All the Dirty Cowards

Jesus Creek Mystery #7

by Deborah Adams

Dan McClain bought the old Vickers farm hoping to find a peaceful retreat in Jesus Creek, Tennessee, but the town’s unique reality hits home when skeletons start popping up in McClain’s yard, followed by the murder of a beloved local resident. Are the crimes connected? Amateur sleuth and genealogist Delia Cannon is determined to unearth the answer. As ghostly remnants of a long ago murder linger in the shadow of present day tragedy, Delia’s passion for truth draws the attention of a killer who isn’t about to let a decades-old crime come to light.

Genres: Mystery

186 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2000

About the author

Writer, naturalist, and yoga educator Deborah Adams is the author of eight novels and numerous works of short fiction. She posts once or twice a month on her blog at www.Deborah-Adams.com

Reviews

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#7 in the Jesus Creek, TN series. In what is evidently the final (2000) entry in the series, Adams has given the current mystery short shrift and concentrated on 19th century memoirs found at an estate sale by amateur genealogist Delia Cannon. These memoirs lead into a mystery of their own and also reveal the author's fascination with Jesse James. As in her fixation with spousal abuse in All the Hungry Mothers (1993), Adams has let her private life detract from the literary Jesus Creek community.

Jesus Creek, TN series - The old Vickers home has a new owner, who is going to breathe new life in Victorian farmhouse. In the digging of a pond, a skull emerges. The story of the Vickers place is interspersed with excerpts from the memoirs of Jeremiah Vickers. A meek man, he rides into Jesus Creek to take on the job as school master. Each snippet of the memoirs helps solve the mystery of the bones found in modern times. Delia, the amateur sleuth, her significant other, UFO enthusiast Roger, and their community of friends keep the story moving, and the tale intriguing.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amateur genealogist Delia Cannon finds the diary of Jeremiah Vickers, a Yankee schoolmaster who moved to Jesus Creek and encountered Jesse James, in a soul-searing interlude that changed his life. Meantime, back in the real world, Vickers' old home is sold to a new-comer, and one of the sellers is murdered. The local police chief warns Delia that when they find out who killed the popular man, everyone will be sorry--and so they are. As far as I know, this is the last Jesus Creek mystery--and perhaps not as fully realized as the earlier books in the series.