Sam Coombs, an elderly Jewish man is confined to a nursing home in the Mississippi Delta, where he is steadily losing his mind. However, it’s what Coombs can’t forget that causes him to suffer, and he cries out in his dementia for understanding.
Beautiful young researcher Lou Ann Jenkins is touched by the old man’s pain and contacts David Pearlstein, a young rabbi visiting from Israel.
A from-other -worlds romance develops as the southern belle and the free spirited Harley riding rabbi join forces to uncover the source of Coombs’ suffering.
The two amateur sleuths quickly discover that Coombs is hiding a 30-year-old secret that could reopen one of the most heinous racial murder cases in the history of Mississippi.
As Lou Ann and the rabbi struggle to decode Coombs’ fading memory, and unearth his secret they are met with opposition on all sides – from a corrupt nursing home operator trying to avoid public scrutiny, from a powerful political family trying to protect their legacy, from a cunning blackmailer looking for big payoff and from a vicious murderer trying to avoid prosecution.
The story intensifies when Coombs escapes from the nursing home. Or was he abducted? A chase ensues as the rabbi rides into the Delta night in an effort to find the old man and help him reveal the final clue to the case before the real murderer can silence him.
Delta Magazine - Noel Workman
"The author has woven accurate-sounding Mississippi voices (and long held images of its people, peculiarities and past sins) with Yiddish (of all things) into a present day tale righting a 30-year-old injustice. This is a rich gumbo of wrongful incarceration, political intrigue, racial tensions, Southern guilt, romance, and redemption with plenty of twists along the way. Gusick has a flawless ear for Delta dialogue (think "the Help") for his sharply draw characters. This is a first-rate read for anyone looking for a Mississippi murder mystery."
Beautiful young researcher Lou Ann Jenkins is touched by the old man’s pain and contacts David Pearlstein, a young rabbi visiting from Israel.
A from-other -worlds romance develops as the southern belle and the free spirited Harley riding rabbi join forces to uncover the source of Coombs’ suffering.
The two amateur sleuths quickly discover that Coombs is hiding a 30-year-old secret that could reopen one of the most heinous racial murder cases in the history of Mississippi.
As Lou Ann and the rabbi struggle to decode Coombs’ fading memory, and unearth his secret they are met with opposition on all sides – from a corrupt nursing home operator trying to avoid public scrutiny, from a powerful political family trying to protect their legacy, from a cunning blackmailer looking for big payoff and from a vicious murderer trying to avoid prosecution.
The story intensifies when Coombs escapes from the nursing home. Or was he abducted? A chase ensues as the rabbi rides into the Delta night in an effort to find the old man and help him reveal the final clue to the case before the real murderer can silence him.
Delta Magazine - Noel Workman
"The author has woven accurate-sounding Mississippi voices (and long held images of its people, peculiarities and past sins) with Yiddish (of all things) into a present day tale righting a 30-year-old injustice. This is a rich gumbo of wrongful incarceration, political intrigue, racial tensions, Southern guilt, romance, and redemption with plenty of twists along the way. Gusick has a flawless ear for Delta dialogue (think "the Help") for his sharply draw characters. This is a first-rate read for anyone looking for a Mississippi murder mystery."
