Guilt Strikes at Granger's Store - (Samuel Craddock Mysteries) by Terry Shames

About the Book

Samuel Craddock is perplexed by a series of troubling events at Granger's Store wit the shop owner's son, Mark Granger, is subject to threatening phone calls, an assault and the shop is set on fire. When a body of an outsider is found in the scorched shop, Craddock's investigation takes a deadly turn...

Book Synopsis

Trouble hits an animal feed store in a small Texas town, leaving Samuel Craddock grappling with a deadly mystery.

"The Samuel Craddock series may be the best regional crime series around today. This installment is no exception" Library Journal Starred Review

Chief of Police Samuel Craddock is perplexed by a series of increasingly troubling events at Granger's Store. The shop owner's son, Mark Granger, has plans to renovate and modernise the popular animal feed store in the small Texas town of Jarret Creek. But when he's assaulted, its clear that some town folk are against his ideas. Could the devastating fire that follows be linked to the threatening phone calls Mark has been receiving?

When the body of an outsider originally from Jarret Creek is found in the scorched shop, Craddock's investigation takes a sudden deadly turn. Who is determined to stop the renovation at any cost, and why? As Craddock investigates, he unearths dark secrets stretching back thirty years . . .

Review Quotes

The Samuel Craddock series may be the best regional crime series around today. This installment is no exception-- "Library Journal Starred Review"

Readers of Shames' earlier Craddock adventures. . .will expect, and get, shocking revelations-- "Booklist"

Long memories help solve a fascinating case in a small town with plenty of big problems-- "Kirkus Reviews"

A neat character-intensive combo of clever police work and family angst-- "Kirkus Reviews on Murder at the Jubilee Rally"

A surprise ending makes this entry one of Shames' best in an enjoyable series that raises small-town problems and their solutions to an art form-- "Kirkus Reviews on A Risky Undertaking for Loretta Singletary"

Craddock's understated first-person narration, the vivid secondary characters, and a nicely drawn small-town setting . . . Should win Shames new fans-- "Publishers Weekly on Murder at the Jubilee Rally"

Readers new to the series will find themselves quickly at home in Jarrett Creek-- "Publishers Weekly on A Reckoning in the Back Country"

Series fans and newcomers with a taste for well-wrought regional mysteries will be rewarded-- "Publishers Weekly on A Risky Undertaking for Loretta Singletary"

Shames's award-winning series will appeal to fans of Steven Havill and the late Bill Crider-- "Library Journal on A Risky Undertaking for Loretta Singletary"

Shames's superior sixth Samuel Craddock mystery [is] a timely story with resonance in the era of Black Lives Matter-- "Publishers Weekly Starred Review of An Unsettling Crime for Samuel Craddock"

Suggest for fans of mysteries featuring small-town police forces, including novels by Claire Booth, Steven F. Havill, and Tricia Fields-- "Library Journal Starred Review of Murder at the Jubilee Rally"

About the Author

Award-winning author Terry Shames is the author of nine previous Samuel Craddock mysteries. As well as winning the Macavity Award for Best First Novel, A Killing at Cotton Hill was also nominated for The Strand Critics Award. The Necessary Murder of Nonie Blake won the RT Critics Award for Best Mystery. Her books have also been nominated for Left Coast Crime Awards for Best Mystery.

Terry grew up in Texas, and her Samuel Craddock series is set in the fictitious town of Jarrett Creek, which is based on the fascinating people, landscape and culture of the small town where her grandparents lived. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and on the board of Mystery Writers of America.