The Murder of Amos Dunn: A Sidney Lake Lowcountry Mystery

by Tim Holland

A small business owner, Amos Dunn, has been found murdered in the lowcountry town of Morgan, South Carolina. The initial reaction of the local police is that the robbery of Dunn’s convenience store got out of hand resulting in the owner’s death. The robbery and murder receive token coverage in the local and regional press, which is not uncommon. But nothing is what it seems. Tillie James, the housekeeper for Professor Sidney Lake, a retired professor of English Literature at Morgan College, doesn’t believe it and convinces Sidney Lake that something is very wrong. Enlisting the aid of a new black police officer and a recently arrived county assistant coroner, they band together to seek the truth. And so begins a wild ride though the politics and changing culture of a small, quiet lowcountry town that endangers all of their lives as they seek the truth. The story of Amos Dunn’s murder and its aftermath will forever change the way the town of Morgan views itself as it is thrown into a spotlight it has tried to avoid. This is a town where big city problems aren’t supposed to exist. A quiet family place where the local churches are still the center of life and Wednesday night suppers and meetings in church education buildings are a mainstay of its social fabric.

262 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 18, 2020

Reviews

[Skylar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid read! More a 3.5. At first I wasn’t sure of the writing style but then I settled into it. The way that the characters talk and interact is so truly conversational it really makes you feel like you’re there. It’s more like watching a tv interaction. The characters personalities feel real and you see who they are by the way they talked. Or even ramble.

And then there are random tidbits of detail, like where the dog leash is kept, or something on an end table which feel totally irrelevant but help immerse you in the story.

I thought the mystery was decent and the plot had a good speed to it. I think I’ll be reading the other Sidney Lake mysteries at some point.

It also deals with a couple more “political” topics (for lack of a better term) such as race and gun violence. Honestly the bits about guns were a little comical to me and felt like the author was inserting some personal anti-gun views in there. But it could’ve just been the characters thoughts! lol who knows. Those parts just felt a little odd and forced whereas the rest of the book flows nicely (only the anti-gun parts, the racial parts felt more on flow).