Cruel As The Grave (A Silver Dagger Mystery)

Cruel As The Grave (A Silver Dagger Mystery)

Maggie McLendon should be at home in Houston, studying for her Ph.D. qualifying exams, but a letter from her great aunt arrives, bearing bad news. Maggie's grandfather, Henry McLendon, whom she has never met, is seriously ill in Jackson, Mississippi. Maggie's father, English professor Gerard McLendon, has been estranged from his family since Maggie was an infant, but now there is perhaps one last chance for the McLendons to be reunited. The family welcomes Maggie and Gerard to Jackson, and Gerard has a chance to reconcile with his father. But a murderer strikes, savagely, and Gerard McLendon looks like the chief suspect. Maggie must sort out decades of family secrets, including the puzzle of her grandmother's death twenty-five years before and its relationship to the present crime, to arrive at the truth. But not before the killer strikes a second time. Could Maggie or her father be next on the list? From the Author I've been a devoted mystery reader since the age of ten and now the manager of Murder By The Book, a specialty bookstore in Houston, I have published numerous articles, interviews, and reviews, and several works of non-fiction on the subject of mysteries. My first novel-length mystery fiction, Cruel As The Grave, will be published in May 2000, by Silver Dagger Mysteries. I grew up in Mississippi, with scads of cousins all over the place, none of whom has ever married one another as far as I know. Sitting around on porches on hot summer days, listening to adults telling stories, I decided I wanted to tell stories, too. I wrote my first novel when I was twelve, and I've been making up stories ever since. No matter where those stories are set, something Southern creeps in. I think that growing up Southern was like living in the middle of every one of Shakespeare's plays all at once. Comedy, drama, tragedy, farce--they're with you every day; all you have to do is choose. From the Back Cover "In Cruel as the Grave, Dean James brings to life a family burdened by dark secrets. Determined sleuth Maggie McLendon peels away layers of hidden sadness to find the truth of her heritage in a haunting mystery steeped in the richness of Southern culture --" Carolyn Hart, author of the Death on Demand and Henrie O mysteries "Cruel as the Grave is an engaging, literate novel of family secrets and skullduggery. With a clever plot and appealing characterization, Mr. James has created the perfect English drawing room mystery set smack in the middle of steamy Mississippi. It is a witty and solid debut that will leave mystery readers clamoring for more." -- Earlene Fowler, author of Seven Sisters "Cruel As The Grave exposes the underbelly of a Southern family, where secrets and skeletons lurk, cloaked in every imaginable guise. Well-written, deftly-plotted, and highly-recommended for fans of Faulkner and others who zeroed in on the dysfunctional social structure that, to this day, continues to be concealed by superficiality and faded magnolia blossoms." -- Joan Hess, author of the Maggody and Clair Malloy mysteries Excerpt.