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Summary
Summary
Cam Richter, needing a break from his too-eventful detective career, is in search of more peaceful pastures in the North Carolina countryside. He buys a seven hundred acre ante-bellum plantation, but it doesn't take long for him to discover that his new locale is not as quiet as he'd hoped. Almost immediately, Cam finds himself caught up in mischievous pranks around his land, the site of a Civil War-era massacre. When the pranks turn hostile, however, he realizes he's been targeted by a killer who holds him responsible for something Cam is pretty sure he never did. As he tries to find out why someone wants him dead, he begins to uncover the secrets of his plantation and how the land's tragic history is still tangled up in the present. Cam will need all of his resources, including his redoubtable German shepherd companions, to stay alive as he deals with a determined stalker, some very eccentric people, and all the entanglements of a place suddenly alive with secrets and the fruits of a bloody past.
Author Notes
P.T. Deutermann spent twenty-six years in government service before retiring from active duty to begin his writing career. He is the author of thirteen previous novels. He lives with his wife on their family farm in North Carolina.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
A cast of eccentric Southern characters, several of whom could have escaped from the pages of Gone with the Wind, lifts Deutermann's winning fourth novel to feature PI Cam Richter (after The Moonpool). Cam, tired of suburban life, is buying Glory's End, a rundown plantation in Rockwell County, N.C. First, he must deal with a modern-day "ghost"-in cop parlance, someone just released from prison who decides to get revenge on the person who put him in jail. Then it's on to an even deadlier, more mysterious malefactor who's trying to kill him for reasons unknown. Cam's next door neighbors are Valeria Lee and her mother, Hester, who along with their lunatic relative, Maj. Courtney Woodruff Lee, dress and live in a strange antebellum past. The major likes to wear Confederate gray while spending his nights riding horseback around the countryside looking for Yankee spies. Cam's German shepherds, Frick, Frack and Kitty, help propel the action to an electrifying conclusion. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Looking to slow his life down, PI Cam Richter moves away from the city and takes up residence in a Civil War-era plantation in North Carolina. But, as readers of the previous three Richter novels know, danger tends to follow Cam around like a puppy. It isn't long before he finds out that someone is trying to kill him and that the plantation might hold the key to the mystery. Richter is an easygoing, likable series hero, and Deutermann has a strong, fluid writing style that encourages you to hang around for awhile. The series is still relatively young, but it's already proven to be a winner.--Pitt, David Copyright 2009 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Ex-cop Cameron Richter (Spider Mountain, 2007, etc.) plays cat-and-mouse with two murderous ghosts. Since leaving the Manceford County, N.C., sheriff's office for private work, Cam Richter has been doing OKactually, better than OK. The cases are interesting, even exciting on occasion, and Hide and Seek Investigations makes money with agreeable consistency. Still, Cam's begun to detect in himself telltale signs of diminishing enthusiasm. The siren song of retirement, usually muted, becomes unexpectedly clamorous the day he happens on the For Sale sign for Glory's End, the once elegant antebellum plantation sitting on 700 eye-catching acres in nearby Rockwell County. Spurred by restlessness, Cam buys it. Meanwhile, the first of Cam's ghosts has been sighted. For a lawman like Cam, a ghost is someone with a grudge against a cop that won't quit, someone prepared to haunt him until death, someone like Billie Ray Breen, just paroled from Alexander State Prison, where Cam had put him a few years backhe's a felon who makes not the least attempt to disguise his malicious intent. Ghost No. 2, a more obscure figure that seems to be linked to the murky history of Glory's End, tracks Cam with unnerving skill, leaving notes promising vengeance for a wrong Cam can't remember having perpetrated. This eerily enigmatic figure worries Cam far more than Billie Ray. Better the ghost you know, he thinks. A rousing, spirited yarn. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Chapter One APRIL 1865 They came out of the darkness, riding lean, hungry horses. The engineer put down his unlit pipe and reached for the shotgun in the cab, but then relaxed. The riders were Reb cavalry, not goddamned bluecoats. He could tell by their slouch hats, the mishmash of uniforms and weapons, and those big CS belt buckles gleaming in the engine's headlight. The officer who appeared to be in charge rode right up to the locomotive. The others slowed to a walk and spread out in a fan around the train's guard detail, who were lounging in the grass beside the tracks while the engine took on water. The riders were greeting the men with soft drawls and questions about what was going on up there in Richmond city. The officer wore the insignia of a major, and he tipped his hat to the engineer with his left hand while holding the reins close down to the saddle with his right. He was wearing a dirty white duster that concealed the lower half of his body. "Major Prentice Lambert, at your service, suh," he declared. He had a hard, hatchet-shaped face with black eyes and fierce eyebrows. "This the documents train?" The engineer said yes, a little surprised that the major knew. There were only four cars behind the engine and its tender, three of them passenger cars stuffed to the windows with boxes of official records from the various government departments up in Richmond. The twenty-man guard detail rode in the fourth car, but they were all disembarked for a smoke break and calls of nature. The guards, who were an odd mixture of old men, teenagers, and even some walking wounded from the trenches at Petersburg, seemed relieved to see Confederate cavalry. The major nodded, as if the engineer's answer were hugely significant. The engine puffed a shot of steam from the driver cylinder, spooking the major's horse sideways, but his rider held him firmly. "Any more trains behind you?" the major asked, shifting his reins to his left hand as the horse danced around. The engineer shook his head. "We heard ol' Jeff Davis took one south two nights ago, but ain't nothin' comin' down thisaway that I know of. Jig's 'bout up in Richmond." "All right, then," the major said. He raised the big Colt Dragoon he'd been holding down beside his saddle horn, pointed it at the engineer's belly, and fired. The engineer sat down hard on the steel grate of the engine cab, the wind knocked clean out of him and this awful, ripping feeling in his guts. He grasped his midsection with both hands and felt the blood streaming. He was dimly aware of more shooting now, as that arc of cavalrymen also opened fire, shooting down the stunned soldiers where they sat in the grass or leaned against trees, all their weapons still back on the train. He bent over to look down at his middle, lost his balance, tumbled off the engine steps onto the cinder bed, and then rolled into the grass. His knees stung where he'd hit the track bed, but then that pain faded and he relaxed into the sweet feel of that long, cool grass against his cheek. His middle was going cold now, and his legs were buzzing with pins and needles. He looked back up at the train, his vision shrinking into a redhazed tunnel. He saw a single white face at the nearest window in the front car, a young face, no more than a kid, maybe fifteen, sixteen. One of the guards? He tasted salt in the back of his throat, and it was becoming really hard to get a breath of air. Why hadn't that kid gotten off the train? What was he doing in there among all those boxes, while his comrades outside were being slaughtered like beeves? One of the horsemen saw the kid's face and surged his horse forward, his black cap-and-ball pistol pointing at the window. The engineer heard the major's voice call out, "No. Not him. Leave that one be." The horseman reined up. "That's your spy? That boy?" "Train was right here when it was supposed to be, weren't it?" "Yeah, but you said, now. No goddamned witnesses." "There won't be," the major said, getting down off his horse, "but I need to know one more thing." Then the engineer heard the other horseman swear. He realized he'd been spotted, eavesdropping on their conversation. He tried to crawl up the bank, trying to get under the locomotive, but his limbs had turned to rubber. He thought he heard the major say, "Oh, goddammit," and then a bolt of lightning exploded in his head and he was gone to see the Baby Jesus. Excerpted from NIGHTWALKERS by P. T. DEUTERMANN Copyright (c) 2009 by P. T. Deutermann Published in June 2009 by St. Martin's Press All rights reserved. This work is protected under copyright laws and reproduction is strictly prohibited. Permission to reproduce the material in any manner or medium must be secured from the Publisher. Excerpted from Nightwalkers: A Novel by P. T. Deutermann All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
