Dead of Summer

The Laurel Highlands seem idyllic, but for Trooper First Class Jim Duncan and Fayette County assistant public defender Sally Castle, it’s anything but.

On a sweltering summer day, Duncan is called to a particularly bloody murder scene. Days before the annual 4-H end of summer horse show, someone has used a hay hook in a very unintended fashion, making murder a candidate for “Best in Show.”

Len Taylor lives for the 4-H, but he has a nasty habit. He’s abrasive, abusive, and generally rubs everyone the wrong way. So it’s not really a surprise when someone confronts him about it – except that the confrontation ended with Len stabbed through the throat.

As Duncan investigates the death, it appears that his volunteers might not have been the only people who wanted Taylor dead. There’s Taylor’s deadbeat, gambling son, Derek – who might have learned more about horses if he’d been part of 4-H, at least enough to know which ones to bet on. The 4-H’s financial health isn’t the best either. Tony DiCosta, Sally’s client in an embezzling case, had murder on his mind, and in his words, the last time he and Taylor talked.

Then there’s volunteer-addict Miriam Connolly. Ungratefully removed from her role with the horse show, did she go gracefully or did Taylor’s blunt dismissal threaten to kill her identity as a model mother?

It’s up to Jim Duncan and Sally Castle to figure out whether a family feud, embezzlement, or poor volunteer management led to Len’s untimely death – or was he just a victim of the deadly summer heat gone wrong?

“Dead of Summer,” the fourth installment in THE LAUREL HIGHLANDS MYSTERIES, oringally appeared at Mystericale.com in the April 2014 issue.