Samuel Craddock mysteries

"The shocking murder of a wounded veteran challenges the investigative skills of ex-chief Samuel Craddock. Just before the outbreak of the Gulf War, two eighteen-year-old football stars and best friends from Jarrett Creek, Texas signed up for the army. But Woody Patterson was rejected and stayed home to marry the girl they both loved, while Jack Harbin came back from the war badly damaged. The men haven't spoken since. Just as they are about to reconcile,...

"In a small town in Ease Central Texas, Samuel Craddock has learned to accept that his friend Jenny Sandstone's personal life is strictly secret. But when Jenny's dying mother tells Craddock that Jenny is in danger, he is confronted with a dilemma. He wants to respect Jenny's privacy, but he is haunted by the urgency in the dying woman's voice. Forced to confront the past, Jenny plunges into a downward spiral of rage and despair. Craddock knows that...

"When the Jarrett Creek Fire Department is called to douse a blaze on the outskirts of town, they discover a grisly scene: five black young people have been murdered. Newly elected Chief of Police Samuel Craddock, just back from a stint in the Air Force, finds himself an outsider in the investigation headed by the Texas Highway Patrol. He takes an immediate dislike to John Sutherland, a racist trooper Craddock's fears are realized when Sutherland...

Chief Samuel Craddock's old friend Loretta Singletary has undergone a transformation, with a new hairstyle and modern clothes. He thinks nothing of it until she disappears. Only then does he find out that she has been flirting in an online dating site for small-town participants. When a woman from a nearby town who frequented the same site is murdered, Craddock becomes alarmed. Evidence shows that Loretta was lured to a meeting with a Mr. Hart, who...

"Chief of Police Samuel Craddock is perplexed by a series of increasingly troubling events at Granger's Store. The shop owner's son, Mark Granger, has plans to renovate and modernise the popular animal feed store in the small Texas town of Jarret Creek. But when he's assaulted, its clear that some town folk are against his ideas. Could the devastating fire that follows be linked to the threatening phone calls Mark has been receiving? When the body...