Dry Bones in the Valley

Tom Bouman

Murder/mystery set in central Pennsylvania, where the culture is agriculture and northern appalacian, and new tensions have set in as big oil has begun to offer big money for fracking rights. In this setting, local township cop Henry Farrell is handed a murder when a body is found on the property of a local recluse. Which eventually leads to another body... and another murder... and... In most ways, this is a typical small town police procedural, and where these kinds of stories make their marks is not in the clever plot, but in the storytelling about the small town. Here Bouman delves into the life of fiercely independent individuals who each have their own ideas about how to move into the 21st century. He reveals a part of the country that is new to me, and I found it engaging.

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