The Jah Russ Library Two worlds. One shelf.

Smoke & Steel

Men's fiction for veterans and first responders. Brotherhood, ruin, and the slow work of putting something back together — set in Blackstone, Alabama, around a restored railroad warehouse.

Book One in progress

See the world

The Obsession Theory

The psychology of intimacy — what draws people together, what they mistake for love, and how far they'll follow a feeling before they question it.

Two novels available

See the world

Novels about men — the wounds they carry quietly, and the things they hand down without meaning to. Published in English, Spanish, and German.

Cover of The Shepherd's Lie

New release

The Shepherd's Lie

Bishop Ezra Steele — known worldwide as the nation's pastor — dies mid-sermon in a megachurch spectacle broadcast live to a global audience. As the cameras cut to black, Associate Pastor Micah Cross sees more than tragedy. He smells the poison. He hears the Bishop's final, fractured whisper: Forgive…

A decorated military veteran turned reluctant clergyman, Micah lands at the center of a rapidly closing conspiracy. With the church board, the media, and even the Bishop's widow urging silence, he has to choose between preserving a powerful legacy and exposing the rot beneath the pulpit.

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The catalogue

Eight novels in English, Spanish, and German, in paperback and Kindle. Every edition links straight to Amazon.

Title Series Editions
Cover of The Boy Within The Boy WithinMarcus Grant has built his life around being dependable. Then his six-year-old son starts asking questions he cannot answer — Were you scared when you were little? Why don't you cry? A novel about fathers and sons, and the invisible ways one generation shapes the next. Standalone EN · Paperback
Cover of The Shepherd's Lie The Shepherd's LieA Sanctum Protocol NovelBishop Ezra Steele dies mid-sermon, live to a global audience. Associate Pastor Micah Cross — a veteran turned reluctant clergyman — smells poison, and everyone from the church board to the Bishop's widow wants him quiet. Sanctum Protocol EN · Paperback
Cover of La Mujer del Balcón La Mujer del BalcónAfter a painful divorce, Daniel Harrington trades a successful career for the quiet coastal city of Puerto Plata. He wants peace and anonymity. Instead he becomes captivated by the woman who appears every evening on the balcony across from his own — and every version of the truth about her contradicts the last. The Obsession Theory EN · PaperbackES · Paperback
Cover of Angel on Fire Angel on FireÁngel en LlamasTrauma counsellor Angel Devereaux walks out of a fire the city calls a miracle. Then come the visions, the whispers pushing her toward violence, and a megachurch pastor convinced she is a prophecy about cleansing a city by flame. A spiritual-psychological thriller about the thin line between a calling and a collapse. Standalone EN · PaperbackES · Paperback
Cover of Shadows Over Paradise Shadows Over ParadiseSombras Sobre el ParaísoEthan Grey, a former covert operative, finds a drowned man on a Caribbean beach and expects another nameless tragedy. The corpse is clutching a rusted tag marked TETHYS-19 — a code that was never meant to exist. Within days his quiet village fills with strangers who move like soldiers, a ship appears beyond the reef, and the war he tried to leave behind has followed him to paradise. The Shadow Home Saga, Book 1 EN · Kindle · KUEN · PaperbackES · KindleES · Paperback
Cover of Quiet Heat Quiet HeatCalor SilenciosoAngel Martínez has beauty, prestige, and a last name that opens doors — none of which lead her anywhere near peace. Having survived a man who confused possession with love, she has rebuilt her life brick by brick and learned to hide the scars behind an impeccable smile. Then she meets J.R. Reddick, who is not trying to impress her and not trying to control her. He simply sees her, which turns out to be the most dangerous thing of all. The Obsession Theory EN · PaperbackDE · PaperbackES · Kindle · KUES · Paperback
Cover of Dead Ground Dead GroundTerreno MuertoThey called Caleb Rourke "Gravestone" in the black ops corridors, for precision that never wavered. He buried his weapons and his past on a remote island. Then an old teammate arrives with a mission — pull a boy out of a covert child-soldier program — and Rourke has to face an operator who has perfected the art of turning children into weapons. Standalone EN · Kindle · KUEN · PaperbackES · KindleES · Paperback
Cover of Finding Home Finding HomeA Journey of Rediscovery, Healing, and PurposeEncontrando HogarAfter years of military service, James returns to civilian life lost and disconnected, haunted by the battlefield. He sets out across the globe — St. Lucia, India, Kenya — trying to rebuild a sense of purpose, and learns that peace comes from facing the past rather than outrunning it. Standalone EN · Kindle · KUEN · PaperbackES · KindleES · Paperback

Editions marked KU are free to read with a Kindle Unlimited membership.

Book One in progress

Smoke & Steel

A soldier comes home to Blackstone, Alabama and inherits a ruined railroad warehouse. He rebuilds it. Other men start showing up. That's the whole engine of the series — restoration, and who it lets back in.

Who it's for

Veterans, first responders, and the men around them. Written for readers who are tired of being handed either a hero or a casualty.

What it's about

Brotherhood. Ruin and repair. Presence — showing up, and staying — as the virtue the first book is built on.

Beyond the page

Smoke & Steel is also a real gathering, and a cigar. The fiction is what the room talks about.

Two novels available

The Obsession Theory

A world built on the psychology of intimacy: attachment, desire, and the stories people tell themselves about who they are drawn to. Two novels are out, and the world is still opening up.

Who it's for

Readers who want the mechanics underneath a relationship, not just the arc of one.

What it's about

What we mistake for love. What obsession is actually asking for. How long a person will follow a feeling before questioning it.

Where it stands

Two books published, more in outline. New titles go to the mailing list before anywhere else.

Cover of La Mujer del Balcón La Mujer del Balcón Puerto Plata. A man watching a woman, and every version of her story contradicting the last. Cover of Quiet Heat Quiet Heat Also in Spanish as Calor Silencioso, and in German.
Cover of The Boy Within

Out now

The Boy Within

Marcus Grant has built his life around being dependable. He works. He provides. He fixes what breaks. He shows up when people need him and keeps moving when things hurt.

Then his six-year-old son begins asking questions Marcus does not know how to answer. Were you scared when you were little? Did Grandpa play with you? Why don't you cry?

As Marcus examines the manhood he inherited from his father, Raymond, he finds a family language built from work, silence, sacrifice, and love that was deeply felt but rarely spoken. What he once understood as strength looks different when he sees the same lessons taking root in his own son.

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The gathering

Smoke & Steel started as a room before it was a series. Men, cigars, and a book on the table — held in the Dominican Republic, mostly American veterans and expats living abroad.

What happens

One novel, one circle, one evening. The book gives everyone something to talk about that isn't themselves — which is usually how men end up talking about themselves.

Peace · Purity · Power

The reading list

  • Finding Home
  • Shadows Over Paradise
  • The Shepherd's Lie
  • The Boy Within

The cigar

Rolled in the Dominican Republic and sold at the gathering. Not online yet.

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Jah Russ

Jah Russ

Jah Russ writes thrillers and novels about people caught where faith, trauma, and choice run into each other. An educator and a veteran, he founded IDTech, which builds technology education programs for communities that get overlooked — the same instinct that runs underneath the fiction.

He writes from the Dominican Republic, where he also runs the Smoke & Steel gathering: men, cigars, and whatever novel is on the table that month. His books are published in English, Spanish, and German.

New book, first word

Releases, early chapters, and the occasional note from the Smoke & Steel table. No schedule, nothing sold to you.

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