Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A Harlan County man is the focus of a recently published book about his life, documenting his formative years in Harlan County, his military service in Vietnam, and his 30-year career with the Kentucky State Police (KSP).

Douglas Asher Sr., the subject of “Harlan County Son,” talked about the book during a recent interview.

“After I retired, I had several people who encouraged me to write a book,” Asher said. “I was dead against it. Later, my son wanted to write one. Over the last two or three years, I’ve had people continue to encourage me…I think the thing that pushed me to do it was the false narratives of some of the KSP cases I was involved in.”

It was Asher’s son, Douglas Asher II, who finally authored the book.

Asher explained the book extensively covers three different periods of his life.

“About the first third of the book is about growing up in Harlan County back in the 1950s and 60s,” Asher said. “About a third of it covers when I was in the paratroopers in Vietnam, and the last part covers some cases I was involved in during my 30-year career with the Kentucky State Police.”

Asher said some of the KSP cases are high profile, including the death of a KSP Trooper in Laurel County in December of 1988, an incident with a KSP response team, a shooting incident in Greenup County, and others.

Some of the incidents referenced in the book may be provocative.

“Some of those KSP cases will be pretty controversial…I was post commander at London (KSP Post 11) when we had a trooper that died on duty,” Asher said. “Then I was the investigating officer on the first time the KSP Response Team killed somebody in Lawrence County.”

According to Asher, the book starts out relatively slowly with accounts of his childhood in Harlan County, then picks up speed.

“I joined the paratroopers when I was 17 years old,” Asher said. “I served two tours in Vietnam. There are stories about that.”

Asher explained the book has been meticulously researched to ensure all accounts included are accurate.

“We double-checked every fact in the book to make sure we were totally accurate on everything,” Asher said.

Asher says he was surprised at the positive reaction the book received.

“I was shocked at the response that we got back from the publisher,” Asher said. “This book is being advertised for sale in Germany, England, Mexico, Japan, and all the major booksellers – Barnes and Noble, Walmart, Amazon – all advertising this book.”

Harlan County Son is available beginning Jan. 9 through multiple outlets.