Mystery & Crime, Fiction Subjects

Cut Through Valley

Name: Cut Through Valley
Author: Dean Feldmeyer
ISBN: 9781570721373

by Dean Feldmeyer

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Overview

Reverend Dan Thompson, on his way back from a career ending affair, has been pastor of the Methodist Church in the sleepy little coal mining town of Baird, Kentucky, for only eight months when he gets the most unusual request of his entire ministry. Calvin Haines wants him to officiate over a funeral for his dog. Normally, Dan would throw anyone making such a request out of his office, only this church has no office. Besides, Calvin's a sweet old man and his dog was not just any dog.

Erasmus Wishbone Haines was the most famous, prize winning-est, rabbit hunting-est beagle in the entire state of Kentucky, and he was the handsomest to boot. And he didn't just die, he was murdered--kicked and beaten to death. As Calvin says, "Whoever done this, hates with cruel hatred."

When Dan and Constable Ray Hall arrive at the Haines farm for the funeral they discover that Calvin has been murdered too, hanged from a rafter in his barn, and the scene arranged to look like a suicide. Now its up to them to discover what hatreds and secrets are running silently below the surface of beautiful, picturesque Cut-Through Valley.

Their search will lead them to the dark corners of Durel County, where hill people raise dogs to fight for the amusement of their owners, and a backwoods Mountain Mafia controls all criminal activity and the money that can be made from it. It will take them to the second largest junk yard in Kentucky, an eerie maze of smashed and mangled vehicles. A crazy man who lives there and is rumored to live off the rats he catches with his bare hands. And it will bring them face to face with three mysterious men--newcomers to Baird--who inflict pain because they like to and can do it without leaving a mark.

And, finally, their search will lead them back to Cut-Through Valley and the daughters of Calvin Haines: beautiful, vivacious Blessing, who hates the mountains and the coal mines that took her husband from her in a freak accident; and stunning, aloof Treasure, who left Appalachia and fled to the city as soon as she was old enough to buy a bus ticket only to find a harsher, more severe wilderness amid the brick and asphalt.

Who killed Calvin and Erasmus Wishbone Haines? And why does the killer hate with such cruel hatred?

Find the "who", as Ray says. And the who will tell you why, if you can survive long enough to hear it.

About The Author:
Dean Feldmeyer is the author of the popular "Dan Thompson" mysteries. Viper Quarry was the first, set in the sleepy Kentucky town of Baird, and was nominated for an Edgar Award as "Best Paperback" in 1995.

Dan Thompson is a Methodist clergyman with a past. On probation with the church for an indiscreet love affair with a parishioner, he is assigned a tiny charge set squarely in the Kentucky coal fields. The local constable, Ray Hall, enlists the reluctant Rev. Thompson as co-investigator when murder occurs in the hills. As Ray puts it, "while Appalachian hill folk don't cotton to the law, they rarely take potshots at pastors."

Dean says, "In the Dan Thompson mysteries I have attempted to blend the dark edge of the hard-boiled detective novel with the humor of the clerical mystery, and put them together in an area that I have loved for nearly 40 years."

Dean Feldmeyer is actually a real-life Methodist minister living in Ohio, but with strong ties to the South. Since his youth he was involved in home repair and other service projects in the Appalachian regions of Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. His grandmother served as a dormitory parent at an orphanage in the hills of Eastern Kentucky.

Before the ministry claimed him, Dean was a professional actor, high school teacher, cook, and dock worker. As a minister he has served as a hospital and police chaplain, and a lecturer on theology, family dynamics, and parenting teenagers at the Methodist Theological School of Ohio, the Bank One College, the Ohio Valley Course of Study School, and the United States Army War College. In addition to writing mysteries, he has either written or contributed to a half dozen books on parenting or youth ministries, and has written articles for a number of magazines. He also wrote a play, Homefront, set in a small Indiana town during World War II (Eldridge Publishing).

Dean lives with his wife of 28 years, Jean. His son and daughter are in college. In his spare time he enjoys wood carving and directing the drama department of the local high school. He will continue his Dan Thompson mysteries with Cut-Through Valley, which will be released by Silver Dagger in July 2000.