The Thieves of Hangingdog County

This well-crafted mystery novel is a character drama and an allegory for the dangers of money and greed. It explores questions of morality, racism, inequality, deception, infidelity, and even sexual identity. Within its pages, these matters become the surprising hallmarks of an Appalachian Mountain locale where whiskey making is king, and a criminal mentality prevails.

When a southern transplant to Detroit, Frankie Suchet, steals two million dollars from a shot-up car he's working on, he does not know that the cash belongs to gangster Ellis LaCosta, who will stop at nothing to recover his fortune-including sending a henchman to Suchet's mountain home in North Carolina to track down the money.

When both LaCosta's paladin and the thief turn up dead a few days later, the gangster knows he'll have to get creative if he wants to recover his cash. Using his influence to convince the US Treasury Department to hire Billy Campbell as a Prohibition agent, LaCosta sends him undercover on a mission to find the money and bring it back.

Campbell's journey puts him on a train down to Asheville, and then on to Hangingdog County's Midnight City. However, all is not well in this busy bootlegging town. A series of brutal and mysterious murders are pitting locals against each other, including bootleggers, town officials, blacks, and members of the tribe of Cherokee Indians native to this region.

As mentioned earlier, this gripping mystery explores the greed, deception, racism, and corruption rampant in Prohibition-era Appalachia. In searching for the money, Campbell, and others, wind up finding more than they bargained for, as they follow various clues to a surprising end.