cover image Devil Dancer

Devil Dancer

William Heath. Somondoco, $14.95 paper (275p) ISBN 978-0-9853898-4-0

"When Wendell had turned forty several years before, one of his friends had quipped, %E2%80%98You're on the back nine now.' That was how he felt, sweating in the mid-afternoon heat, exhausted and ineffectual, as if he'd been hiking up endless fairways beneath a relentless sun and three-putting every green.%E2%80%9D Meet Wendell Clay, a war veteran and detective who offers his assistance in the mysterious case of a prize horse%E2%80%94the titular Devil Dancer%E2%80%94that turns up dead. In this entertaining novel, Heath delivers a fascinating and well-crafted tale that takes the mystery of the noir genre and injects it into Kentucky circa the sweltering summer of 1972. Wendell's investigation proves to be a good old-fashioned barn burner as a cast of rather colorful characters stumble into view the deeper he gets, leading to a rousing climax.