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MEET THE DEVIL HALFWAY TO HELL
A Novel by J. Marvin Hassan/A Mudbone P. Jones When the stranger Paladin Smith came to Red River City, Mississippi in the early 1940s, he bought a big house, land, and a Blues club on the edge of the Choctaw Creek called "Between Heaven & Hell." No one knew how he got his money and no one asked. What was known was when he came to town, two of the three wealthiest oil speculators, who prospered from this petroleum rich area, suddenly died under mysterious circumstances, and the one who survived and bought all the oil rights made it clear Paladin was to be left alone.
Some say Paladin was the infamous "Mudbone P. Jones," also known as, "The Country Detective," who anonymously solved high crimes throughout the South and beyond, but no one knew for sure, and, here again, no one dared to ask.
John Elijah, a rebellious teenage son of a prostitute, went missing up in Memphis, Tennessee, shortly after the end of World War II, and Mudbone decided to find out why. A rash of isolated homicides and serial murders had occurred involving young men, among others, which the police hid from the public's eye, given the horrors of how the misfortunates were slaughtered. A host of potential suspects and leads surfaced, including amidst the tawdry characters surrounding the missing boy's mother, whose christened name was Antoinette Grace Sadler, but whose street name, which she wore as a crown of thorns, was "Dirty Anna."
This conundrum of crimes proved to be one of the most complicated and dangerous exploits of Mudbone's mysteries; crisscrossing colliding worlds of black and white, good and evil, loyalty and betrayal, love and hate and life and death.
Some say Paladin was the infamous "Mudbone P. Jones," also known as, "The Country Detective," who anonymously solved high crimes throughout the South and beyond, but no one knew for sure, and, here again, no one dared to ask.
John Elijah, a rebellious teenage son of a prostitute, went missing up in Memphis, Tennessee, shortly after the end of World War II, and Mudbone decided to find out why. A rash of isolated homicides and serial murders had occurred involving young men, among others, which the police hid from the public's eye, given the horrors of how the misfortunates were slaughtered. A host of potential suspects and leads surfaced, including amidst the tawdry characters surrounding the missing boy's mother, whose christened name was Antoinette Grace Sadler, but whose street name, which she wore as a crown of thorns, was "Dirty Anna."
This conundrum of crimes proved to be one of the most complicated and dangerous exploits of Mudbone's mysteries; crisscrossing colliding worlds of black and white, good and evil, loyalty and betrayal, love and hate and life and death.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 13, 2024
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February 22, 2026
A romping good read...
Historical detective fiction with a bluesy little twist. Though an easy read, you do need to pay attention, but worth it...
Historical detective fiction with a bluesy little twist. Though an easy read, you do need to pay attention, but worth it...
Displaying 1 of 1 review