As A Deadly Affair At Bobtail Ridge
opens Samuel Craddock is awakened by a pounding at his door. His neighbor, Jenny
Sandstone is on his porch and very upset. Her mom, Vera Sandstone, apparently has had a
stroke and has been rushed to a hospital in nearby Bobtail, Texas. Jenny needs
to get to the hospital and wants Samuel to call Truly Bennett to take care of
her horses. Despite his aversion to horses, Samuel takes care of them himself
and before long he is at the hospital.
Once there he comes upon an obvious confrontation of
some sort in the hallway near Vera’s room between Jenny and some guy who has
gone so far as grab her arm. Chief of Police Sheriff Samuel Craddock inserts
himself in the situation and learns the man is named Wilson Landreau. He is a
public defender and Jenny refers to the whole incident as politics. Jenny makes
it clear that not only is there nothing to talk about, she does not want Samuel
Craddock involved in any way. One wonders how she would characterize Vera’s
cryptic warning to Samuel Craddock just a few minutes later about Jenny being
in danger.
Good thing he also knows a thing of two about police
work while living in this South Texas rural area located in the middle of the
triangle formed by Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. He has been Chief of
Police for Jarret Creek before and while he did not really want the job again
he is very good at it. It does not take long for Craddock to come to the
conclusion that Vera may have been right in her warning. Jenny is clearly in a
world of trouble on multiple fronts and refusing any and all offers of help. Who
is messing with her and why are just two questions that need to be answered as
things escalate. How current events link back to an unspoken horror from more
than a decade ago drive the majority of this book.
That is not to say that the various secondary
storylines present in earlier books do not continue here. They do which is why this excellent series
should absolutely be read in order. Like any real good series, characters grow
and evolve, relationship dynamics change, and people age as the books move
forward in time. Of course, you could read this fourth installment in the
series first, but you really need to go back to the beginning with the award
nominated A
Killing At Cotton Hill.
A Deadly Affair At Bobtail Ridge: A Samuel Cradock Mystery
Terry
Shames
Seventh
Street Books
April
2015
ISBN#
978-1-63388-046-7
Paperback
250
Pages
$15.95
Material requested and received for my use in an
objective review via the Amazon Vine program.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2015
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1 comment:
Another terrific book by Terry Shames. I always look forward to the books in this series, just as I do the books by Steven F. Havill.
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