An Unsettling Crime for Samuel Craddock: A Samuel Craddock
Mystery Prequel. Terry Shames. Prometheus
Books. January 2017. 270 pp. ISBN #: 9781633882096.
Samuel
Craddock has recently been appointed Chief of Police in small town Jarret
Creek, Texas. Some treat him with
respect and others scorn his office as he’s in his 30s, a very young age
compared to most law officers in the area.
Because there’s not much crime locally, for the most part, Sam decides
to try his hand at raising a few head of cattle. He and his wife are about to welcome the
delivery of these bovine additions to their family when he receives a call
about a fire and something that should be seen immediately. What he finds is so far beyond his recent experience
in the Air Force, a grisly fire that burns five people to death and one of them
has clearly been shot at point-blank range!
This
then is the story of how Sam bypasses and gingerly maneuvers around the
flagrant racial prejudice of another law officer and several people in the
town, the rambunctious journalist who will do anything for an exciting story
like this, corruption in the town, a major drug problem in the local high
school, and those who do everything possible to impede Sam’s independent
investigation of the fire and murders. Add
to that Sam’s dysfunctional family with a nephew who desperately needs some
tender loving care beyond his own parents.
It's
not just racial prejudice that’s rampant in Jarret Creek. Certain “important” families think that their
high status means they are untouchable when it comes to breaking the law. It’s not until a crisis happens that Sam’s
determined nature begins to transform from insecurity to maturity.
Crimes
in these types of legal thrillers or mysteries are almost always solved and the
surprise involves unusual investigative techniques and the unpredictability of
the perpetrator or perpetrators.
However, there’s another element here, the abandoning of stereotyping
everyone with the same brush. So Sam
gives the reader hope that lack of prejudice clears one’s mind to see things
objectively and thus connect links toward a solution that not only solves the
crime but also serves as a teaching moment for many who may have spurned such
previous moments.
Nicely crafted Terry
Shames! This is a prequel to six other
Sam Craddock mysteries – happy reading all!
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