Outstanding first entry in the series. Samuel Craddock is a great protagonist with depth and personality. I'll be looking forward to reading the rest of the series. ( )

I have a soft spot for mysteries set in small towns, and this one features an older protagonist, a retired ex-chief of police. I've already purchased and am reading the next in this series. ( )

And here is how it begins. Earlier this year I read the latest book in the series and really liked it so I backtracked to the first one.

Meet Samuel Craddock - ex-sheriff, ex-oilman, ex-husband. These days he is taking care of his cows (one of which managed to really wreck his knee awhile back) and his art collection. His wife had taught him and he had amassed a pretty good collection - and acquired a taste for it. Being a widower in a small Texas town (Jarrett Creek) means that most of the unattached women close to his age are trying to convince him that he needs a second marriage. By the time the novel opens, he had managed to convince them that just being friends is better. It is important as the women are an important part of the series - as helpers, as emergency feeders, as just being there to pick up the pieces when things go wrong or just to talk.

And then one of his friends, Dora Lee, is killed. Her live-in grandson, an artist who seems to have real talent, is considered a person of interest immediately. And her family comes back in town - a daughter that she had not talked with for years, a brother in law that is more concerned about money than people and his son. Dora Lee called Craddock the night before she was murdered to tell him about someone that seems to be watching her - and he had brushed her off. Which makes him feel responsible. The fact that the local sheriff is more interested in drinking than in policing does not help much. Or that he is ready to go for the first possible theory and just call it a day.

So when the grandson is detained, Craddock arranges for a lawyer for him and decides to look into it. Secrets start emerging - some of the old, some of them new. For such a small town, there is a lot of secrets.

It is a calm mystery - between the small town and Craddock, it sound old-fashioned. In a good way. All the characters have a lot more depth to them than you would expect from a mystery that starts a series - and Craddock is a very interesting character. ( )

Shames, Terry. A Killing at Cotton Hill. Seventh Street Books. Jul. 2013. 231p. ebk. ISBN 9781616147990. $15.95. MYSTERY. In the first of four Samuel Craddock mysteries set in rural east Texas, retired police chief Samuel Craddock is startled out of his quiet life when his friend Dora Lee is found stabbed to death in her home. Knowing that the present sheriff “wouldn’t know how to investigate his way out of an outhouse with two doors,” and feeling guilty for not taking Dora Lee’s fears seriously, Samuel sets out to find the killer. As his investigation progresses, Dora Lee’s potential enemies – her aloof and damaged daughter, greedy relatives, and unscrupulous neighbors– come under the scrutiny of Samuel’s highly tuned moral sense. Shames’s original language paints an accurate picture of small-town Texas life and prevents her villains from becoming stereotypes. In Samuel Craddock, Shames presents a feisty Texan with a wry sense of humor who loves justice as much as he loves fine paintings, and who goes those extra miles to help a friend. This straightforward mystery will appeal to readers who appreciate authentic regional language narrated by a down-to-earth hero. Winner of the Macavity Award for Best First Novel of 2014. (Annotation by Maggie Eesley) ( )

I was recommended this series by a friend, so I picked it up. Samuel Craddock is a character that I'd like to read more I think. This is the first book in the series. Samuel is a retired small town Texas sheriff who is drawn into solving a murder when one of his oldest friends is found murdered in her home. The current sheriff in Jarrett Creek leaves a lot to be desired. He's a drunk who doesn't want to work and he always looks for the easiest solutions when trying to deal with a crime. Samuel knows that it's up to him to find out what happened to Dora Lee and why. Samuel is a down-to-earth protagonist who knows his area and the people in it very well. He is at loose ends when this book begins after recently losing his beloved wife to cancer. I love the rural setting and I love the small town residents that will be secondary characters in future books, I'm sure. ( )