Red River Mysteries
3 primary works • 5 total works
Book 1
Book 2
Lyndon B. Johnson is President, Beatlemania is in overdrive and gasoline costs 30 cents a gallon when Ned Parker retires as constable in Center Springs, Texas. But his plan to live a quiet life as a cotton farmer is torpedoed. A phone call leads Ned to a body in the Red River and into the urgent investigation headed by his nephew, the newly elected constable Cody Parker. Together they work to head off a multi-state killing spree that sets northeast Texas on fire. As the weeks pass, Ned's grandchildren, ten-year-old Top and his tomboy cousin Pepper, struggle with personal issues resulting from their traumatic experiences at the Rock Hole only months before. They now find themselves in the middle of a nightmare for which no one can prepare. 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. Stunned, they find the Exchange packed full of the town's cast off garbage and riddled with booby-trapped passageways and dark burrows. Despite Ned's warnings, Cody enters the building and finds himself relying on his recent military experiences to save both himself and Big John. Unfortunately, the trail doesn't end there and the killing spree continues...
Book 6
The small, rural Northeast Texas community of Center Springs has seen its share of troubles during the 1960s, everything from kidnapping, murder, and bank robbery. By 1968, the residents think life has finally quieted down, but they find their peaceful way of life is quickly spinning out of control as a decades-long family feud between the Clays and Mayfields once again flares to life. Fourteen-year-old Top Parker who lives with his grandparents Constable Ned Parker and Miss Becky in a little farmhouse near the Red River finds himself caught up in another adult situation sparked by a mysterious fatal single car accident involving the white mayor of Chisum and his black female assistant. Questions and accusations arise about their relationship as the families wreak vengeance on each other.
But what is the significance of a man calling himself the Wraith, who moves through region at will, invading homes and watching the Parkers What is Maggie Clay's secret That she's half white and married to a black man with a long criminal past And was Mayor Frank Clay, the only bright spot in a dark and cruel family, really what everything thinks he is It's a busy time for Sheriff Cody Parker, who finds himself a possible suspect in the murder of several residents. He takes the advice from his Deputy John Washington and removes himself from the investigation, giving free reign to both John and Deputy Anna Sloan as they try and unravel the answers by following different paths. The ending will leave you staggering as the families clash on a small battlefield and the killer is finally revealed in a most unexpected way. These aren't the 1960s that most Baby Boomers remember.
But what is the significance of a man calling himself the Wraith, who moves through region at will, invading homes and watching the Parkers What is Maggie Clay's secret That she's half white and married to a black man with a long criminal past And was Mayor Frank Clay, the only bright spot in a dark and cruel family, really what everything thinks he is It's a busy time for Sheriff Cody Parker, who finds himself a possible suspect in the murder of several residents. He takes the advice from his Deputy John Washington and removes himself from the investigation, giving free reign to both John and Deputy Anna Sloan as they try and unravel the answers by following different paths. The ending will leave you staggering as the families clash on a small battlefield and the killer is finally revealed in a most unexpected way. These aren't the 1960s that most Baby Boomers remember.
