Mount Zion author Christopher L. Cooper is stepping into literature with his debut novel, A Death in Zion Falls, a small-town murder mystery that peels back the polished veneer of community life.
The novel centers on Dr. Evelyn Porter, a beloved physician and pillar of her Midwestern town. She’s dedicated her life to caring for others—often at the expense of her own family. When she’s found dead on her kitchen floor, the investigation exposes long-buried secrets, fractured relationships, and the uncomfortable truth that in small towns, everyone knows—and sometimes feeds on—everyone else’s pain.
For Cooper, storytelling has long been a passion. A fan of layered narratives—from theater to professional wrestling—he approached writing with a cinematic mindset, building “story Bibles” and mapping scenes before ever typing the final draft. While he explored traditional storytelling formulas, he ultimately chose to trust his instincts and craft the story his own way. The result, he says, was both “fun and aggravating”—especially when wrestling with grammar, formatting, and the technical demands of self-publishing through Amazon.
If you’ve got a story inside you, don’t hold it in.Chris Cooper, Mt. Zion author
A longtime small business owner in Mount Zion, Cooper balanced writing with running his mattress store and supporting his family. Encouraged by early readers and buoyed by community support, he pushed past doubt to publish the book independently.
With a second novel already written and a third outlined, Cooper’s writing journey is just beginning. His message to aspiring authors: "If you’ve got a story inside you, don’t hold it in."
Transcript pending.
