Texas Dust: A Who & Howdunnit Mystery

by R.J. Bailey

The worst drought in decades threatens the livelihoods of the ranchers and residents of the small East Texas town of Billings. But the monotonous, weather focused stories are quickly replaced with the more sensational headline of the town’s most notorious citizen’s bizarre death.

Sheriff Rollins answers an early morning call to find Jimmy Joe Billings laying on his estranged wife's bedroom floor in a pool of drying blood. And Nell, his bruised and battered, soon-to-be-ex, crouching in the closet, clutching the shotgun that killed him.

As Rollins goes through the motions of investigating, to quickly close an apparent case of justifiable homicide, history is learned, secrets are revealed, and suspicions mount.

Like a finding a classical equestrian facility hidden in the heart of cattle country, or recognizing that a community’s most privileged family is also the most miserable, readers discover that things are't always as they seem. And perceived realities can often be blown away, like a handful of Texas Dust.

301 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 8, 2014