A new novel of historical fiction by a former journalist follows an Eastern Kentucky sheriff’s investigation into the mysterious death of an African-American coal miner. Set in 1924, Dan Conti’s Pikeville, examines many of the issues of the time, including Prohibition, resentment of immigrant labor, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, and efforts to unionize miners in the Appalachian coalfields.

Conti worked as a broadcast anchor, reporter and producer in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky between 1978 and 2017. A graduate of Miami University (Ohio) and Bishop Fenwick High School (Middletown, Ohio), he’s a native of Pennsylvania. The author lives in Morehead.

As the story develops, Pikeville is undergoing rapid population growth, construction of new roads and rail lines, its first hospital and a luxur

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