No one suspects foul play when an old recluse dies behind locked doors. 

The doctor claims the old woman's heart gave out, and Deputy Sheriff Trent Tyson doesn't give the case another thought until the medical examiner finds poison. 

This death is just one in a series of unusual deaths happening in Tyson's quiet town, which takes the deputy sheriff on the hunt for answers while the rest of the town is cause up in local hysteria, starstruck by visiting celebrities William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow. Within a week, Deputy Sheriff Trent Tyson is on the tenuous trail of a serial killer who snuffs out the unwanted, the disabled--the most helpless and lovable--without reason and with no mercy. 

Reaping the Whirlwind is a historical mystery set during the real events of the Scopes evolution trial in 1925 Dayton, Tennessee. The mystery weaves through trial events in an accurate portrayal of this pivotal case that forever changed the U.S. education system.