When high school principal Jerry Egge is brutally murdered, Deputy sheriff Dave Jenkins begins an eerie investigation. Just about everyone in Soldier, Minnesota, is a suspect.
"Murder isn't usually this funny."
Amazon reviewer
When high school principal Jerry Egge sets out on his morning jog, he spots a red scrawl on the water tower, suggesting he sexually abuse himself. Fifteen minutes later, Jerry is dead, bludgeoned to death by a Louisville slugger with a Wayne Terwilliger endorsement. Deputy Sheriff Jenkins arrives on the scene, suffering from a hangover. He's not all that thrilled about dealing with blood and a dead body. But he hasn't seen anything yet. When he touches the band of Egge's baseball cap, he sees Egge's life pass before his eyes. He thinks he must be in shock. Mingo Jones, the night deputy and a Mescalero Apache, wants to hold a ghost medicine ceremony for his former friend to insure that Egge is not caught between the Shadow World and the Land of Ever Summer. Faced with more hoodoo than a kabbala scholar, the cynical Jenkins begins to track Egge's killer. The suspects are as legion as those in a William Peter Blatty novel. The superintendent of schools is romancing Egge's wife. One of Egge's students was expelled for bringing a gun to school and had been making threatening phone calls. A farmer, who is the closest thing to an eyewitness, has a son who's acting awfully guilty. And there's a beautiful young girl who confesses to having painted the obscenity on the tower. Will the conflicted Jenkins hunt down the killer, or will he, too, wind up trapped between the Shadow World and the Land of Ever Summer?
Excerpt
"He fled, sore feet and aching side forgotten. But he kept slipping and sliding on the wet leaves and patchy snow, as if he were in one of those dreams where a monster was chasing him and his feet were encased in cement. Behind him, something was wheezing and puffing. And closing. Jerry hit a dry patch and picked up speed, his legs stretching, pounding. He was pulling ahead; he had to be.
Suddenly something hit him from behind.
Professional Reviews Soldier's Gap
"With its complex interplay of bizarre yet believable characters, Soldier's Gap seems to fall somewhere between Northern Exposure and Twin Peaks:
Dave King, Writer's Digest columnist
Enthusiastically recommended, Midwest Book Reviews
"Dave Schwinghammer's Soldier's Gap is a intriguing and entertaining mystery centering on the murder of James Egge, a local high school principal. Arriving on the scene of a gruesomely bludgeoned corpse, Deputy Sheriff Dave Jenkins has a psychic experience of the murdered victim's life. Now Dave Jenkins has a unwilling but personal stake in searching for the killer, through small-town politics, trailer park kids, and an illicit love triangle. Meanwhile, the night deputy and Mescalero Apache Mingo Jones wants to hold a ghost medicine ceremony for his former small-town friend Egge, to ensure that Egge's soul is not trapped between the Shadow World and the Land of Ever Summer. Soldier's Gap is enthusiastically recommended reading for mystery buffs!"
Midwest Book Review
Jeanne-Scott, Amazon Reviewer
Dave Schwinghammer has created a small town with all the current day realities, brushed it with a bit of TWIN PEAKS freakiness and created a murder mystery that will keep you reading with an intriguing desire to figure out who is behind the murders before the Sheriff's department does.
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When Rachel and her husband Adam move to Maple Cottage in remote Cheshire, it should be the fulfilment of their dream to start a family.
Haunted by her past and challenged by events around he
