Don't Be Cruel

A chilling murder stirs unrest in a sleepy town on the Tennessee-Kentucky border, in this moving follow-up to the USA Today bestselling Dead Man Blues.

Spring, 1957. A teenager sneaks off to an Elvis Presley concert in Nashville with her ex-boyfriend and her best friend before arriving home to face her irate mother. Then she’s found dead in her locked bedroom, with no apparent cause of death until a tiny bullet hole is found. 

Amy Lou was popular and hated, a homecoming queen and cheerleader with a talent for malice, and plenty have reason for wanting her dead. As Deputy Dave Hendricks investigates, he uncovers a tangled web of rumors, local politics, high school students with dark secrets, and friendships damaged by senseless cruelty. When he needs to think, Dave spends time on Cedar Lake with his demanding but lovable dachshund, Shorty, and his wise mentor, Rex Hardy. But he works best with the sheriff's secretary, Sheila Shepherd, who should be running the whole case. Meanwhile, trouble is starting to stir with the KKK as rumbles are heard of possible school integration. 

Still struggling to work peacefully with the sheriff—his former best friend now married to his ex-wife—Dave has to reexamine his own behavior, past and present, while trying to puzzle out who the real monsters in this town are.