Böcker av Wayne Zurl

Five mysteries in the life of career police officer Sam Jenkins, including: Have You Considered Voodoo? Reenacting a Murder Paper Trail The Fergusson Shooting A Fire and Old Ice

Sam Jenkins joins a combined task force hunting a serial killer called The Riverside Strangler by the local media. Complications arise when the lead investigator, the county sheriff's chief deputy is arrested and charged with police brutality. When Sam develops the evidence to arrest the Strangler, everyone should be pleased, but subsequent actions taken by his mayor and the city council affect everyone at the Prospect Police Department and suggest that life there will never be the same.

A collection of six crime novelettes that take you on a trip through the more off-beat regions of law enforcement. Follow Prospect, Tennessee's Police Chief Sam Jenkins as he meets Gypsy conmen and a beautiful fortune teller in GYPSIES, TRAMPS & THIEVES, a gun show hustler and his right-wing militia cronies in HEAVEN'S GATE and a collection of pool hustlers competing for enough prize money they'd kill for in ALVIS IS IN THE BUILDING. A Chinese restaurant owner loses a little finger and feels the grip of vicious thugs from a Malaysian triad in THE SWAN TATTOO. The murder of an Elvis impersonator for a few bits of gold takes you on board GRACELAND ON WHEELS, and in NOTHING FITZ, an unlikely coalition of crooks on a National Guard air base are responsible for a brutal murder.

When your high school classmate shows up on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, can your police career get any more interesting? Prospect, Tennessee's police chief Sam Jenkins handles a cold case robbery-homicide as a favor to a beautiful treasury agent and clears the forty-three year old mystery of THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAIN BANK JOB. In MURDER IN A WISH-BOOK HOUSE, Sam investigates the most grisly killing of his career. Then, in V IS FOR...VITAMIN?, he works with an eighty-four year old partner to solve a suspicious death in a nursing home where all the suspects are well beyond their prime. Hollywood meets the Smokies in FATE OF A FLOOZY when an academy award winner is murdered during her love affair with a much younger man. And HURRICANE BLOW UP and THE BUTLERS DID IT pits Jenkins against some very lethal characters when he tackles eastern European hoods who intend on causing mayhem in Prospect, and bank robbers who flee to the far corners of southern Appalachia to escape capture.

Sam Jenkins is the new police chief in town and everyone wonders, will Prospect, Tennessee ever be the same? A LABOR DAY MURDER and A MURDER IN KNOXVILLE take the reader into the world of domestic violence with a smattering of political corruption. In BULLETS OFF-BROADWAY, the investigation leads Sam into the life of a victim who spent his leisure time reenacting the days of the old west and was killed with an antique revolver. The hard-boiled story of SCRAP METAL AND MURDER begins with a simple larceny and quickly escalates into the murder of a building contractor, infidelity and more suspects than you can shake a claw hammer at. And the off-beat stories, BY THE HORNS OF A COW and its sequel SERPENTS & SCOUNDRELS show the more bizarre side of police work as Jenkins looks for a stolen fourteen-foot-tall statue of a dairy cow and ends up among a group of snake handling fundamentalists who use their serpents in a deadly manner.

What does a good cop do when his name and phone number is found in the pocket of a dead mobster from his past? Does he cooperate with the Internal Affairs investigator who wants to charge him with murder, but appears to have an ulterior motive? Does he launch his own investigation into this murder from another jurisdiction to clear his name and find the real killer? Does learning that two former enemies have put a contract on his life complicate matters?

Sam Jenkins never thought about being a fish out of water during the years he spent solving crimes in New York. But things change, and after retiring to Tennessee, he gets that feeling. Jenkins becomes a cop again and is thrown headlong into a murder investigation and a steaming kettle of fish, down-home style. In true Jenkins style, Sam turns common police practice on its ear to insure an innocent man doesn't fall prey to an imperfect system and the guilty party receives appropriate justice.

For an exciting exclusive story, TV reporter Rachel Williamson helps Chief Sam Jenkins with a classic fraud investigation. But the case puts Rachel in jeopardy and her abduction by a mentally disturbed man, changes her life forever. After several frustrating days, Jenkins uncovers a significant clue and leads a team deep into the Smoky Mountains to rescue his friend. But after Rachel is once again safe at home, they find that her problems are far from over.

Start with a simple background investigation and then find your subject lying face down in a peaceful Smoky Mountain stream--assassinated. Just another walk in the park for Chief Sam Jenkins.What does a cop do when a routine chore turns into a nightmare? When a simple investigation into a man's background sends you crashing into a stone wall at the end of a blind alley does finding your subject murdered simplify your life? Sam Jenkins handles a case that spans the decades and the globe from his little police department on the "peaceful side of the Smokies."

Chief Sam Jenkins runs headlong into Tennessee's faction of Korean organized crime when a mobster tries to shake down two former call girls attempting to establish a legitimate business. Soon, bodies begin piling up-all with a Korean connection-in Sam's town of Prospect and nearby Knoxville. Sorting truth from fiction calls for more than Sam and his officers can handle, so he turns to the women in his life for assistance. His wife, Kate, Sergeant Bettye Lambert and TV news anchor, Rachel Williamson contribute significantly in clearing the convoluted homicides.

Sam Jenkins thinks no good turn goes unpunished when the famous singer he's assigned to protect decides it's hate at first sight. Famous country and western singer C.J. Profitt receives death threats from a group of rightwing zealots. Chief Sam Jenkins gets the job of keeping C.J. safe while she performs at a charity benefit. Problems arise when C.J. says she's dead against any police involvement. Jenkins uses friends and professional colleagues to foil a plot destined to kill not only the local girl turned celebrity, but hundreds of innocent people.

Against his better judgment, Police Chief Sam Jenkins hires Dallas Finchum, nephew of local corrupt politicians. Now, Finchum is accused of a rape that occurred when he attended college three years earlier. The young man claims his innocence, but while investigating, Jenkins uncovers corruption in the local sheriff's department, evidence that detectives mishandled the investigation and the loss of the entire case file. Sam meets one of the most distasteful characters of his career, a PI named Telford Bone, who claims to represent young Finchum. Trouble is, no one knows who hired the man. False accusations, scandal and extortion threaten to ruin Jenkins' reputation and marriage unless he drops the investigation.

Five Sam Jenkins mysteries spanning more than four decades. From his earliest foray into law enforcement, where a young Sam and his friends foil a plot to murder a Long Island union official to the police chief's most recent investigation into the brutal massacre of six hunters in the Great Smoky Mountains. Wayne Zurl takes twenty years of police experience and transforms it into five gritty stories of murder and other serious crimes against the people of New York and Tennessee.