Power In The Blood by Ed Wyrick

Hollywood movie star Lawton Fletcher has come to tiny Warrendale, Georgia, with plans to buy the entire town. Instead, when attorney Tammi Randall and her friend Mitch Griffeth arrive to keep an appointment with Fletcher, they find him shot to death. To the police, the obvious culprit is Freddy Meadows, a local man known to be violent. Tammi is less than impressed by the unappealing Meadows, but believing he is innocent, she agrees to represent him on behalf of the Legal Aid Society. Investigating Fletcher’s background for other possible suspects, Tammi travels to the fleshpots of Los Angeles and New Orleans, but the clues she finds lead her back to Georgia. There, the young lawyer and her friends uncover corruption among government officials and an ever-widening list of suspects, including Warrendale’s police chief, the sheriff, the county commissioner, a Dixie Mafia king-pin, a Satan-worshiping teenager, and a migrant worker. Is the handsome young Warrendale heir among them? She very much hopes not. Tammi desperately needs to find the one among them who actually killed Lawton Fletcher–and learn whether it’s the same person making death threats to her.

POWER IN THE BLOOD is available from Amazon.

 *****

“A glut of puzzles to solve, with the identity of Fletcher’s killer providing a surprise . . . Wyrick keeps the loose ends suspenseful, sustains his heroine’s likability, and, along the way, gives the reader a penetrating look at the sleazy world of county politics.” – Kirkus (Starred)

“Power in the Blood crackles with expert plotting, quirky but realistic characters and dialogue that hums with Southern inflections.” – Florida Sun-Sentinel

“Mr. Wyrick shows considerable knowledge of the mores of the small-town South. His characters, while quirky, never descend into caricature, but remain believable and realistically motivated. Tammi herself is a pleasant addition to the detective scene, and her grasp of Southern politics is sure and steady.” – The Dallas Morning News

“Compelling . . . When [Tammi] travels to nearby Warrendale to meet a movie star who wants to buy an entire town, she discovers her intended client dead–and a whole lot of intriguing confusion about who did it.” – Digby Diehl in Playboy

 *****

St. Martin’s Press published two of Ed Wyrick’s mystery novels in the mid-nineties before life events caused him to suspend his embryonic writing career (Thomas Dunne Books/edited by Ruth Cavin.) He also had stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, literary magazines, and articles in Writer’s Digest. After a fifteen year layoff, he’s writing again and has recently completed a thriller he’s marketing now.