Samuel Craddock is back, pulled out of retirement as Chief of Police, when the town of Jarrett Creek goes bankrupt. The town’s full-time police officers walk out when they hear there’s no money for paychecks, leaving Chief Craddock with a couple of part-time officers and a murder to solve.
Chief Craddock decides the first course of action is to interview all the people who were at the town meeting the night Gary Dellmore, the town’s bank manager, was killed. With each interview the list of motives and suspects grows. The Chief soon learns that Dellmore had numerous affairs during his marriage, a history of making bad business decisions, and had received a kickback from the loan he made for the water park deal which caused the town’s bankruptcy. With the citizens of Jarrett Creek angry over the town’s financial situation and plenty of blame to go around, Chief Craddock is kept busy sorting through hidden agendas to get to the truth.
As pieces of the puzzle start falling into place, Chief Craddock discovers there is more than one crime to solve. In order to find out who killed Dellmore, the Chief will have to unscramble the rest of the clues.
In this third Samuel Craddock Mystery, Shames follows a familiar formula, that of Chief Craddock working his way through a long list of suspects. Fans who enjoy a slower pace in their mysteries will find this an enjoyable read as the Chief interviews well-developed characters and even encounters a few surprises along the way. Without gratuitous sex or violence, this series provides a small-town feel to the police procedural genre.
FTC Full Disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided by its publisher.
