood, A Southern Girl is a tale of international adoption and of families lost, then found anew through revelations, courage, and the perseverance of a love without bounds. With two biological sons and a promising career, Coleman Carter seems set to fulfill his promise as a resourceful trial lawyer, devoted husband, and dutiful father until his wife, Elizabeth, champions their adoption of a Korean orphan. This seemingly altruistic mission estranges Coleman's conservative parents and demands...

Senator Martin Harmon is poised to claim his party’s nomination for Vice-President of the United States. He has improved his chances dramatically by becoming the leading spokesperson for a law, the REA, designed to prevent abuses in genetic engineering; abuses that Harmon believes threaten the country and mankind.  But there’s only one problem and it revolves around two women—the woman whom he loves who is not his wife, and his wife, a woman who wants nothing to do with the intense spotlight that comes with a presidential campaign.  As Harmon struggles to resolve his dilemma, he must confront the consequences of the law he fought so hard to enact, for if he has won political friends with his support for the REA,  cont'd.

Just when you thought America was falling off a cliff, along comes Fran to tell it like it was and is. We meet her in the ICU, where she has tracked down her affluent, elusive landlord who is recovering from a well-earned heart attack. Fran’s goals are modest—get the sink fixed, acquire health insurance, steer clear of a lecherous boss, raise good and productive kids. But for Fran and for millions of Americans struggling with the twenty-first century, those simple goals prove ever more difficult to attain. Her chief asset is the ability to speak her mind plainly, and she does so to lawyers, health care representatives, school officials and more in the entertaining town of Centerfield, Texas. There are many deeply serious books written each year. This is not one of them.

On March 20, 1843, twenty young men from South Carolina assembled on Marion Square in Charleston to begin the educational experiment called The Citadel. In 2018, over 2300 cadets from all over the world, of varied race and gender, gathered to celebrate 175 years of tradition and excellence. This book explores that journey.

The school’s survival into the 21st century overcame long odds. Prior to the Civil War, state-supported military colleges like The Citadel proliferated, particularly in the South, as a way to prepare young men for careers in education, law, medicine and engineering. Yet one by one, those military colleges either closed or found themselves absorbed into larger civilian environments. Today, only two state-supported military colleges remain; The Citadel is one. 

Fran, the heroine from an earlier novel, The Moralist, is back in The Moralist II with the same cast of wacky characters in Centerfield, Texas, during a year recently concluded. In The Moralist II, Fran brokers world peace as Ed seeks to make Centerfield great again while meeting his match in China. What was said about The Moralist applies equally to the sequel: There are many deeply serious books written every year; The Moralist II is not one of them.

Have you ever driven to a sheep farm in rural Mexico on the mistaken belief you were going to the supermarket? Ever spent your wedding night with a future presidential candidate and Secretary of State? How about riding herd on five ten-year-old boys at an art show?