Article -- THE DEVIL'S BONES -- CURRENT

Sweazy to release new mystery novel

Posted by Zach Dunkin

From the CURRENT - 2/26/12

After making his mark as an award-winning author of Western novels, Noblesville author Larry Sweazy has returned to the genre which started it all – mystery.

Sweazy, who won the Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Short Story (2005), the Best Book of Indiana Award (2011) and the Will Rogers Medallion Award for Best Western Fiction (2011) for his popular Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger series, is publishing his first modern-day mystery novel.

“The Devil’s Bones” will receive national distribution on March 7 and will be available in all major and independent bookstores, and through online outlets such as Amazon.com. It will be published by Five Star.

The story is set in fictional Dukaine, Ind., where a late summer drought drains a pond, and a small skeleton turns up in the mud. The townsfolk believe they are the bones of Tito Cordova, an 8-year-old boy and son of a female migrant worker, who had disappeared 19 years earlier.

Sweazy is the author of four previously published novels in the award-winning Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger series for Berkeley. He actually began writing this book before taking a detour with the series.

“This just took awhile to find a publisher,” explained Sweazy of “The Devil’s Bones.” “So, actually, I had to switch modes from mysteries to Westerns.

“But all of my Josiah Wolfe novels have a mystery in them, so, I haven’t really swayed that much from my origins. A mystery is a perfect vehicle for me to tell the stories I want to, and have to – where the time frame is modern day or 1875.”

The fifth Josiah Wolfe novel, “The Coyote Tracker,” is scheduled for release in August, and the sixth, “The Gila Wars,” in May 2013, which Sweazy is wrapping up now.

“The future of the series is undecided at the moment,” he said. “I should know if the publisher plans to carry on with it in a few months, and I’ll make my decision then whether I want to carry on with it as well.”

Breakout: Book signings

• Larry Sweazy will be signing books at the following locations:
• March 14, 5-8 p.m. – Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 17090 Mercantile Blvd., Noblesville.
• March 17, 1-4 p.m. – Mudsock Books & Curiosity Shoppe, 11850 Allisonville Rd., Fishers.

By Zach Dunkin
editorial@youarecurrent.com

THE DEVIL'S BONES giveaway contest

Win a free, signed copy of THE DEVIL'S BONES.  Leave a comment in the comments section, and a way for me to send you a book, if win.  Simple as that.  I'll pick a winner 03/14/2012.

new review -- THE DEVIL'S BONES

A new review from Journey of a Bookseller: 

 

Nobody knows what happened to Tito; no one cares either.  Why?

The author sent me a copy of this book for review (thank you).  It will be available for sale on March 7th in hardcover.  Five Star (Cengage/Gale) is the publisher.  Check with your local bookstore for a copy.

This was not an easy book to read.  I live in New Mexico, and the problems addressed in this book sounded familiar and are still existent.  The ring of truth is what makes it a bit hard to swallow.

This story mixes the past and the present, so you need to pay attention to what time period you're in and which character you are following.  It's not difficult to read, but you can confuse yourself if you don't check the dates on the chapter.

Tito is a young boy who is half American and half Mexican.  He's scorned by both cultures.  And then one day he isn't there anymore.

Mr. Sweazy gives you strong characters and weak ones.  Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the two.  He keeps your attention through out the tale and you know as you read along it's probably not going to have a happy ending.

It begins with a body being found in a pond that may be Tito.  While the sheriff is checking it out, he gets shot.  Jordan, his deputy, had joined him and knew Holister was upset, but he sure never expected anybody to take potshots at him.  Then he gets accused of the shooting...

This is very tangled, twisted story with lots of subplots and connections that aren't apparent.  There's conflict and trauma in the whites of the small town, and the Mexicans have their own problems.  They are mostly ignored by the whites, but there are connections there, too.

The complicated relationships get you emotionally involved in the story.  When the sheriff dies, it becomes a murder case.  And no one is laying all their cards out on the table.

If you'd like to read a complicated murder mystery with a bit of cultural warfare thrown in, this is the book for you.  Mr. Sweazy writes tales that keep your interest.

If you'd like to travel along with Jordan on this case, you can win my signed ARC by commenting here on my blog and emailing me at info at bookfaerie.com.  I'll pick a winner in about a week.

Happy reading.

--
Jo Ann Hakola

THE DEVIL'S BONES (02/12)

Here's the cover for my modern-day, standalone mystery, The Devil's Bones (Cengage/Five Star), that will be released 02/12.

From inside the cover:

When a late-summer drought hangs over the Midwest for far longer than it’s welcome, and drains a pond outside of Dukaine, Indiana, old secrets quickly come to the surface.  A small skeleton appears in the mud, and everyone in town is convinced the bones belong to Tito Cordova, an eight year old boy, who disappeared nineteen years earlier. 

Dukaine, Indiana is the home to the SunRipe plant, a tomato processing plant, that has always relied on migrant workers to work the fields surrounding the town.  Tito’s mother, Esperanza, was a year round resident.  Both mother and son were just a bad memory, and Tito’s disappearance was thought to be best forgotten, by most of the town’s residents.

When the marshal of Dukaine is shot at the pond, lured there by a note, and a medallion that belonged to Esperanza, the investigation falls to deputy Jordan McManus.

Racing against time, and under the threat of his own arrest as a suspect in the shooting, Jordan must dig deep into the past, and face and the possibility that Tito Cordova might still be alive. 

Has Tito Cordova come back to Dukaine for a bloody dose of revenge?  Or is there another killer on the loose, using the past as a cover for crimes in the present?  After another murder occurs, Jordan McManus finds himself squarely in the crosshairs of the law, and a cold-blooded killer. 

Even if Jordan survives, nothing in Dukaine will ever be the same. 

The Tuesday Update

This week sees me in the middle of the copy-edit for my standalone mystery novel, THE DEVIL'S BONES, which is due out in February, 2012, by Five Star.  Here's the back cover copy:

When a late-summer drought drains a pond outside of the small town of Dukaine, Indiana, old secrets quickly come to the surface. A small skeleton is revealed in the mud, and everyone in town is convinced the bones belong to Tito Cordova, an eight-year-old boy who disappeared nineteen years earlier.

Dukaine is home to the SunRipe plant, a tomato processing plant that relies on migrant workers to work the fields surrounding the town. Tito’s mother, Esperanza, was a year-round resident. Both mother and son were just a bad memory, and Tito’s disappearance was thought to be best forgotten by most of the town’s residents.

When the marshal of Dukaine is lured to the pond and shot, the investigation falls to deputy Jordan McManus. Racing against time, and under the threat of his own arrest as a suspect in the shooting, Jordan must dig deep into the past, and face the possibility that Tito Cordova might still be alive.

Has Tito come back to Dukaine to exact bloody revenge? Or is there a different murderer on the loose, using the past as a cover for crimes in the present? After another murder occurs, Jordan McManus finds himself squarely in the crosshairs of the law and a cold-blooded killer.

Even if Jordan survives, nothing in Dukaine will ever be the same.