Works by
J.R. Lindermuth
(aka John Richard Lindermuth)
(Writer)

Fiction

• Schlussel's Woman (2003)
  Early in the 19th Century, expanding markets for Pennsylvania's anthracite coal created a smaller scale prelude to the later California gold rush. It was an era as wild as any the West ever knew -- yet it has been rarely depicted in history. A native of the Coal Region and avid student of its history, the author has attempted to provide an accurate sense of this particular time and place in a story probing the cost of unrestrained ambition. Many of those who flocked to the region were ambitiously ruthless in pursuit of this “black gold.” Captain Isaac Schlussel is typical of the breed, though he approaches his goal of wealth by supplying the blasting powder needed to develop deep mining rather than by grubbing in the earth.
  
  Then, Schlussel is felled by an assassin's bullet. His greed has provided a multitude of suspects who are introduced in chapters which flash back and forth in time to reveal his history and his obsession with the beautiful woman who is both his wife and the unintentional source of his downfall.

• St. Hubert's Stag (2004)
  As John Donne said, and Hemingway repeated, "No man is an island." Sometimes it takes a crisis for people to accept that truth.
  
  For the Keller family, the lesson evolves from a deer hunt which forces them to confront secrets that have separated them from one another and the truth for years.
   

  • Why did Jake Keller rebel and decide he needed one last deer hunt?

  • Why had Andy, his son, suddenly quit hunting?

  • Who was responsible for the death of Andy's younger brother, Paul, and why had Paul broken the old man's rule against drinking on a hunt?

  • Why had Janet, Andy's wife, laughed hysterically at Paul's funeral?

  • What was the source of the enmity between Jake and his boyhood friend, Clyde Grumbine?

  • Why did everyone in the valley fear the black buck and why did it seem to haunt the Keller family?

Sticks Hetrick Mysteries

• Something in Common (2006)
  Something In Common is a mystery novel set in a rural Pennsylvania community. A lonely widow finds the severed head of an unknown young woman on her front porch. In seeking the victim's identity, retired Police Chief Daniel "Sticks" Hetrick discovers a link to a major theft of rare ornithological books and a trail that leads from the big city to his hometown where he is forced to confront danger and the darker side of his community and its residents.

• Cruel Cuts (2007 release)
  When a rash of animal mutilations plague a rural Pennsylvania community and a vicious poison pen campaign is directed against an ambitious young lawyer, it leads to murder. Dan “Sticks” Hetrick, retired police chief, and Flora Vastine, a novice officer, team up and encounter false leads, a series of dangerous episodes and another murder before the case is resolved.

Amazon Shorts

• Trees And Memories
  "Trees" is about an old man who lives alone with a dog and his memories and what happens when an engaging child intrudes upon his solitude.
     -- John Richard Lundermuth

• Twin Stars
  This story grew out of my past, the place where I grew up and the people I knew there. It's another take on the “you can't go home again” theme about a young man trying to recapture the love of a girl he thought he knew better than he actually did.
     -- John Richard Lundermuth