Running Out of Road
A Buck Schatz Mystery
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- 11,99 €
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- 11,99 €
Publisher Description
The Edgar Award-nominated Buck Schatz series of mysteries featuring a retired cop in Memphis continues with Running Out of Road.
"Daniel Friedman has done it again—only better."— Michael Sears, bestselling author of Black Fridays
Once, Detective Buck Schatz patrolled the city of Memphis, chasing down robbers and killers with a blackjack truncheon and a .357. But he's been retired for decades. Now he's frail and demented, and Rose, his wife of 72 years, is ill and facing a choice about her health care that Buck is terrified to even consider. The future looks short and bleak, and Buck's only escape is into the past.
But Buck's past is under attack as well. After 35 years on death row, convicted serial killer Chester March finally has an execution date. Chester is the oldest condemned man in the United States, and his case has attracted the attention of NPR producer Carlos Watkins, who believes Chester was convicted on the strength of a coerced confession. Chester's conviction is the capstone on Buck's storied career, and, to save Chester's life, Watkins is prepared to tear down Buck's reputation and legacy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Buck Schatz makes a welcome return in Edgar finalist Friedman's thoughtful third mystery featuring the retired Jewish cop (after 2014's Don't Ever Look Back). In 2011, Carlos Watkins, the producer of a true crime podcast, reopens one of Buck's old cases. Chester March is finally about to be executed for killing his missing wife after decades on death row in Tennessee. Flash back to 1955 when Schatz was a junior detective with the Memphis PD. His first contact with March, an affluent white man, makes Schatz instantly suspicious, and his conviction that March is a killer intensifies after he learns of the 1953 murder of a black prostitute, who was seen by another prostitute getting into March's car. Despite the evidence Buck amasses, the district attorney refuses to proceed on the basis of "testimony of a negro whore and a Jew detective." Friedman gradually reveals how March eventually ended up facing lethal injection. Segments from Watkins's show nicely explore whether the death penalty is ever appropriate. John Grisham fans looking for more nuance and deeper characterizations will be rewarded.
