Denton Series by Steven Womack
Denton #1
Denton #1
Denton - 01 - Dead Folks' Blues
Steven Womack
From Publishers WeeklyNashville PI Harry James Denton is hired by an old flame, Rachel Fletcher, to help her settle her husband Conrad's gambling debts--Conrad has been getting pay-up-or-else messages. Harry decides to drop in on Conrad, a surgeon, at the local hospital--and finds him sprawled on a bed, unconscious and near death. Harry is then whacked on the head by an unseen assailant. He later learns from forensic pathologist Marsha Helms that a narcotic injection caused Conrad's death. Strongly intimating that she would like to turn to him for comfort, Rachel pulls Harry off the case. Nevertheless, he is determined to find Conrad's murderer. Attending the wake, he finds that Conrad was rather unpopular; the guests have come less to pay their respects than "to make sure he was really dead." There is a lot to like in Womack's ( Smash Cut ) hard-boiled murder mystery--an engaging sleuth, a convincing setting, a passel of folks to distrust and some good minor characters (notably Marsha). But while the book's payoff has a tidy surprise in it, it also fails to tie up some important strands of the murder scenario. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review"Steven Womack has done for male private eye fiction what Grafton and Paretsky did for women operatives in the eighties . . ." -- Mostly Murder (_UNKNOWN_ )
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Denton #3
Denton - 03 - Way Past Dead
Steven Womack
From BooklistFormer Nashville police reporter turned private investigator Harry James Denton has problems: his cash flow isn't flowing, his girlfriend is among many held hostage by a fanatic religious group, and his pal from down the hall, songwriter Slim Gibson, is in jail for murder. It seems Slim's ex-wife but current singing partner, Rebecca, was found beaten "way past dead" shortly after a gig with Slim, whose car was seen leaving Rebecca's driveway. Slim had plenty of motive--including the fact that Rebecca's considerable portion of their songwriting catalog reverts to Slim upon her death--but there are plenty of other suspects lurking on the fringes of the Nashville music crowd. This third Denton mystery is a little jewel. Denton is a Rockford-like private eye who'd like to avoid danger but has just enough integrity to follow his cases through to the end. Toss him into the colorful Nashville musical milieu, and you get a mystery in which the mournful wail of a pedal steel guitar represents death as well as heartbreak. Wes LukowskyProduct DescriptionWith his cash flow down to a slow drip, times are tight for Nashville gumshoe Harry James Denton. Things are tough all over Music City, U.S.A. And in some instances, they're murder, as Harry finds out the hard way when he lands a case he'd rather not touch.When rising country singer Rebecca Gibson is found viciously beaten to death in her home, a heap of damning evidence points straight to her ex-husband, Slim Gibson -- half of the struggling songwriting team with whom Harry shares office space and an occasional beer. Slim and Rebecca were last seen making beautiful music at a local club just hours before the killing. Yet while probing beneath the sweet harmony, Harry discovers the dark history of a marriage made somewhere south of heaven -- and delves into the cutthroat world of the C&W music business, where deceit, betrayal, passion, and vengeance are sung about . . . and ruthlessly performed."A rising star among the current crop of American novelists." -- Nashville Banner From the Paperback edition.
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Denton #3
