Ulverscroft Large Print
3 total works
There is mystery under the threat of nuclear missiles. It is October 1962. Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev is threatening to launch nuclear missiles from Cuba if the U.S. attempts to stage an invasion there. The Kennedy White House has been facing down the Soviets, but the threat of nuclear holocaust has unsettled the heartland. In Black River Falls, popular candidate for governor, Ross Murdoch, is stocking up his newly built bomb shelter. It's the last place you'd expect to find a corpse, or so young lawyer, Sam McCain thinks. The discovery of glamorous, sexy - and now very dead - Karen Hastings is the start of Sam's investigation into blackmail and murder. But, with four well-respected pillars of the community as his prime suspects, whom can Sam trust?
This novel is set in August 1960 when Vice President Nixon is riding the campaign trail. Among his next stops is Black River Falls, Iowa - a prospect that has the whole town talking. Meanwhile, reclusive preacher, John Muldaur claims that he may be the target of a papist assassination plot. Although Sam McCain, the town's youngest lawyer and sometime private investigator, finds this improbable, he can't deny it when the preacher drops dead at his own altar. With Nixon's visit only a week away, this inconvenient matter of murder must be cleared up fast. Between McCain and the solution stand a heap of local prejudices, unpleasant family secrets, another corpse and a cage full of rattlesnakes.
In September 1957 the Edsel made its long-awaited debut in Black River Falls, Iowa. The local Ford dealership was hosting a baton-twirling celebration to welcome the car of the future. But the future can't be taken for granted - a fact made all too clear by the discovery of Susan Squire's body in the boot of one of the brand-new cars. Now Private Eye Sam McCain must find out who killed the wife of the town's most prominent lawyer before the guilty party hits the road.