Dead Man Blues
A Novel
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3.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A USA TODAY BESTSELLER!
Two grisly murders. A disgraced former mayor. A tranquil town on the verge.
This gripping historical crime novel set in the South pulls the past into the present, perfect for fans of Attica Locke and Wiley Cash.
Dave Hendricks was once a respected man in Shady Grove, a tiny town on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. But after his wife leaves him for his best friend, he also loses his job, and his reputation is left in shambles. With nothing but his houseboat and his dog left, he’s working odd jobs and listening to the blues. But when murder strikes their peaceful town, Dave finds himself compelled to team up with Sheriff Victor Burns, the man who betrayed him and took his wife, to find the killer.
Two bodies are found on Cedar Lake, and both murders strike fear in the tight-knit community. Old friends and foes are drawn back into Hendricks’s life in the investigation, and he’s forced to finally come to terms with what is and what was—or see justice die in the process.
Powerful and intriguing at every turn, Dead Man Blues asserts S. D. House as a knife-sharp voice in the crime genre.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
House (Lark Ascending, as Silas House) pivots from literary fiction to crime fiction with this solid 1950s-set whodunit. Dave Hendricks was the mayor of Shady Grove, a small town on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee, for seven years before his best friend, county sheriff Victor Burns, started an affair with Dave's wife, Janet, and Dave entered a downward spiral that ended up costing him his job. Now, Dave has divorced Janet and receded from public life, opting instead for a quiet existence on a houseboat with his dog. The past rears its head, however, when Dave hears screams from a nearby fishing camp and rushes there to find Esau Campbell, the sleazy head of the camp, stabbed to death in the shower house, "Sins of the Father" scrawled in red paint on a nearby wall. Victor arrives a short time later and, despite his and Dave's bad blood, asks for his old friend's help to catch the killer. It's a well-worn setup, but House makes the most of it, plausibly dramatizing Dave and Victor's gradual reconciliation while maintaining taut suspense and introducing plenty of suspects. It's a page-turner.
Customer Reviews
Nothing original
Very slow. The whole story was like an episode of Murder She Wrote.