The Blood of Whiskey Run

In Whiskey Run, Pennsylvania, secrets don’t stay buried.

In 1932, County Detective Thomas L. Moorhead kissed his wife goodbye and told her he would see her that evening.

He never came home.

Five days later, Moorhead was found dead in a Chicago hotel room. His death was ruled a suicide—but it failed to explain what happened in the days before he died.

The Blood of Whiskey Run imagines those missing days—and the investigation that pulled Moorhead into the dark.
Based on actual events, and in the spirit of Chinatown and L.A. Confidential, the novel follows Moorhead’s investigation of a body discovered beneath a burned-out house in a dying coal town. What he uncovers is a trail of violence stretching back decades—set in motion by a forbidden love affair that left death in its wake and a town determined to keep its secrets buried.

From the abandoned mines and shuttered boardinghouses of western Pennsylvania to Prohibition-era Chicago, answers are bought with blood—and justice comes at a tragic price.

"...when it comes to storytelling, Pennington delivers."
James L. Nelson, author of The Norsemen Saga