Home Grown — Ninie Hammon

DON'T MESS WITH A WOMAN WHO BUYS INK BY THE BARREL

          FACT...
          In 1989, federal authorities busted what they called the Cornbread Mafia, the largest domestic marijuana growing operation
in American history. They confiscated 182 tons of pot with a street value--in 1989!--of $400 million. Federal marshals arrested 56 men in 5 states...but they all came from one small town in Kentucky.

          FICTION... 
          Somebody murdered Jim Bingham, shot him dead in front of his own newspaper office in the small town of Brewster, and now his heartbroken daughter must abandon the world of academic journalism for the real world of running the newspaper he left behind.
 
          But Sarabeth Bingham soon discovers that marijuana-growing has corrupted the idyllic small town where she grew up. 

          The sheriff can't get a marijuana conviction because the county's jury pool is tainted. 

          Her cousin grows weed and has lost his wife and daughter to the world of drugs. 

          Sarabeth finds herself falling for a handsome bourbon distillery owner she's convinced is financing his business with dope money.

          And a ruthless farmer named Bubba Jamison will do anything--absolutely anything--to protect his empire.

          After 3 children find dope money in an abandoned building and the dopers kidnap them to get it back, Sarabeth heeds the words on the plaque that has hung above her father's desk for as long as she can remember: "Don't mess with a man who buys ink by the barrel!"

          In a blazing front-page editorial in the next issue of the Callison County Tribune, Sarabeth declares war on the marijuana-growing industry! Now, the growers have to shut Sarabeth up and she soon learns a terrifying lesson:  dopers fight dirty.

* * * 
          Home Grown isn't the true story of the rise and fall of the Cornbread Mafia, not from a historical perspective; thrillers like this are too intricately woven to stick to the facts. But the novel is as real as what actually did happen, a mystery thrillers and suspense story with a female protagonist who grabs the reader by the lapels and drags him into the action to live it with her. Sarabeth Bingham isn't the stereotypical heroine of sappy contemporary women's fiction. She is flawed, human and real. She has multiple sclerosis and a past filled with the kind of pain that's the mortar for building walls. Home Grown gives crime fiction a heart--and the face of a red-haired woman who didn't set out to be a hero. 

READERS praise Home Grown 
 (Goodreads and Amazon.com)

• Her books will entertain you and keep you flipping the pages. She pulls no punches, and no characters are safe. But she will also move you emotionally. This is the 4th Hammon novel I've read, and I can't wait for her 5th. Bestselling author Eric Wilson, Top 100 Amazon Reviewer
• Ninie has a way of sharing the real happenings of that time period through fiction and protecting the real people involved. I know because I live in the small town she wrote about. ohsolma
• Mystery, thrillers and suspense stories and historical thrillers are the genres I most enjoy, and Home Grown has a reality and believability that's rare in crime fiction. I felt like I knew Bubba Jamison and I wanted to choke him. I hurt for the children caught up in it all. The novel may be billed as women's fiction, but I'm a man and it's one of the best dramas I've ever read. B.J. Frye 
• The fact that this book is fiction, but based on events that actually took place makes it all the more gripping. I was hooked from the very first chapter. This is the first book of Hammon's that I have read. I shall definitely be reading her others. Shirley Ford
• Home Grown is based on a true story from 30 years ago but the greed and evil felt very contemporary. Women will identify with the female protagonist, Sarabeth Bingham because she's no superwoman. Her vulnerability moves the book beyond typical crime fiction. Sarah Bridges