Historian and Novelist Stephen T. Jackson Debuts First Two Books of The Preston Chronicles

Set during post-World War I America, Murder and the Silent Coup follows Laura Preston, the daughter of a wealthy Southern landowner living in Athens, Georgia. Upon coming of age, Laura is taken under the wing of her affluent Aunt Ophelia, who ushers her into New York’s prestigious ‘Social 400’ and opens the doors to London’s aristocratic circles. Despite her luxurious experiences, Laura returns to Athens to marry a battle-scarred veteran recently back from France, who – though battle-scarred and disabled – decides to run for attorney general. As her husband campaigns to support FDR’s New Deal ideals, Laura is pulled into a dangerous game of power and betrayal that shakes the foundations of her family, her county, and her country. 

In the second book, Murder for the Greater Good, Laura Preston Fane’s young sons discover the bodies of an up-and-coming star Georgia quarterback and his girlfriend in what authorities quickly label a murder-suicide. Disbelief sparks an undercover investigation by Laura and unlikely collaborators: the town’s financier, the new Presbyterian minister, and a Lloyd’s of London detective. As they unearth a tangle of secrets linking local murders, Laura must confront dangerous truths within her own family. With Hitler’s rise across the Atlantic and Roosevelt recovering in Warm Springs, the stakes have never been higher. Set in the volatile period between the great wars, Book Two of The Preston Chronicles illuminates the timeless tension between ethics and scarcity and raises the question: Can murder really be for the “greater good”? 

Both of the books uniquely incorporate footnotes to reference specific historical happenings and inform the reader of the accuracy of the book’s content.