A Reckoning in the Back Country: A Samuel Craddock Mystery

In Shames’s enjoyable seventh Samuel Craddock mystery (after 2017’s An Unsettling Crime for Samuel Craddock), the Jarrett Creek, Tex., police chief investigates the killing of Lewis Wilkins, a San Antonio doctor who owns a local vacation home. When area pets begin to disappear and Craddock discovers evidence that Wilkins’s death was murder by canine, he suspects the existence of a dogfighting ring, but a ruinous lawsuit, a troubled family, and the deceased’s habit of cheating at high-stakes gambling provide alternate motives for the doctor’s death. Meanwhile, Craddock’s personal life grows complicated when Thanksgiving festivities bring a reunion between his romantic interest, Ellen Forester, and her ex-husband and a charming new woman into the police chief’s life. Craddock’s discovery of an abandoned puppy offers readers insight into his softer side. Readers new to the series will find themselves quickly at home in Jarrett Creek. [em]Agent: Janet Reid, FinePrint Literary Management. (Jan.) [/em]