Few first novels elicit the rave reviews enjoyed by Whitney Terrell for The Huntsman. The New York Times called it “a searing first novel,” while the Chicago Tribune compared Terrell to “Faulkner, Conrad, and Melville.” In The King of Kings County, Terrell again takes us to his native Kansas City for a heartrending look at a young man’s coming-of-age as he confronts his father’s—and his city’s—dissolution.

In 1956, Alton Acheson—part conman, part visionary—begins building a suburban empire amid the cornfields of Kings County. As Alton bluffs his way into prosperity, his son, Jack, becomes a reluctant accomplice to his grand ambitions. But when greed, corruption, and organized crime combine to create an urban nightmare instead—abandoned buildings, ghettos, and slums—Jack is forced into a clear-eyed confrontation with his father’s legacy. This extraordinary saga, The King of Kings County, examines the manufacturing of an American Dream, one whose contradictions divide us to this day.