Murder in Mayberry

As seen on America’s Most Wanted and Harlan Coben's Final Twist

It was christened "The Best Town on Earth."

One visit to Madisonville, Kentucky, and you'd swear you'd stepped into the fictional town of Mayberry. It was a friendly and traditional churchgoing Southern community. Everyone called each other "neighbor." No one locked their doors. Crime was unheard of. Then town native Ann Branson was found dead in her basement, with ninety-seven stab wounds and massive blows to the skull. In Madisonville, where there hadn't been a murder in twenty years, this crime was unimaginable.

But every town and everyone has secrets.

With no clues, no DNA evidence, and no apparent motive, Ann's nephew Jack, a retired federal agent, refused to let the case die, even when he came to a terrifying realization: the killer he was hunting was a member of his own family—a suspect now on the run who would become one of the FBI's Most Wanted and would lead investigators on a twisting road to justice.

But for Jack, the greatest shock was still to come: the reason Aunt Ann had to die...Mary Kinney Branson was editing director for the Home Mission Board and marketing director for the North American Mission Board for 16 years. Her work inspired her to write a book, Spending God’s Money, about the misuse of religious organizations’ funds.

Jack Branson is a retired federal agent and current private investigator and author who lives in Cumming, Georgia. He is the coauthor with his wife, Mary Kinney Branson, of Murder in Mayberry.