AN UNSETTLING CRIME FOR SAMUEL CRADDOCK

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Fiction

Everyone has a price

AN UNSETTLING CRIME FOR SAMUEL CRADDOCK
A Samuel Craddock Mystery Prequel
By Terry Shames
270 pp. Seventh Street Books

Reviewed by Eric Petersen

Terry Shames is back with the sixth entry in her Samuel Craddock mystery series. The two previous books in the series, The Necessary Murder of Nonie Blake and A Deadly Affair at Bobtail Ridge, are also reviewed on this site.

Grizzled lawman and widower Samuel Craddock has come out of retirement to once again serve as chief of police for Jarrett Creek, the small, sleepy South Texas border town where he lives. The town went broke a while back and can't afford to hire a new police chief, and he doesn't need the money.

This entry in the series is a prequel that takes place in the late 1970s or early ’80s and opens with a young Craddock facing his first big case not long after being appointed Jarrett Creek’s new chief of police. Some folks in town believe that Samuel is too young for the job.

Not your typical Texas lawman, the laid-back Craddock has a college degree in geology, and enjoys a quiet life on his ranch with his wife Jeanne, to whom he’s devoted. But his serenity is shattered by a horrific crime that takes place on the outskirts of town – and hits close to home.

After the Jarrett Creek Fire Department puts out a ferocious house fire, they find the remains of five people inside – a woman, three teenage girls, and an 11-year-old boy, all of them black. The fire was no accident – it was set to cover up the murder of the people inside, though whoever set it didn’t even bother hiding the gas cans.

The case falls into the hands of the Texas Highway Patrol. The man in charge, John Sutherland, is an odious racist whom Samuel Craddock despises on sight. When Sutherland arrests a local black man named Truly Bennett for the murders, Craddock knows he’s got the wrong man.

That’s because Craddock has known Truly all his life. A good and kind man, Truly lends his expertise in cattle to all of Jarrett Creek’s ranchers. The Texas Ranger who’d been working on the case is also skeptical of Truly’s guilt. Craddock promises Truly’s father that he’ll do everything he can to clear his son’s name.

When he examines the crime scene, he finds that the burned out house, owned by an out of town rich family, was some kind of bordello. Sutherland claims that Truly Bennett killed everyone there because whoever ran the bordello tried to recruit his teenage sister as a prostitute, but there’s absolutely no proof of that.

Knowing a railroad job when he sees one, Craddock conducts his own investigation of the baffling murders. Meanwhile, he’s approached by the Jarrett Creek High School principal, who demands that something be done about the epidemic of drug abuse affecting his students. The problem becomes worse when a girl accidentally overdoses on pills and almost dies.

It doesn’t take long for Craddock to uncover the teenage drug dealer. Unfortunately, the kid’s father’s wealth always buys him out of trouble. It seems like everyone in Jarrett Creek has a price when it comes to the rich protecting their own, and that doesn’t sit well with Craddock.

With his friend Truly Bennett’s life on the line, Craddock determines to find the real killer or killers of the five black people in the bordello. The trail leads him into a deadly web of drug and human trafficking that reaches into the most unlikely of places – including local law enforcement.

It’s a case that will test Samuel Craddock’s faith in humanity and define him as both a lawman and a human being. An Unsettling Crime for Samuel Craddock is yet another fine entry in the Samuel Craddock mystery series.

My only criticism, and it’s a minor one, is that there’s no framing device to connect this prequel and the young Craddock to the grizzled older lawman whom readers know and love. 

On the plus side, it does give readers unfamiliar with the series a fine introduction to the character and what makes him tick. Highly recommended to mystery fans, it’s a great page-turner for a rainy day.


Eric Petersen is an administrator and blogmaster for the Internet Writing Workshop, an international, online writer’s group run out of Penn State University. You can reach him by e-mail at EricPetersen1970@hotmail.com
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