Vicksburg

Tony Boudreaux Mystery #4

by Kent Conwell

When Private Investigator Tony Boudreaux agreed to drive an injured Jack Edney five hundred miles to Vicksburg, Mississippi for his father's funeral, Tony had no way of knowing that he would go through the nine lives of a cat before his visit to the historic city ended. When Jack asked Tony to look into his father's alleged accident, Tony found himself caught up in a devious scheme to defraud the dead man's family of twelve million dollars. Faced with a medical examiner's report that wouldn't have passed the scrutiny of a second-grader and a bizarre family that epitomizes dysfunction, Tony quickly realizes that the elder Edney had indeed been murdered.

After a falling bag of cement narrowly misses him, Tony assumes the near fatal incident was just an accident, but when several more "accidents" jeopardize his life, he realizes that someone either wants him off the case or to be a guest at his own funeral.

Can Tony find the killer before his own nine lives are up? Read this exciting new mystery from Kent Conwell to find out.

184 pages, Hardcover

First published June 30, 2005

About the author

Kent Conwell grew up in the Texas Panhandle in the town of Wheeler, population 848. The West was an integral part of his life. The solitude of the Panhandle, which offered little more than school and work, encouraged his reading and writing as well as his exploration of the vastness of the rolling prairies, the emptiness of which carried the presentiment itself of mystery and death.

A quest for adventure had been woven into his life by his grandfather, who had run away from his Tennessee home when he was 14. He bullwhacked his way to the Panhandle where he met his future wife who had traveled from Illinois to Texas.

After moving to Fort Worth where Kent was more at home at the stockyards than school, he earned a B.S. and began teaching. Later, he moved to Port Neches where he acquired a M.Ed. and Ph.D.

A successful educator, his love for writing about the West and its enigmas, a period in history unique to America, has never waned. After twenty-two westerns, he wrote his first mystery.
He has won awards for short stories, screenplays, mysteries, and westerns.

Reviews

[Madeleine Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

The devil in the details

A quick and engaging read, filled with all the elements of a good crime novel: a well thought out plan to murder Daddy and frame the siblings goes awry when one of the siblings hires a smart P.I. friend on a hunch that Daddy didn't die by accident. Add colorful villains, Vicksburg, Mississippi with all the ghosts of another war between brothers and the scenic backdrop of the Old South and its faded glory, mixed with the stereotyped, often comic, decadence of the present-day South, and enjoy watching the dominoes fall.

[Beth Yeary]

Thanks to the local library's book sale, I read this book. FINALLY. A book that I read through the whole thing, and NOT one F- bomb, or sex scene. Believe it or not, it was still a good book. (Sarcasim intended.) It seems that a lot of authors seem to think they have got to throw in profanity and/or sex to have a good book.

This book is a mystery about the investigation of a possible murder. As the hero of the book investigates for his friend, he does find out out that the father was murdered. Clues abound. All
pointing to some one different. I can truthfully say that the butler didn't commit the crime, as there is not butler. LOL

[Wanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was unimaginative, with no depth. The characters were not well-formed, and the book had inconsistencies (sometimes from page to page). I found myself reading to identify these inconsistencies, rather than seeing where the story led me.

Read as part of my 2015 reading challenge (a book that takes places in my hometown). I found, to the most part, the book could have been titled "Anytown, USA. I haven't decided if I will let this book count as part of my reading challenge.

2015 reading challenge:
- book that takes place in my hometown (maybe)

[Roseofpat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this author's writing style and his character Tony Boudreaux is great. Read two more of his books containing the character and would anymore of his books, when I come across any.

[Jo Ann Filipe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easy read and light mystery