Jake Turner, a man with a past he wants to bury, is a target for ruthless killers trying to stop him from solving a murder. And that's the least of his problems.
Resurrection Garden is a mystery set against the backdrop of the settling of the North Dakota prairie at the beginning of the 20th century. Railroads and the telegraph were changing transportation and communication. The pace of life was speeding up. The land was filling up with settlers. Opportunity grew out of the newly plowed ground. Deputy Sheriff Jake Turner, a man with a past he would like to leave behind, discovers the body of a murdered man in a thawing snowdrift. While investigating the roots of the crime, Jake uncovers threads leading toward his best friend, who is the brother of the woman he is falling love with. Jake is almost killed and an orphaned boy who has attached himself to Jake is kidnapped and almost killed. Jake is convinced the people behind the murder will kill again to cover their tracks but solving the crime might destroy his dreams. The characters and story are true to their time and place. Interwoven into the fictional are aspects of real life culled from newspapers and letters from the era.
Excerpt
It began, as so many things in my life have, with pain. I didn’t plan it that way. It just happened. That could be the story of my life. It just happened. Until…
“Hold still,” Doc Jessup ordered sternly. He kept a cigar stuck in his teeth as he pulled a stitch tight and tied it off.
I gritted my teeth and held on to the table as Doc went about his business sewing up the rest of the holes the crosscut saw blade had put into my thigh and butt.
It felt like he was using a blunt ten-penny nail for a needle and coarse twine for thread. It was cool in his office, but I was sweating worse than when I raced up San Juan Hill with a herd of other dumb jackasses looking for glory. Some found it. Others found a grave. I closed my eyes and silently cursed. There was nothing more I could do. It wasn’t that bad a wound, and my dignity had survived far worse than being bent over the end of a table with my pants down around my ankles.
It was the body on the floor next to the table that held my attention.
Hjelmer “Thor” Thorsgaard had been an unfriendly man and the grimace on his face in death wasn’t all that different from the one he had presented to most people in his life. Perhaps his family had known a different side of him.
“You have the darndest luck, Jake,” Doc Jessup commented as he finished up. “That should hold ya. You can pull your pants up now. I’ve seen enough of your behind for one day.”
“I don’t know if you can call it luck,” I answered.
“I don’t suppose he would either, but if you hadn’t cut yourself so bad you had to come see me, his body might not have been discovered till after the coyotes picked it clean and scattered the bones.”
Sheriff Tom Fields listened from the doorway. He left the room while Doc sewed me up. The sight of a dead man didn’t bother him, but something about my white, naked rear end chased him out of the room. It would me, too, if I wasn’t attached to it.
“Just plain clumsy. That’s what he is,” the Sheriff intoned seriously, although a hint of a grin tickled his lips. “Trips over a bucket of water and sits on a saw he’s got in a vise so’s he can sharpen it and then stumbles over Thor’s body on his way into town.”
I pulled my ripped and bloody long johns and pants up gently and buckled my belt. Doc stitched everything so tightly it felt like the least movement would rip the skin on my back end open. With slow stiff steps, I moved toward the body. I’d barely known Thor in life, and the few times I’d talked to him had not been memorable. Now he was dead, and I had a sore ass.
And a job to do.
I blamed him for both.
“So who killed him?” I asked.
“Ain’t that your job to figure out?” Doc Jessup countered as he washed his hands.
The Sheriff joined me in my contemplation of the body. It wasn’t pretty. Thor had never been handsome, and the ravages of being frozen under the snow for the winter and having birds and other animals picking away at the skin as the snow thawed and exposed the body made what was left of him downright disgusting.
One thing was evident though. He didn’t die easy. Freezing to death is relatively painless. Wander out in the cold, get lost, fall asleep, and don’t wake up. That wasn’t what happened to Thor.
“What do you think? Shotgun, maybe?” the sheriff asked.
“At least,” I answered. The hole in his chest was big enough to put a fist through. “But why? He musta been dead already when he was shot.”
“Yeah, first someone beat him to a bloody pulp then gutted him and slashed his throat. And then shot him. Ain’t that what you said, Doc.”
“Looks that way to me,” Doc answered. “Can’t tell you much more until he thaws out all the way.”
“Somebody wanted him deader than dead.” The sheriff shook his head.
“Takes some hate to do all that,” Doc commented. “Got any suspects?”
Doc and the Sheriff both turned to face me.
I let out a deep sigh. “I suppose you want me to find out what happened to him.”
“Seems as how you should. After all, you found him, and you’re my deputy up there,” the Sheriff answered.
I stared at Thor and wondered when I would be able to sit down.
Doc came up behind us and commented, “Jake, you might ought to get some new britches or something. You’re hanging out your back end. Probably scare the ladies and kids if you went out in public like that.”
I reached around and felt bare skin crisscrossed with stitches. “Damn, just got these new this Christmas.”
“I’m sure one of the widow ladies you’ve been helping out will be happy to lend you some spare pants.” Doc grinned. “And I’m sure these new scars will get you lots of sympathy and special care.”
“Speaking of widows,” the Sheriff interjected. “You’ll need to tell Mrs. Thorsgaard we found her husband.”
And that’s when the real pain started.
Professional Reviews
Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine, January 2011
Resurrection Garden: Book One in the Decade Mystery series
Frank Scully
MuseItUp Publishing, January 1, 2011, Pages: 252
ISBN: 9781926931043
Jake Turner is a tortured soul. A loner. His reputation as the "executioner" precedes him even as Deputy Sheriff. But Jake is a fair, honest man. When he seeking medical treatment he stumbles on a dead body - Thor, a most hated man. That's when Jake's world really turns upside down. As Jake investigates the murder of Thor he is ambushed near his friend Isaac's home and is seriously wounded. Isaac stays with him to nurse him back to health as Jake slips in an out of consciousness. Finally, Jake begins to regain strength as a farmer brings a young captive he said he caught stealing. Jake dismisses the farmer and takes in the young lad, Andy. The child is barely eight years old and an orphan due to the loss of his family. Jake takes a liking to him as well as to Isaac's sister, Alice.
However, Jake isn't sure loved ones much less a family are his destiny. But that doesn't stop his heart from fluttering every time he receives a letter from Alice.
When she hears from the grapevine that he is thinking of leaving town she writes him asking him to change his mind. She too, is smitten.
But those that he cares for are in danger. And Jake must leave, or so he feels in order to protect them and catch the bad guys. He does leave town as he sets his plan in motion. But nothing goes quite as one plans.
I love mysteries and usually am not a fan of the western genre, but I enjoyed the Resurrection Garden. There was just the right combination of the Old West meets mystery with a wee bit of romance thrown in. Mr. Scully's written word allows one to feel the dust as the characters are riding away, feel the hardness of the wood beds, see the tumbleweeds roll around us. I felt as if I was right in all of the action as I was reading Resurrection Garden, whether I was recouping with Jake, or investigating. Mr. Scully's secondary characters are fun. He provides strong visuals as well as he stimulates other senses, for example: You can even smell Andy from the months without a bath.
Resurrection Garden is both a charming western and mystery. Thumbs up!
