Cracker Town: Red Farlow Mysteries: #5 by W.F. Ranew #Books #Mystery

The latest in a beloved series, one with a cover that really makes me curious.

Cracker Town: Red Farlow Mysteries: #5 by W.F. Ranew released in September in the Mystery genre.

In 1955, Cleet Wrightman is found guilty of murdering a woman and sent to the Georgia State Mental Hospital to serve out his time until 1973. In spring of that year, young agent Red Farlow investigates the slayings of three members of the Goings family in Valdosta, but he was never able to apprehend the murderer.

Fifty years later, the surviving son hires Red to revisit the crime and track down the killer. As he begins his cold-case probe, uncanny coincidences emerge from a key witness and old interview files. He follows a lead to Cleet’s hometown of Damville and its polluted Cracker Town area and discovers two brothers prone to violence are the ones speaking up the loudest against Cleet. But where is he? Cleet hasn’t been seen since his 1973 release. Red believes the man is still alive and knows who the real killer is but finding both proves challenging.

Red’s going to need more than old investigation files and DR. Goings’s clinical notes if he’s going to solve this cold case.

Two days after Wallace put Cleet on a bus to Atlanta then on to Ellijay, Georgia, the mechanic heard a knock on his front door. Actually, someone pounded on the door.

Wallace thought the glass might break. He went and opened the door.

Jamison Elton stood there and held a shotgun.

“Woah, now. What the hell, Jamie? Believe we been through this before,” Wallace raised his hands and stepped backward. He had shotguns in the middle room, where he lived most of the time. Another one was behind the front door, not three feet from where he stood. A twenty-gauge double gun, loaded.

Despite his jitters of late, Wallace kept his cool. He’d talked people down from rage before. He took in the odor Jamison emitted into the air between the two men. Stale whiskey. The sweaty kind of air from someone drinking a lot of hard liquor over several days.

Jamison said nothing.

“You want to come in, Jamie? ’Course, you going to have to leave that bird gun on the porch.”

The visitor looked around and leaned his gun by the door. He staggered into the house.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

W.F. Ranew writes the Red Farlow Mysteries series from Tirgearr Publishing. The most recent book is No. 5, Cracker Town.

Ranew formerly worked as a newspaper reporter, editor, and communication executive. He started his journalism career covering sports, police, and city council meetings at his hometown newspaper, The Quitman Free Press. He also worked as a reporter and editor for several regional dailies: The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The Florida Times-Union, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Ranew has written two previous novels — Schoolhouse Man and Candyman’s Sorrow.

He lives with his wife in Atlanta and St. Simons Island, Ga.

Find all Farlow novels at www.tirpub.com/wfranew — Rich and Gone, Blue Magnolia, East Beach, and Blood Mug.