Burrows

by Reavis Wortham

Overview

"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....

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781464200076
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	07/03/2012
Series:	Texas Red River Mysteries , #2
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	928,816
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Reavis Z. Worthamis 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 forTexas Fish and Game Magazinefor the past twenty-two years. He and his wife, Shana, live in Northeast Texas. Check out his website atwww.reaviszwortham.com

Editorial Reviews

Wortham’s outstanding sequel to The Rock Hole (2011), likewise set in 1964 East Texas, finds Ned Parker uncomfortably adjusting to being merely a retired constable. Ned’s nephew, Cody, is settling into the job of new constable, while Ned’s grandson, Top, and great-niece, Pepper, are enjoying being bright, inquisitive 11-year-olds. Rural life isn’t exactly easy, but it’s predictable; people know themselves and what to expect of each other. The discovery of a headless corpse in the Red River and a butchered farm family nearby, the handiwork of an escaped lunatic, shoves the Parkers into a vortex of insanity that culminates in Cody and Dep. John Washington getting trapped in boobytrapped tunnels burrowed through the junk, including leftover bales of cotton, that fills the huge Cotton Exchange warehouse. Wortham 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. Author tour. Agent: Jeanie Pantelakis, Sullivan Maxx Literary Agency. (July)

Publishers Weekly

A ripping good tale.

author of Comanche Sundown Jan Reid

"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

"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

From the Publisher

Another stroll down memory lane to Center Springs, Texas, where life in 1964 is a lot more eventful than you remember. Kendal Bowden's therapist said that laying the ghosts to rest would help. So Kendal's embarked on a murder spree, killing Randal Wicker and Josh Brooks, former schoolmates who tormented Kendal as a child, along with Josh's wife, Beth, and his mother, Onie Mae. A headless body found in the creek turns out to be that of Kevin Jennings, whom Kendal broke out of a Tulsa asylum before tiring of his company. Although Ned Parker has retired as constable in favor of his son, Cody, it's Ned who gets called to the scene and pressed into service when it becomes clear that Kendal is the killer. Even so, Cody, who served as a tunnel rat in Vietnam, will see plenty of equally nerve-shredding action on the homefront. When the trail leads to the home that Kendal's abusive stepfather, retired mortician George Hart, shares with his invalid brother Alvin, a rookie deputy's mistake triggers a device that turns the house into a deathtrap. Now it's up to Cody and Big John Washington, Lamar County's only deputy of color, to make their way through a dark, deadly interior labyrinth rendered disgusting by George's inability to throw anything away and harrowing by the booby traps someone's set. As in Ned's debut (The Rock Hole, 2011), 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