Burrows - (Texas Red River Mysteries) by Reavis Z Wortham (Paperback)

About the Book

Lyndon B. Johnson is President, "Beatlemania " is in overdrive, and gasoline is 30 cents a gallon when Ned Parker retires as constable in Center Springs, Texas. But his plan to live a quiet life as a cotton farmer is soon torpedoed by a multi-state killing spree that sets northeast Texas on fire.

Book Synopsis

"The cinematic characters have substance and style. They walk off the page and talk Texas." --The Dallas Morning News

Constable Ned Parker's retirement is cut short when Center Springs, Texas, becomes the latest stop for a murderer who has already hit Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma on his deadly spree. A dead man hooked to fishing lines in the river draws Ned into the investigation to back up his nephew Cody, the new Constable and Vietnam vet. Cody and Deputy John Washington, the law south of the tracks, follow a lead from their small community to the long abandoned Cotton Exchange warehouse in Chisum. The building is a hoarder's paradise: each floor is stuffed to the ceiling with garbage, furniture, books, tools, tires, rats, and filth. But this maze of junk is also host to booby-traps, shafts, and bales. Was this lair built out of desperation or designed to torture and kill anyone trying to capture the elusive killer? Despite Ned's warnings, Cody dives into the building where he confronts both his own demons and a killer intent on destruction....

Review Quotes

"As in Ned's debut (The Rock Hole), his grandchildren, Top and Pepper, are on hand to provide welcome humor and lend perspective to the acutely and unobtrusively observed small-town landscape. The result is that rare bird, a mystery with something for everyone." -- Kirkus Reviews STARRED Review

"The cinematic characters have substance and style. They walk off the page and talk Texas." -- The Dallas Morning News

"Wortham's outstanding sequel to The Rock Hole...combines the gonzo sensibility of Joe R. Lansdale and the elegiac mood of To Kill a Mockingbird to strike just the right balance between childhood innocence and adult horror." -- Publishers Weekly STARRED Review

About the Author

Reavis Z. Wortham is the critically acclaimed author of the Red River Mysteries set in rural Northeast Texas in the 1960s. As a boy, he hunted and fished the river bottoms near Chicota, the inspiration for the fictional location. He is also the author of a thriller series featuring Texas Ranger Sonny Hawke. He teaches writing at a wide variety of venues including local libraries and writers' conferences. Wortham has been a newspaper columnist and magazine writer since 1988, and has been the Humor Editor for Texas Fish and Game Magazine for the past twenty-two years. He and his wife, Shana, live in Northeast Texas. Check out his website at www.reaviszwortham.com