In 1868, Comanche warrior Spotted Tongue finds his second wife's body in Palo Duro Canyon, murdered by one of his fellow Comanche. To spill the blood of Spotted Tongue's wife is a forbidden act. Comanches do not murder other Comanches, and Little Flower became a Comanche when Spotted Tongue married her. But Little Flower was a white captive first, and many of the Comanche still despise her. But who hated her enough to break a taboo by murdering her. Spotted Tongue vows to track down the mu...

Planning to write a paper for Smithsonian Magazine on the cultural significance of string figures, such as Cat's Cradle, librarian and unemployed paleopathologist Dr. Megan Clark has a wonderful idea that will help her with her research. She will organize a convention and invite all the members of the International String Figure Association to attend. She invites the Murder by the Yard Reading Circle to forgo discussing mysteries and help her with her convention. The membership, eccentrics...

When Wild Horse Lake dries up due to drought, an old 1938 Ford surfaces to present a puzzle to Megan Clark, assistant librarian and unemployed paleopathologist, that she can't resist. When the skeleton of a homicide victim is found buried between the walls of an old laundry on Sixth Street, Megan is sure there is a connection to the old Ford. Excited by the possibility of tracking down the connection, as well as uncovering the murderer, Megan asks her mystery readers discussion group for h...

At first glance, he was a fine figure of a man. Even the butcher knife buried in the middle of his chest didn't seriously detract ffrom his good looks. But that corpse, nude except for a pair of mismatched socks--and the butcher knife , of course--is trouble with a capital T for Leroy MacPherson, in whose wheat field the body is dumped, and rest of his extended family. It's also trouble for the opponents of the nuclear waste depository the DOE plans to build in the Texas Panhandle. The vic...

The most dangerous happenings at the mystery discussion group, held at Time and Again Bookstore every Tuesday night, are the arguments between the members about the finer points of the mystery genre. History professor Ryan Stevens dozes happily during the loud disagreements. Being a closet reader of Westerns with no knowledge of mysteries beyond Poe and Sherlock Holmes, Ryan is only a member of the group because he is the bosom companion and very best friend of Megan Clark, board certified...

A Lincoln Continental driven by Amy Steele, wife of millionaire rancher, James Steele, rams a tanker full of gasoline. Instant incineration of both drivers; a probable accident, according to Sergeant Larry Jenner of the Amarillo Police Department. Eight months later, it’s murder, according to Sergeant Ed Schroder of the Special Crimes Unit, and the probable murderer is the widower. Standing between James Steele and Sergeants Jenner and Schroder is John Lloyd Branson, reputed to be the be...

When cowboy artist Willie Russell is murdered on the Branding Iron Ranch, Sheriff Charles Matthews faces a mystery that seems built on the bones of the past. Willie Russell leaves behind sketches that illustrate a century-old legend of a brutal outlaw, a beautiful young woman, and the lost Santiago Crucifix, a three foot tall cross of solid gold. With only the sketches, the foot prints of Johnny Brentwood, and very little else, Charles focuses on the eerie links between past and present ev...

Eight thousand hunters decend on Crawford County, Texas, for the annual pheasant season. To Sheriff Charles Matthews that's eight thousand chances for a gun-related accident. But when the most hated man in the county, banker Rich Hansford, turns up with his face removed by a shotgun blast, it's no accident; it's murder. To Crawford County folk, it's a public service killing, and no one, not even the sheriff's staff, are much interested in seeing anyone arrested. Certainly no one will infor...

Someone is killing prostitutes on Amarillo Boulevard after sending each a cryptic invitation to "cleanse your soul in the blood of the lamb." One victim mails a letter to John Lloyd Branson, the Panhandle's most famous lawyer, begging for his help. When she is murdered before she can talk to him, and her appointment is kept by her pimp and his stable of girls, John Lloyd declines any involvement in the case. His legal assistant, Lydia Fairchild is so incensed that she goes undercover on th...

Crawford County, Texas, hadn't had a deliberate homicide in 80 years, and Sheriff Charles Matthews liked that statistic just fine, particularly since his department wasn't generously endowed with manpower. He had one deputy who took pride in how far he could spit tobacco and another one who couldn't tell his backside from his elbow. Neither of these deputies bothered Crawford County because folks understood them. They didn't altogether understand Charles Matthews. It wasn't his law degree-...

The preacher's bride is a truck stop waitress half his age with a reputation that horrifies his congregation, and a free and easy way with the male membership. Still, no one expects Reverend David Hailey to stone his wife to death. But that isn't the worst of Hailey's acts. Substituting his wife's body for the Virgin Mary in the Nativity Scene is a worse act of sacrilege than murder. With feelings at a fever pitch in the little Texas town of Canadian, John Lloyd Branson steps in to defend ...