Daughters of Bad Men by Laura Oles / Review by Danny Lindsey

DAUGHTERS  OF BAD MEN
By Laura Oles

Red Adept Publishing
$12.99
ISBN 978-0615816319
Publication Date:  November 14, 2017

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BOOK OF THE DAY
Killer Nashville 2018 Silver Falchion Nominee

In Daughters of Bad Men (Red Adept Publishing, 2017) photojournalist, Laura Oles draws from a blend of the familiar and the unique in crafting a whodunit that keeps the reader reading non-stop.

Who would think that the daughter of a con-man would leave the con-world behind and jump to the other side of the law? And who would think that her half-brother, himself a con-man, would use his own daughter in the life? Jamie Rush is a small town private eye in Port Alene, Texas, content (mostly) to work divorce cases, trace deadbeat dads, and perform other skip tracing jobs. She makes a modest living and enjoys, for the first time in her life, actually staying put longer than just to the end of the con.

When her niece disappears and her half-brother asks Jamie for help finding her, she knew at once that something was wrong. He shifted from lie-to-lie-to-partial-truth, in turn shifting her reaction from concern-to-worry-to-even stronger feelings. The path to finding her niece immediately involved Jamie with rival gangs, bookies, wealthy patrons and their confused interrelationships. There is no shortage of either intrigue or danger.

Daughters of Bad Men also exposes a portion of society that is continuously simmering, just below the surface and out of sight. Blood feuds, rival bar owners, and family rifts all appear to a greater or lesser extent. The thing is, they are all portrayed as they are, and do not require the reader to stretch the imagination to realize that even in a small town there is often more (or less) than meets the eye.

For her first foray into full-length fiction, Laura Oles has demonstrated that her fictional eye is every bit as accurate as her camera lens. Well deserving of earning a place as a Killer Nashville Claymore Award finalist, Daughters of Bad Men is a solid tale, well told, and a promise of more to come from Jamie Rush. I’ll be waiting for the next one.

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Danny Lindsey keeps trying to retire. After a 20-year Army career and a 25-year second one in the private sector, he’s finally settled down. His current gig is as the Veteran Employment Services Manager for a Huntsville, A.L.  based non-profit, Still Serving Veterans. Both full careers were characterized by numerous writing assignments, from war plans to operating policies and procedures, then on to white papers, analyses of alternatives and competitive contract and grant proposals. Now his writing consists of blogs for the website www.ssv.org, podcasts for the local NPR affiliate, and a half dozen Pulitzer-worthy, albeit unpublished novels.

Update:  Danny won the 2017 Killer Nashville Claymore Award with his manuscript Serial Justice –  so he will not be unpublished for long!

"A Killing At Cotton Hill" by Terry Shames / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

A retired chief of police is pulled into the investigation of an old friend in a Texas small town in A Killing at Cotton Hill, a debut novel you won’t want to miss.

This review for A Killing at Cotton Hill by Terry Shames has a special meaning to me: the manuscript was a finalist for 2010’s Killer Nashville’s Claymore Award (www.claymoreaward.com).  In Terry’s words:  “I got a two-book contract for my Texas mystery series. BOTH of them were finalists for the Claymore Award. The first, The Art of Murder (now A Killing At Cotton Hill), was a finalist two years ago. Shortly after the announcement I got an agent I really wanted.”  Killer Nashville (www.killernashville.com) does get results and here is the proof.

Samuel Craddock is the former chief of police in the small town of Jarrett Creek, Texas where the current chief of police doubles as the town drunk.  When a murder is committed, it is not the real chief of police who is contacted to solve the crime, but Craddock.  This launches a whole new mystery series involving this tough and irascible, but all heart ex-cop.

This is a mystery in the traditional sense.  It is a small town, yet there are numerous unforgettable characters who would have every reason to kill the woman in question, an old friend of Craddock’s.  In solving the crime, Craddock exposes the very real characters of Jarrett Creek, which serves as a great literary device for revealing the setting.  Interestingly enough, this is a personal novel for Shames; the character of Samuel Craddock is based loosely upon her maternal grandfather who served the town he lived in off-the-books long after his term of mayor had ended.

Out of hundreds of manuscripts at the 2010 Claymore Awards, this manuscript rose to the top.  And out of all the books on your shelves, this will be one of your favorites.

I am so proud of Terry Shames and what is yet to come.  This is a great time to discover a new author.  One of the backstories I love about this manuscript is that Terry wrote it while floating around on her catamaran.  Now that’s the life.  Forget Key West and the five-toed cats.

I look forward to many other books from Terry Shames and Seventh Street Books.  Terry is a success story, but more than that, she’s a great storyteller and a wonderful lady.  Her next book, The Last Death of Jack Harbin, is scheduled to be released January 2014.  I can hardly wait.

Until next time, read like someone is burning the books!

Clay Stafford

– Clay Stafford is a husband, father, author / filmmaker (www.ClayStafford.com), business owner (www.AmericanBlackguard.com), and founder of Killer Nashville (www.KillerNashville.com) with over 1.5 million copies of his own books in print in over 14 languages.  Stafford’s latest projects are the feature documentary “One of the Miracles” (www.OneOfTheMiracles.com) and the music CD “XO” (www.JefferyDeaverXOMusic.com). Publishers Weekly has named Stafford one of the top 10 Nashville literary leaders playing “an essential role in defining which books become bestsellers” not only in middle-Tennessee, but also extending “beyond the city limits and into the nation’s book culture.”  (PW 6/10/13)

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