Tequesta County, Southern Florida - Present Day

A skeleton inside an old Chevy Malibu is pulled out of a canal near the Everglades and becomes the beginning of a complex and devious cover-up in the Tequesta County Sheriff's Department. The skeleton, wearing a Miami Dolphins cap, is all that's left of John "Bunny" Roberts, a developmentally challenged young man who worked at Bevel Sand & Gravel. No clues have survived in the four years since the accident, except for the bullet lodged in what is left of John's skull, and it's the discovery of this bullet that brings his sister Martha Roberts to private investigator Harry Brock. Martha is convinced that John was murdered, and she wants Harry to find out who did it, even though her family would rather leave it all covered up. She's sure the local police department will ignore the recovered car just like they ignored the case when John first disappeared. They're already ruling his death a suicide. Harry finds it fishy that with John's brother Matthew working right in the Sheriff's Evidence Section, that the case is about to go under. Why wouldn't his own brother want to find his killer?

Harry's investigation uncovers a multitude of clues that lead to corruption and murder. John's father, a fanatically religious man, has driven much of his family away and sent most of his children running away from their own horrific nightmares as they try to overcome his twisted teachings and live their own lives. Harry is positive that Mark Roberts knows more about the missing evidence than he admits to, and Matthew, another Roberts brother, works at the Bevel Sand and Gravel company also. Coincidentally, this same company is threatening Harry's neighbor, Tucker LaBeau, who's trying to protect an endangered colony of butterflies on land Bevel wants to excavate. And when the threats and the murder appear to be linked, Harry dives right into a mystery that might mean his certain death.

TWO IN THE CHURCHYARD LIE is a gritty mystery. Harry is determined to find the truth and unravel the lies and deceit that the Roberts family has spent years covering up. When he gets too close to solving the puzzle, someone decides to end his life. Harry has personal problems of his own in his relationship with Helen Bradley, his lover, whose recent affair with another woman isn't quite over yet, nor can she decide between Harry and her former lover, Rega. Other characters are John's girlfriend, Theresa Allgood, his parents, Ruth and James, and the other Roberts siblings. Tucker lives next door to Harry and owns a few pets that add humor and spice to the story. There is the mule with a strange name, Oh Brother!; and Sanchez, the blue tick hound along with a rooster named Longstreet; a couple of daredevil foxes named Bonnie and Clyde, and, of course, the butterflies.

Harry's previous two adventures are DEATH IN A HAMMOCK (May 2003) and NOW COMES DEATH (July 2005) . TWO IN THE CHURCHYARD LIE totally stands alone, but reading the previous novels might answer a lot of questions about Harry's unique relationship with the mixed-up Helen, and how a game warden from Maine came to find his calling as a P.I. in the swamplands of Southern Florida. The pages of this story wrap up in an explosive and surprising ending. This tale is one you won't want to miss.

Diana Risso