Tag Archives: Terry Shames

Being Dead Broke Can be Lethal in Jarrett Creek

Dead Broke_coverDead Broke in Jarett Creek
Terry Shames
Seventh Street Books
Trade Paper, 250 pages, $15.95
ebook $11.99 Kindle Nook

Hard times have come to the small town of Jarrett Creek.  The city coffers are empty, and there’s a dead body behind the American Legion building.

The body belongs the son of a prominent banker who works at his father’s bank.  He was last seen alive in the parking lot after a meeting to discuss what to do about the town being broke.

Now there isn’t any money to pay the police.  The now former chief hasn’t finished drying out, so he’s in no shape to continue with the job, even if there were money to pay him.  The acting chief quits when he learns he won’t be getting paid.

Thus it falls to former police chief Samuel Craddock to fill in.  He agrees to work for a dollar a year.  His first order of business: find who killed Gary Dellmore.  Was it a jealous wife?  A jealous girlfriend?  A business partner?  Someone associated with a failed water park development, the same development that caused the city to go broke?  Or someone else? Continue reading

Death and Football in Texas

Last Death of Jack HarbinThe Last Death of Jack Harbin
Terry Shames
Seventh Street Books
Trade paper, 255 pp., $15.95
ebook $11.99
Amazon   Barnes and Noble

I missed Terry Shames’ debut novel, A Killing at Cotton Hill. It was on my radar, but before I got around to buying and reading it, a review copy of her second novel, The Last Death of Jack Harbin, showed up. I’d like to thank Lisa Michalski of Seventh Street Books for the review copy.

This is the second novel about Samuel Craddock, the retired police chief of Jarret Creek, a small town in southeast Texas. In this one, he has to solve the murder of Jack Harbin. Harbin was once one of the stars of the high school football team. He enlisted in the Army shortly before the Gulf War broke out, and when he returned he was missing his eyesight and one leg.

Shortly after his father has a fatal heart attack, Jack is found brutally stabbed in his bed. There are a number of suspects. His former best friend and teammate from high school, his estranged brother, some unknown person with a grudge. Since the current police chief has been taken away to dry out and his replacement is only slightly more competent than Barney Fife, Craddock is asked by the city council to look into the matter. Continue reading