Murder Creek Review

 

Writer: Jeff Kerr

Cover Artist: Cheynne Edmonston

Paperback: $9.99

Kindle ebook: $0.99

Release Date: October 23, 2024

 

Adam Cash's life in Pinyon, Texas, is finally settling down. He has proven worthy of being a police deputy. Bernadette Fenster lets him visit their daughter, Emma. The idea of a committed relationship with Edie James seems less frightening. Cash even has time to embrace an old hobby. How will he react when a brutal attack endangers one of the first people who welcomed him back to Pinyon? Let’s pull on our boots, leap into Jeff Kerr’s new novel Murder Creek, and find out!

 

Story

Adam Cash’s family is growing. He has gained Sheriff Gabe Santos’ trust and sees him and his wife Katrina at social events. Cash may not be a match for Keisha Hodge on the basketball court, but he likes the whip-smart deputy. He gets along with Deke Conrad, even if the holdover from Sheriff Turner’s tenure prefers writing speeding tickets to solving crimes. But before he secured his dream job as a deputy, Emil Bergheim hired Cash to help with his fencing business. Cash found Emil an honest and fair employer. So, when a robbery and shooting puts Emil in the hospital, this shakes Cash up. 

 

 

Cash visits this Austin store after noticing a suspect's boots.

 

 

Cash is also having trouble on the home front. Things are going so well with Edie James that he bought a bed for Luke and gave her son a room for the nights she spends with him. Suddenly, Edie is talking about leaving the Firewheel Café and applying to nursing programs at distant universities. When he tries to talk her out of going, Cash pushes Edie away. Then there’s Bernadette. She has a new boyfriend, and Cash worries how the man’s growing relationship with her might affect their daughter, Emma. Finally, there is Reid. His younger brother’s burgeoning career in the music business encouraged Cash to pick up the guitar again. But when the trail of clues from a corpse on Emil’s property points toward The Whistling Armadillos' drummer, Reid accuses Cash of hounding a prized bandmate for no good reason. 

 

 

Cash visits this Austin restaurant after leaving Cavender's.

 

 

Adam Cash has been on rocky ground with his parents since he returned to Pinyon after graduating from Sam Houston State. His parents envisioned a different career for their eldest son, and he learned something disturbing about their past. Many of the suspects live in Austin, where his parents currently reside. In Murder Creek, Cash loses time with Edie and his work family at the police station. While spending days away from the town he loves, Cash opts to spend his free time with his brother or casual acquaintances over his parents. And in Austin, Adam Cash takes advantage of all the restaurants he can’t enjoy in tiny, remote Pinyon. 

 

 

An Austin restaurant that Cash and Emil Bergheim love.

 

 

Cash may be a good dancer, but he’ll need to mind his footwork if he wants to solve a murder, recover all the money the thieves stole from Emil, protect Bernadette from her worst instincts, mend his fracturing relationship with Edie and everyone else in his life without blowing up his life in Pinyon, Texas. But then, getting everything you want out of life can prove more difficult than mastering the Texas Two-Step.

 

 

Cash pursues a hunch at Mozart's Coffee Roasters at Oyster's Landing

 

 

Final Thoughts

When robbery and murder endanger a former employer, Cash risks everything he has built in Pinyon and endures familial difficulties with his parents and brother to protect a man battling the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s Disease in Jeff Kerr’s novel Murder Creek.

 

Rating: 5 Stars 

Peruse Jeff books and connect with him at Jeff Kerr's website.

Find Murder Creek at Amazon.com.