Preacher Finds a Corpse

A thoughtful small-town mystery features reluctant preacher Evan Wycliff as he investigates the suspicious death of a lifelong friend amid secrets, corruption, and questions of faith.

On a bitter February morning in rural Missouri, Evan Wycliff—a Harvard-educated theologian who returned home burdened by doubts about faith and purpose—is on his way to meet friends for a hunting outing when he stumbles upon the body of his lifelong friend, Bob Taggart. The apparent suicide shakes him to his core. Bob lies dressed in his Sunday best, accompanied by a strange typed note that raises more questions than it answers. Although the sheriff and everyone around him seem eager to accept the death as a tragic but straightforward act of despair, Evan cannot escape the feeling that something is terribly wrong.

As he comforts Bob's widow, Edith Taggart, Evan finds himself reluctantly drawn into the dead man's unfinished affairs. Hidden beneath the grief are bitter disputes over inherited farmland, mounting debts, secret government actions, and the growing desperation of neighbors whose lives hang in the balance. Tensions erupt when Joshua Emmett, a struggling tenant farmer facing the destruction of his home, arrives armed and enraged. Forced to defuse a potentially deadly confrontation, Evan discovers that Bob's death has sent shockwaves through the community, exposing resentments and fears that have been simmering for years.

The deeper Evan digs, the more troubling the circumstances become. Conflicting suicide notes, suspicious financial arrangements, unexplained military involvement, and whispers among influential men suggest that powerful forces may have been at work long before Bob pulled the trigger. Even Sheriff Chester Otis quietly admits that something about the case doesn't sit right, but without evidence, official channels are unwilling to pursue answers. Left with little more than intuition, compassion, and an unshakable sense of responsibility, Evan begins his own investigation.

Haunted by personal losses and struggling with questions that neither religion nor science have fully answered, Evan is an unlikely detective. More philosopher than preacher, and more reluctant hero than crusader, he finds himself standing between grief and vengeance, faith and doubt, truth and deception. As secrets buried beneath generations of small-town loyalties begin to surface, Evan realizes that solving Bob Taggart's death may require confronting not only the darkness surrounding his friend's final days, but also the unanswered questions that have shadowed his own life.

Blending traditional mystery with spiritual reflection and the atmosphere of rural Americana, Preacher Finds a Corpse introduces Evan Wycliff as a thoughtful and compassionate sleuth whose search for truth is inseparable from his search for meaning. The first installment in the Evan Wycliff Mysteries series combines murder, secrets, faith, and humanity in a story where the greatest mysteries may lie not in how people die, but in how they choose to live.

Recommended for fans of Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache novels, Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Clubseries, C. J. Box's Joe Pickett novels, and Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books.

The Evan Wycliff series has won 10 awards in mystery - including this book and its sequel Preacher Fakes a Miracle winning both Gold and Silver - the top two prizes in Mystery - in the New York City Big Book Awards in the same year!