Download or read book A Killing at Cotton Hill written by Terry Shames and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-07-16 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The chief of police of Jarrett Creek, Texas, doubles as the town drunk. So when Dora Lee Parjeter is murdered, her old friend and former police chief Samuel Craddock steps in. He discovers that a lot of people had it in for Dora Lee. The conniving rascals on the farm next door want her land for nefarious purposes; her estranged daughter could be seeking vengeance; her grandson wants money for art school; and then there's that stranger Dora Lee claimed was spying on her. Does Craddock still have what it takes to find the killer? In this debut novel, the strong, compelling voice of Samuel Craddock illuminates the grandeur and loneliness of the central Texas landscape and reveals the human foibles of the residents in a small Texas town-their pettiness and generosity, their secret vices and true virtues.
Download or read book A Reckoning in the Back Country written by Terry Shames and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-01-09 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acting Police Chief Samuel Craddock investigates the murder of a visiting physician, whose mangled body is found in the woods. When Lewis Wilkins, a physician with a vacation home in Jarrett Creek, is attacked by vicious dogs, and several pet dogs in the area around Jarrett Creek disappear, Police Chief Samuel Craddock suspects that a dog fighting ring is operating in his territory. He has to tread carefully in his investigation, since lawmen who meddle in dog fighting put their lives at risk. The investigation is hampered because Wilkins is not a local. Craddock’s focus on the investigation is thrown off by the appearance of a new woman in his life, as well as his accidental acquisition of a puppy. Digging deeper, Craddock discovers that the public face Wilkins presented was at odds with his private actions. A terrible mistake led to his disgrace as a physician, and far from being a stranger, he has ongoing acquaintances with a number of county residents who play fast and loose with the law.
Download or read book The Necessary Murder of Nonie Blake written by Terry Shames and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nonie Blake is back home from a mental institution where she has spent the last twenty years, and people are worried. Maybe too worried, for within a week of her return, Nonie is murdered. Police Chief Samuel Craddock thinks the only possible suspects are members of her tight-lipped family. Ever since Nonie tried to kill her sister when she was fourteen and was sent away to the institution, the family has kept to itself. Clues are scarce and Craddock is stumped. So he checks with therapists at the mental hospital to see whether they can add anything useful to his investigation. But he discovers that she has not been there for ten years. Now Craddock has to find out where Nonie has been all this time. Soon Craddock finds himself dealing not only with murder, but layers of deception and secrets, and in the midst of it all—a new deputy, one Maria Trevino, sent by the sheriff to beef up security in the small town of Jarrett Creek.
Download or read book An Unsettling Crime for Samuel Craddock written by Terry Shames and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-01-03 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Jarrett Creek Fire Department is called to douse a blaze on the outskirts of town, they discover a grisly scene: five black young people have been murdered. Newly elected Chief of Police Samuel Craddock, just back from a stint in the Air Force, finds himself an outsider in the investigation headed by the Texas Highway Patrol. He takes an immediate dislike to John Sutherland, a racist trooper Craddock’s fears are realized when Sutherland arrests Truly Bennett, a young black man whom Craddock knows and respects. Sutherland cites dubious evidence that points to Bennett, and Craddock uncovers facts leading in another direction. When Sutherland refuses to relent, Craddock is faced with a choice that will define him as a lawman—either let the highway patrol have its way, or take on a separate investigation himself. Although his choice to investigate puts both Craddock and his family in danger, he perseveres. In the process, he learns something about himself and the limits of law enforcement in Jarrett Creek. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Download or read book Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek written by Terry Shames and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The small town of Jarrett Creek is bankrupt. Samuel Craddock thought he was retired but now he's been asked to return as police chief. Gary Dellmore, heir apparent to the main bank, is dead, apparently murdered. Dellmore supposedly had a roving eye, although his wife says he was never serious about dallying. Still, Craddock wonders: Did the husbands and fathers of women he flirted with think he was harmless? What about his current lover, who insists that Dellmore was going to leave his wife for her? Craddock discovers that Dellmore had a record of bad business investments. Even worse, he took a kickback from a loan he procured, which ultimately drove the town into bankruptcy. Many people had motive to want Dellmore dead. Then the investigation turns up another crime. As Craddock digs down to the root of this mess, many in Jarrett Creek are left wondering what happened to the innocence of their close-knit community.
Download or read book A Killing in the Family written by Stephen Singular and published by Avon Books. This book was released on 1991 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Cotton Comes to Harlem written by Chester Himes and published by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. This book was released on 2011-08-03 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From “the best writer of mayhem yarns since Raymond Chandler” (San Francisco Chronicle) comes a hard-hitting, entertaining entry in the trailblazing Harlem Detectives series about two NYPD detectives who must piece together the clues of the scam of a lifetime. Flim-flam man Deke O’Hara is no sooner out of Atlanta’s state penitentiary than he’s back on the streets working a big scam. As sponsor of the Back-to-Africa movement, he’s counting on a big Harlem rally to produce a massive collection—for his own private charity. But the take is hijacked by white gunmen and hidden in a bale of cotton that suddenly everyone wants to get his hands on. As NYPD detectives “Coffin Ed” Johnson and “Grave Digger” Jones face the complexity of the scheme, we are treated to Himes’s brand of hard-boiled crime fiction at its very best.
Download or read book Murder at the Jubilee Rally written by Terry Shames and published by Severn House Publishers Ltd. This book was released on 2022-10-04 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chief of Police Samuel Craddock faces a race against time to solve a perplexing murder at a motorcycle rally before the event comes to an end. "Suggest for fans of mysteries featuring small-town police forces, including novels by Claire Booth, Steven F. Havill, and Tricia Fields" - Library Journal Starred Review With the annual Jubilee Motorcycle Rally approaching, Jarrett Creek residents are divided. Some despise the rowdy, unsavory behaviour of the bikers, but they bring welcome money to local merchants. What's to be done? At a town meeting to find a solution, temperatures flare as Amber Johnson and Lily Deverell - family women on opposing sides of the debate - throw accusations at each other. Attempting to appease both camps, Chief of Police Samuel Craddock enacts a curfew to dissuade late-night revellers. Nevertheless, trouble strikes. With the rally in full swing, Amber is found murdered at the event. Why did Amber leave her home that night? What secrets was she hiding from her family? Craddock quickly faces more challenges as he offers to take in his rebellious teenaged niece, Hailey, whose parents are at their wits' end. He soon understands their pain. Can Craddock keep Hailey under control, or will dealing with her allow a murderer to escape justice?
Download or read book Ghettoside written by Jill Leovy and published by One World/Ballantine. This book was released on 2015 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Discusses the hundreds of murders that occur in Los Angeles each year, and focuses on the story of the dedicated group of detectives who pursued justice at any cost in the killing of Bryant Tennelle"--Publisher's description.
Download or read book A Painted House written by John Grisham and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2010-03-16 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Until that September of 1952, Luke Chandler had never kept a secret or told a single lie. But in the long, hot summer of his seventh year, two groups of migrant workers — and two very dangerous men — came through the Arkansas Delta to work the Chandler cotton farm. And suddenly mysteries are flooding Luke’s world. A brutal murder leaves the town seething in gossip and suspicion. A beautiful young woman ignites forbidden passions. A fatherless baby is born ... and someone has begun furtively painting the bare clapboards of the Chandler farmhouse, slowly, painstakingly, bathing the run-down structure in gleaming white. And as young Luke watches the world around him, he unravels secrets that could shatter lives — and change his family and his town forever.... Don’t miss John Grisham’s new book, THE EXCHANGE: AFTER THE FIRM!
Download or read book A Deadly Affair at Bobtail Ridge written by Terry Shames and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Someone is trying to kill Jenny Sandstone and she might know who it is. But how can Samuel Craddock protect her when she seems hell-bent on protecting the attempted killer's identity? Craddock has learned to accept that his neighbor and friend Jenny's personal life is strictly secret. But when her dying mother tells him that Jenny is in danger, Craddock is confronted with a dilemma. He wants to respect Jenny's privacy, but he is haunted by the urgency in the dying woman's voice. Then when Jenny is the victim of a suspicious car accident, Craddock has no choice but to get involved. He demands that she tell him what he needs to know to protect her and to solve the mysteries surrounding the strange events that began taking place as soon as Jenny’s mother passed away. Forced to confront the past, Jenny plunges into a downward spiral of rage and despair. She is drinking heavily and seems bent on self-destruction. Craddock must tread lightly as he tries to find out who is behind the threats to her. But only by getting to the bottom of the secrets buried in Jenny’s past can he hope to save her both from herself and from whoever is out to harm her.
Download or read book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil written by John Berendt and published by Random House. This book was released on 1994-01-13 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic of true crime, set in a most beguiling Southern city—now in a 30th anniversary edition with a new afterword by the author “Elegant and wicked . . . might be the first true-crime book that makes the reader want to book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime.”—The New York Times Book Review Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. In this sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative, John Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club; the turbulent young gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the “soul of pampered self-absorption”; the uproariously funny drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young people dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience.
Download or read book A Risky Undertaking for Loretta Singletary written by Terry Shames and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-04-23 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A FAVORITE SERIES CHARACTER FINDS HERSELF IN HARM'S WAY. After using an online dating site for senior citizens, town favorite Loretta Singletary--maker of cinnamon rolls and arbiter of town gossip--goes missing. Chief Samuel Craddock's old friend Loretta Singletary--a mainstay of the Jarrett Creek community--has undergone a transformation, with a new hairstyle and modern clothes. He thinks nothing of it until she disappears. Only then does he find out she has been meeting men through an online dating site for small-town participants. When a woman in the neighboring town of Bobtail turns up dead after meeting someone through the same dating site, Craddock becomes alarmed. Will Craddock be able to find Loretta before she suffers the same fate? Finding out what happened to Loretta forces him to investigate an online world he is unfamiliar with, and one which brings more than a few surprises.
Download or read book Devil s Knot written by Mara Leveritt and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-01-30 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on a true story, this edition of Devil's Knot will tie-in to a major motion picture starring Academy Award winners Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth. This riveting portrait of a small Arkansas town recounts the all-too-true story of a brutal triple murder and the eighteen-year imprisonment of three innocent teenagers. For weeks in 1993, after the grisly murders of three eight-year-old boys, police in West Memphis, Arkansas, seemed stumped. Then suddenly, detectives charged three teenagers - alleged members of a satanic cult - with the killings. Despite the witch-hunt atmosphere of the trials and a case that included stunning investigative blunders, the teenagers, who became known as the West Memphis Three, were convicted. Jurors sentenced Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley to life in prison and Damien Echols, the accused ringleader, to death. The guilty verdicts were popular in their home state - even upheld on appeal - and all three remained in prison until their unprecedented release in August 2011. In Devil's Knot, award-winning investigative journalist Mara Leveritt presents the most comprehensive, insightful reporting ever done on this story - one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American legal history. In-depth research, meticulous reconstruction of the investigation and close-up views of its key participants unravel the many tangled knots of this endlessly shocking case.
Download or read book Murder and Mystery in Atlanta written by Corinna Underwood and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shocking story of the turn-of-the-century Atlanta Ripper and six other notorious cases from the dark side of Georgia’s capital city. Throughout 1911, Georgia’s Gate City was terrorized by a serial killer whose gruesome murders mirrored those of London’s Jack the Ripper. Only Atlanta’s Ripper claimed nearly three times as many victims—African American servant girls who, week by week, fell prey to the mysterious slasher. Like Jack, he was never found. His killing spree was just one in a century of appalling Atlanta crimes that would make national headlines. This chilling volume also includes the story of thirteen-year-old factory worker Mary Phagan, whose brutal slaying led to one of the most infamous trials in Georgia history. Journalist Corinna Underwood also explores the facts behind what came to be known as the Atlanta Child Murders and the conviction of perpetrator Wayne Williams; as well as the inexplicable vanishing of newlywed, Mary Shotwell Little. Still being investigated after forty years, the case of the “disappearing bride” haunts Atlanta to this day.
Download or read book The Last Death of Jack Harbin written by Terry Shames and published by Seventh Street Books. This book was released on 2014-01-07 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Small town mystery and veteran's issues collide as retired police chief Samuel Craddock investigates a murder. Right before the outbreak of the Gulf War, two eighteen-year-old football stars and best friends from Jarrett Creek signed up for the army. Woody Patterson was rejected and stayed home to marry the girl they both loved, while Jack Harbin came back from the war badly damaged. The men haven't spoken since. Just as they are about to reconcile, Jack is brutally murdered. With the chief of police out of commission, trusted ex-chief Samuel Craddock steps in--again. Against the backdrop of small-town loyalties and betrayals, Craddock discovers dark secrets of the past and present to solve the mystery of Jack's death.
Download or read book Little Pretty Things written by Lori Rader-Day and published by Seventh Street Books. This book was released on 2015-07-07 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mary Higgins Clark Award Winner! OLD RIVALRIES NEVER DIE. BUT SOME RIVALS DO. Juliet Townsend is used to losing. Back in high school, she lost every track team race to her best friend, Madeleine Bell. Ten years later, she’s still running behind, stuck in a dead-end job cleaning rooms at the Mid-Night Inn, a one-star motel that attracts only the cheap or the desperate. But what life won’t provide, Juliet takes. Then one night, Maddy checks in. Well-dressed, flashing a huge diamond ring, and as beautiful as ever, Maddy has it all. By the next morning, though, Juliet is no longer jealous of Maddy—she’s the chief suspect in her murder. To protect herself, Juliet investigates the circumstances of her friend’s death. But what she learns about Maddy’s life might cost Juliet everything she didn’t realize she had.
