Tropical Heat

by John A. Miller

When an army officer is found dead in the small Virginia town of Hopewell, the murder sets in motion a sequence of events that will forever change the life of Sheriff A.G. Farrell. A.G.'s investigation is hampered by a strangely hostile provost marshal from the murdered captain's base and by the captain's enigmatic widow, Theresa Fitzgerald, whose beauty, like the terrible heatwave that hangs heavily in the Southern summer air, leaves soldiers and civilians alike gasping for relief. When a thin thread ties together the otherwise unsuspicious deaths of four young women over the past four years, A.G. struggles to retain his sense of objectivity and propriety as sexual tension grows between Theresa and himself, while facing down the provost marshal whose rush to judgement will get the wrong man hung for murder.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published February 23, 2002

About the author

My art career began on something of a down note when I was informed by a 5th grade art teacher that, in her considered opinion, I couldn't draw a straight line with a ruler (this was back in the day before the concept of self-esteem had blossomed like a flower—or a weed, depending upon your point of view—in the barren fields of primary school pedagogy). Many years were to pass before I realized that art consists of very few straight lines. Thus liberated I threw away my extensive collection of rulers and embarked on a voyage of artistic discovery that continues to this day.

The development of my writing career followed a somewhat different path. After a rather varied business career (a few hits, a few runs, a few errors) I decided, pretty much out of the blue, to become a writer. When confronted with the dismay of trusted associates (most of whom were reasonably certain that I had lost my mind) I took comfort in the knowledge that even if I still couldn't draw straight lines I had always been able to write a reasonably coherent sentence (a heartfelt thank you here to all my junior and high school English teachers who accepted no excuses when it came to learning the basic rules of grammar). What I knew about the craft of creative writing could have easily fit in a very small box, but I optimistically (some said foolishly) persevered, and, to some degree serendipitously, one good thing led to another. My first collection of short stories, Jackson Street and Other Soldier Stories won the California Book Award for First Fiction, and is now available as an eBook download at Amazon (Kindle), Apple (iBooks), and Barnes & Noble (Nook). My first two mystery/suspense novels, Cutdown and Causes of Action, were published by Pocket Books. My third and fourth novels, Tropical Heat and Coyote Moon were published by Forge (Tropical Heat is now available as a Kindle download from Amazon). My newest novel, The Power of Stones, has just been published as an eBook and is now available for download at Amazon. My short fiction has appeared in, among others, The William & Mary Review, Crosscurrents, The Missouri Review, North Dakota Quarterly, and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

The cat's name, by the way, is Della, after Della Street, who was introduced in Erle Stanley Gardner's first Perry Mason novel, The Case of the Velvet Claws, published in 1933.

Reviews

[Rebekah Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great characters set in a small town in VA in the 1950s. I love that Miller manages to make this so much more than just a murder mystery. It's as much a novel about life as it is about anything else. My only real complaint is that the ending is a bit unresolved. But perhaps there is a sequel I need to find.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mystery set in Hopewell, VA, just outside of Petersburg, features a local-boy sheriff come back home after four years in Charlottesville getting a University of Virginia education. Wearing neither uniform nor gun and seen through the omniscient eye as smarter than the people he protects, Miller is not good enough a writer to pull off a sheriff reminiscent of Andy Griffith with any originality or insight.

There are a few good moments. However, forced sex scenes detract from the story and leave a sour taste in the readers mouth.