The premier hip-hop club in Austin, Texas, has been reduced to a pile of ashes. The body of a homeless wino is found nearby. The cops, looking for a quick wrap, call it arson and pin it on the dead wino. Getdown Joe Sillery, the club’s owner, isn’t buying it. He’s been approached by buyers and thinks the fire may have been unsubtle pressure. He hires Blevins Investigations gumshoe Tony Boudreaux to flush out the real arsonist. Paired with a new operative, Doreen Patterson, who is to bad attitude what Kenyans are to distance running, Boudreaux works the streets and quickly deduces that the wino was murdered, and the arson may have been collateral damage in the search for a pawn ticket that is the key to a stolen crystal skull valued at five million dollars. The ever-accommodating Boudreaux works almost as hard at smoothing the sizable chips on his new partner’s shoulder as he does on the case. This series is intelligently plotted, peppered with eccentric characters, and driven by the ordinary-man likability of the affable Boudreaux. --Wes Lukowsky
About the Author
Kent Conwell grew up in the wide-open Texas Panhandle in the town of Wheeler, population 848. His love for the West came naturally, for his father had run away from his Tennessee home when he was fourteen and bull-whacked his way to the Panhandle to meet his future wife. After moving to Fort Worth, Kent was more at home in the stockyards than in school. Somehow, he managed to earn a B.S. and began teaching. Later, he moved to Port Neches, where he acquired an M.Ed. and Ph.D. A successful educator, his love for writing about the West, a period in history unique to America, has never waned. He has won awards for short stories, screenplays, mysteries and westerns. The Crystal Skull Murders is Kenth's tenth mystery for Avalon. He has also written thirty westerns for Avalon.