Where Dead Soldiers Walk: A Pletcher and Lambert Mystery

by Lloyd Biggle Jr.

Driving south to Napoleon Corners, Georgia, private detective J. Pletcher has a simple assignment: Go to the Corners General Store and Cafe, ask for a mint daiquiri, and wait for information about his next case. On the way there, his car is hit by a cannonball on a rural back road - his introduction to a world of Civil War history, Southern manners, and murder. Pletcher learns that he and his partner, Raina Lambert, have been hired by the Johnstons, an eccentric, wealthy family whose oldest member believes he is a Confederate general. One of the General's grandsons has disappeared from the Johnston estate, and a man who had claimed to be a long-lost relative has turned up dead near Chickamauga. Pletcher and Lambert suspect that someone is trying to kill off the General's heirs. But as they investigate - each pretending to be visiting the town for different reasons - they realize the Johnstons aren't the only ones at risk. In a community that includes an order of monks who carry pistols, a self-described witch, and a ghostly brigade of Union soldiers who set fires in the middle of the night, quirkiness is hiding a deadly plot that puts even Yankee detectives in danger.

267 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1994

About the author

Biggle was born in 1923 in Waterloo, Iowa. He served in World War II as a communications sergeant in a rifle company of the 102nd Infantry Division; during the war, he was wounded twice. His second wound, a shrapnel wound in his leg received near the Elbe River at the end of the war, left him disabled for life.

After the war, Biggle resumed his education. He received an A.B. Degree with High Distinction from Wayne State University and M.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan. Biggle taught at the University of Michigan and at Eastern Michigan University in the 1950s. He began writing professionally in 1955 and became a full-time writer with the publication of his novel, All the Colors of Darkness in 1963; he continued in the writing profession until his death.

Reviews

[Nicole]

Napoleon Corners, Georgia has a typical collection of Southeners whose focus is still on the Civil War's outcome.

[Mary Keroson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story-line and well written.