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This page lists novels that feature the ex-therapist, ex-cop, ex-convict and sometime private investigator Turner.

Cypress Grove

James Sallis

2003

A Turner novel.

"The small town where Turner has moved is the perfect hide-away for him to forget he was a cop, a psychotherapist but always an ex-con - until a body is found and Turner is thrust into the investigation and everything he thought he had left behind. Turner slowly becomes reacquainted not only with the darkness he had fled, but with the unsuspected kindness of others. Brilliantly balancing Turner's past and present lives, Cypress Grove is lyrical, moving and filled with the sense of place and character that only our finest writers can achieve."

Cripple Creek

James Sallis

2006

A Turner novel.

"A year or so has passed since the events of Cypress Grove. Ex-policeman, ex-con, former therapist, Turner has become Deputy Sheriff in the small town within driving distance of Memphis, Tennessee, to which he had migrated in hopes of escaping his past. His life is mending as he and Val Bjorn grow closer. And then a young man, arrested on a routine traffic stop with more than $200,000 in his trunk, is forcibly sprung from jail after Sheriff Don Lee is brutally assaulted. Throwing caution aside, Turner goes in pursuit to Memphis, unleashing ghosts he thought he had left behind, and endangering all that matters to him now."

Salt River

James Sallis

2007

A Turner novel.

"As Salt River begins, two years have passed since Turner's amour, Val Bjorn, was shot as they sat together on the porch of his cabin. Sometimes you just have to see how much music you can make with what you have left, Val had told him, a mantra for picking up the pieces around her death, not sure how much he or the town has left. Then the sheriff's long-lost son comes ploughing down Main Street into City Hall in what appears to be a stolen car. And waiting at Turner's cabin is his good friend, Eldon Brown, Val's banjo on the back of his motorcycle so that it looks as though he has two heads. 'They think I killed someone,' he says. Turner asks: 'Did you?' And Eldon responds: 'I don't know.' Haunted by his own ghosts, Turner nonetheless goes in search of a truth he's not sure he can live with."