The Sand Bluff Murders: Jason McCleary Series, vol. 1

by C.M. Albrecht

Sleepy Sand Bluff hasn't had a murder in twenty years. That's about to change!"

When Jonas McCleary gets the opportunity to join the force in sleepy Sand Bluff, he jumps at it. A cushy job in a little town where nothing ever happens. He can relax and enjoy life, and since Jonas is getting onto thirty, he’s hoping with a little luck, to meet Miss Right. But on his third day in Sand Bluff, another officer, Ackers, finds a body in an alley.

Now the only bright thing about Harold Ackers is his badge. Ackers thought the guy was drunk and only after he managed to get him to headquarters did someone inform Ackers that his drunk was dead. Albert Mohr, cocky and mouthy, isn’t much better, and probably not much brighter, so Chief Raymond Castillo is depending on Jonas, his only real cop with any previous training, to solve this mystery and bring a killer to justice.

Jonas just wishes he had the confidence his chief places in him. But he’s going to give it his best shot.& As he goes around town talking to people, he meets some strange residents, especially little person, Lester/Jessica, trailer court operator and dog trainer. Lester/Jessica is also a transvestite with a mammoth bodybuilder boyfriend, and of course, there’s Larry Peters, the town insurance agent and his wife, town hussy, Twyla. Twyla’s got quite a reputation.

Jonas also meets Roxie Jenkins whose father runs the local newspaper. Could she just be Miss Right? Stay tuned! As Jonas digs around in Sand Bluff’s dirt he learns about the horse ranch, Oak Park, and the accident. He learns too that Jessica’s father murdered Jessica’s mother twenty years ago, did his time and now works out at the ranch. Lot of bad blood there.

And then there’s Twyla. She’s hot and boy, does she know it! There isn’t a male in town that hasn’t had Twyla flirt and tease at him, including Jessica’s boyfriend, Terrence. No man is immune. For Twyla, it’s all funny. Lots of laughs. A real ego builder. Boy, would we love to read her diary!

But Sand Bluff never expected Twyla to be found lying in a pool of blood. Or did it?

What happened? Did she drive someone to murder? Any man in town might have lost it if Twyla led him on and then laughed in his face. Or how about the town’s womenfolk?

Women don’t take kindly to other women flirting with their menfolk. Of course Twyla’s husband Larry is a prime suspect. She really knew how to torture him. Turns out she was pregnant too, and Larry’s sterile.

Now with two murders on his hands and no apparent connection, Jonas is wandering around in circles. As he plods along, his quest leads him out to Oak Park, the horse ranch, back to town to the Blu Lite Lounge and soon he begins to tie loose ends together as he comes closer and closer to bringing these murders to a solution. But before he can do that, there may be still more murders and surprises to come in “The Sand Bluff Murders”