Doe Run

“Sean Jacques knows the heart of the Ozarks, and puts that knowledge on full display in this sweltering debut. Doe Run burns slow like good bourbon. Drink up.”
—Eli Cranor, author of Don’t Know Tough, Ozark Dogs, and Broiler

“Recalling grit lit titans like Larry Brown and Daniel Woodrell, Jacques delivers the kind of Old Testament country noir that lives with you long after the last page. Doe Run is a beautifully rendered Ozark drama, a tale of friendship, grief and small-town tragedy by a storyteller who knows the land and his people down to the core. With prose that pops like birdshot and paints with stunning authenticity the hardscrabble hills of southwest Missouri, our ‘hero’ Pen Cullen may prove that You Can’t Go Home Again but I will gladly return to the well if it’s got Sean Jacques’ name on it.”
—Peter Farris, author of Last Call for the Living and The Devil Himself

“In Doe Run, Sean Jacques has assembled an entire slate of lonely characters yearning to find their way in a broken world, and he tells their stories with depth and compassion. This is a rural noir full of pathos and grit—and it absolutely deserves your attention.”
—C.W. Blackwell, author of Hard Mountain Clay

“Doe Run is an unflinching portrait of grief, lost love, and the long, haunting shadows of the past. This gritty tale lays bare the darkest depths of the human condition, and the flawed, rough-hewn characters will undoubtedly stick with you. With prose as spare and sharp as barbed wire, Sean Jacques delivers the goods with his impressive debut.”
—Scott Blackburn, author of It Dies with You

“In this simmering debut, Sean Jacques renders the lives of his desperate characters with care and empathy, but doesn’t hold back when it all boils over.”
—Scott Von Doviak, author of Lowdown Road

“Doe Run is sitting smack in-between the poetic rumination of McCarthy and the Ozark mud of Woodrell. The novel delivers real pain and real evil but also a real shot at redemption, which is rare in this genre. But don’t be mistaken, Sean Jacques still delivers a tale with teeth on par with any Peckinpah film. If you let yourself be immersed in the story, it will linger with you long after you finish.”
—Brian Panowich, author of Bull Mountain & Nothing But The Bones

“Like a cigarette butt tossed into the underbrush, Doe Run smolders. Haunted by their pasts, these characters are hunting for redemption, but are trapped in mires of betrayal and generational trauma. Fueled by fury and whiskey, they chase one bad idea after another in this rural noir tale of desperation where the coals burn bright under the leaf litter, just waiting to set the forest alight, as Jacques fans the flames with twists and secrets.”
—Meagan Lucas, author of Songbirds and Stray Dogs and Here in the Dark